3847 / Can a qualified plan be established for the sole shareholder of a corporation?
A corporation may establish a qualified plan even though it has only one permanent employee and that employee owns all the stock of the corporation. If the plan is either designed or operated so that only the shareholder-employee can ever benefit, however, it will not qualify. Provision must be made for participation of future employees if any are hired.1
A pension plan will not fail to qualify merely because it is established by a corporation that is operated for the purpose of selling the services, abilities, or talents of its only employee, who is also its principal or sole shareholder.2 The plan of a corporation’s sole shareholder was disqualified for violating the coverage requirement after it was shown that the only two hired personnel of the company, who had been excluded from the plan as independent contractors, in fact were employees.3
As to which individuals must be treated as employees and what organizations make up an employer, see Q 3928, Q 3929, Q 3933, and Q 3935.