Tax-exempt Co-ops: Send 401(k) True-Up Contributions Now

If your cooperative is tax-exempt and you have 401(k) Pension Plan participants who need a true-up employer contribution for 2020, send those true-up contributions to NRECA as soon as possible. This year’s deadline for tax-exempt co-ops is May 17, which is the due date (without extension) to file IRS Form 990. Ensuring each participant has the correct annual employer contribution means that you are complying with your plan elections and that your plan’s 2020 nondiscrimination testing is accurate.

Using the formula in your plan adoption agreement, review the 401(k) employer contributions you made for each participant during 2020. Follow the review and true-up instructions on the Employee Benefits website. It can be easy to overlook employees who terminated during the year and are no longer on your payroll, so make a note to include former employees, plus anyone who took a hardship distribution, moved on or off disability, or changed deferral rates during 2020.

The true-up deadline for taxable co-ops was March 15 (unless you filed an extension). If you missed the March 15 deadline but still need to send true-up contributions, please send them right away and notify the benefits compliance team that you’ve sent them.

If you have specific questions about calculating the employer match or true-up contributions, contact the benefits compliance team at 866.673.2299, option 7, or pension.compliance@nreca.coop.