Citing what it calls a "historical pattern of non-compliance," the Internal Revenue Service has said it will intensify compliance reviews of most classifications of employer-sponsored retirement plans.
Specifically, the Employee Plans Team Audit, or EPTA division, will focus reviews of internal compliance controls for large plans, which the IRS defines as having at least 2,500 participants.
But it won't just be larger sponsors that will be subject to increased scrutiny.
Tax-exempt 403(b) and 457(b) plans will also be subject to further review, as will collectively bargained multiemployer plans, according to the fiscal year 2016 priority list issued by Sunita Lough, commissioner of the IRS's Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division.
The Employee Plans Compliance Unit will consult on areas of plan compliance that the priority list says have the "greatest potential for non-compliance in plan operation and form."
