Resources for Preparing Compliance Annual Reporting Data

Your cooperative’s 2016 compliance questionnaire and W-2 salary data are due on February 15, 2017.

Have questions as you gather your data? Look no further than the Employee Benefits website.

First, start with the W-2 Salary Data and Annual Retirement Compliance Questionnaire page on the Employee Benefits website. There, you’ll find links to copies of the questionnaire and the updated and expanded annual reporting Resource Guide. The Resource Guide is your main source of information for answers about deadlines, timelines, W-2 data reporting, and preparing your questionnaire. The guide includes FAQs, eligibility information, and details about what should be included in each data field for W-2 salary data. You’ll also find the layout to use if you plan to upload your W-2 salary data.

For timely tips and examples given directly by the retirement compliance staff, and to hear questions and answers from attendees, view and listen to the 2016 Compliance Annual Reporting webinar. The webinar was held on December 14, 2016 but you can access it at your convenience online. The webinar presentation slides and separate FAQs (with examples) are included online with the audio.

Because accurate data is the foundation of accurate nondiscrimination testing, the compliance team has prepared lots of resources to help you learn about and apply the basic eligibility concepts that are so important to compliance annual reporting. Topics include who is eligible for the plans (and when), which employees are ineligible, and which employees are excluded. If you have eligibility questions, start with Retirement Plan Eligibility: Back to Basics. This helpful flier includes definitions, examples and tips like where to find your elections, how to count hours of eligibility service and how to handle eligibility for rehired employees. A list of additional articles and online resources to help with reporting is listed on the last page of the Resource Guide.

And finally, if you have questions about annual reporting that are unique to your co-op, call the benefits compliance team at 866.673.2299, option 7. You also can email us at pension.compliance@nreca.coop.