IRS: Please Send in Compliance Check Questionnaires

By Allison Bell

June 23, 2010 at 08:00 PM

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The Internal Revenue Service is hoping more of the 1,200 recipients of a 401(k) compliance check questionnaire will complete the questionnaire.

The IRS sent 1,200 of the questionnaires to retirement plan sponsors in May.

On June 18, 177 sponsors had completed the questionnaire and 183 sponsors had partially completed it, officials say.

The IRS Employee Plans Compliance Unit will use questionnaire responses to "make future audits more productive and focus on necessary education, outreach, guidance and enforcement efforts," officials say in a "follow-up" to "common questions" about the 401(k) compliance check.

The SPARK Institute, Simsbury, Conn., a group that represents large retirement services vendors, reported earlier this month that the IRS had called the questionnaire "an enforcement action," and that some of the multiple-choice questions include answers that are unacceptable under the law.

The IRS follow-up includes an answer to questions about what plan sponsors should do if they discover a problem with a plan while completing a compliance check questionnaire.

"They can either self-correct the plan or submit an application under the Voluntary Correction Program," officials say.

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