In an effort to increase voluntary compliance, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently that it began randomly questioning 1,200 sponsors of 401(k) plans as a part of a administered by its Employee Plans Compliance Unit. Sponsors of the selected plans were expected to receive a that was mailed the week of May 17, 2010, describing the program and directing them to a secure website where they will have 90 days to complete an online compliance questionnaire. The IRS says it will use the information gathered for education, outreach and enforcement actions.
The online questionnaire will collect information on the following topics:
- demographics,
- plan participation,
- plan contributions (both employer and employee),
- top-heavy and non-discrimination rules,
- distributions and plan loans,
- other plan operations,
- automatic contribution arrangements,
- designated Roth features,
- IRS voluntary correction/compliance programs, and
- plan administration.