Compliance Annual Reporting Due by February 15
NRECA’s systems are now ready to receive your cooperative’s 2018 compliance questionnaire and W-2 salary data. Both items are due by February 15, 2019. This due date allows the benefits compliance team to perform nondiscrimination testing for your cooperative’s NRECA-sponsored retirement plans in time to avoid possible tax penalties.
If you have questions as you gather your data, check the following resources:
- the W-2 Salary Data & Retirement Compliance Questionnaire page of the Employee Benefits website. This page is where you’ll find links to the questionnaire and the accompanying Resource Guide;
- the Compliance Annual Reporting Resource Guide provides comprehensive information about all aspects of annual reporting, including FAQs, eligibility information, what to include in each W-2 salary data field, and a list of articles and online resources to help with reporting;
- the Retirement Plan Eligibility: Back to Basics flier. This article offers definitions, examples and tips for finding your co-op’s plan elections, counting hours of eligibility service, and handling eligibility for rehired employees; and
- the 2018 Compliance Annual Reporting webinar provides timely tips and examples, given directly by retirement compliance staff. View the presentation slides and frequently asked questions or listen to the webinar at your convenience.
If you haven’t done so already, reconcile your co-op’s 401(k) plan contributions to NRECA’s records. This step helps ensure that NRECA has the proper compensation to use for annual testing. Finish the reconciliation before sending your questionnaire and W-2 data. Instructions and tips for this task are in the November 2018 Benefits Bulletin (see page 10).
When your W-2 data and questionnaire are ready, send them to NRECA.
Upload your W-2 data using the format on the W-2 Salary Data & Retirement Compliance Questionnaire page. Remember that you need to load W-2 data for each subgroup separately. We recommend uploading your data, particularly if your co-op has multiple subgroups or a large number of participants. You can also enter each record manually if your employee population is small; however, we recommend uploading a file to avoid data entry corrections.
Send your questionnaire and supporting appendices (including Appendix E, if your RS Plan requires employees to contribute) securely to the benefits compliance team using the Message Center. Keep a full copy of the questionnaire for your files in case the benefits compliance team needs to clarify any of your entries during testing.
If you need help finding these resources, call the Member Contact Center at 866.673.2299 or email contactcenter@nreca.coop. For questions about annual reporting that are unique to your co-op, call the benefits compliance team at 866.673.2299, option 7 or send an email to pension.compliance@nreca.coop.