IRS and DOL Audits

IRS and DOL Legal Reviews Warn Employers About Retirement Plan Administration: What you don't know CAN hurt you.

Given the complexity and ever-changing nature of employee benefits laws, most plans have compliance issues. If the IRS or DOL discovers those issues during a plan audit, the costs can be significant. Furthermore, those costs must generally be paid from the plan sponsor's assets rather than from the plan's assets.

The IRS and DOL recommend that plan sponsors have periodic plan reviews performed, to help uncover and correct compliance issues. In particular, on its website, the IRS advises employers to:

• “Review your plan annually to make sure it’s operating according to its terms and the law.”

I have many years of experience performing reviews for plans of various sizes and complexity. The value of plan reviews lies in the education I provide regarding the plan's terms and governing rules, as well as in the discovery of errors that can be extremely costly if not corrected. When errors are found, I use the IRS and/or DOL amnesty programs those agencies strongly encourage plan sponsors to use. That is because:

• The correction programs provide financial incentives for finding and correcting plan mistakes before the IRS or DOL discovers them during a plan audit; and
• In the event of an IRS or DOL plan audit, the IRS and DOL generally will credit the plan sponsor for having used one or more amnesty programs.

Please contact me  if you would like to discuss this service.