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DEFINITION OF CENSUS DATA
| 1. Employee Name |
Column A
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Please provide the name of anyone employed at any time during the plan year in the following format: LAST, FIRST.
Assumptions:
We will assume that the census you provide contains ALL employees who were employed during the plan year.
| 2. Employee Status | Column B
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If applicable, indicate one of the following employee status codes: D, E, I, L, M, N, R, S, T, U, or X.
D = death
E = excluded due to non-participating employer of a Controlled Group or Affiliated Service Group.
I = disabled
L = leased employees
M = military leave*
N = non-resident alien with no U.S. income
R = retired
S = age/service requirement never met for initial eligibility purposes.
T = terminated in a prior year with severance compensation in current year
U = union/collectively bargained employees
X = member of an excludable class of employees as defined in the plan document
Please note that you cannot exclude part-time employees as a class.
Why we need this information:
To accurately determine eligibility for the plan and allocate any applicable employer contributions.
*Please be sure to indicate any employee who has been on military leave. If any employee is in the process of making up missed contributions due to military leave, please be sure that you are only providing us the contributions for the current plan year and do not include make up contributions. We may need to contact you for additional information regarding these employees.
Assumptions:
If this information is not provided with the appropriate categories listed above or is invalid based on historical information provided, we will make the most conservative assumption which is that an employee is NOT excludable under any of the above categories.
Please Note:
If there are any employees who fall into multiple status codes during the plan year, or who are members of a particular group for only a portion of the plan year, it is essential that you notify your Compliance Analyst of this situation. For example, if an employee was a member of a union for only six months of your plan year, you would need to provide this information to your analyst to ensure testing is completed correctly.
| 3. Social Security Number |
Column C
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Please provide in the following format with the hyphenation: 999-99-9999
Assumptions:
Assumptions will not be made.
| 4. Date of Birth |
Column D
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Please provide in the following format: �MM/DD/YYYY�
Why we need this information:
These dates are used to determine if an employee has met the age requirement and is eligible to participate in the plan.
Assumptions:
If we do not receive this information or if we receive conflicting information, we will use the most conservative approach, which is to assume a date of birth that would make the individual meet the age requirement of the plan. If the date of birth for any employee is not provided, we will assume a 01/01/1960 date of birth. Under this assumption, an employee would not be eligible for any applicable age 50 catch-up contributions.
This is the actual number of hours an employee was credited with during the plan year. If your plan uses the equivalency method, please provide the calculated equivalent number of hours. Please cap hours at 3,000.
Why we need this information:
This will be used to calculate a year of service for the current plan year�s eligibility and/or vesting requirements. If your plan has an hours requirement to receive an employer allocation this information is required. We will use this information to determine who is eligible to receive this contribution.
Assumptions:
If hours are not provided, we will prorate employee hours based on their hire date.
| 6. Original Date of Hire |
Column F
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Please provide in the following format: �MM/DD/YYYY�. The date of hire should be the employee�s ORIGINAL hire date. See the section below entitled �Date of Re-hire� for additional information on subsequent hire dates.
Why we need this information:
These dates are used to determine if an employee has met the service requirement and is eligible to participate in the plan.
Assumptions:
Assumptions will not be made.
Please Note:
If your plan was involved in a merger or acquisition and in your plan document you are recognizing service credited with a predecessor employer, please be sure to provide the original hire date with the previous employer.
| 7. Date of Termination |
Column G
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Please provide in the following format: �MM/DD/YYYY�. Transferring from one division to another is not considered a termination. If an employee has multiple dates of termination and re-hire, (1) provide original hire date and most recent rehire and termination date on census and (2) please mail/e-mail the additional information in an electronic spreadsheet to your analyst under separate cover. This information must be provided within 48 hours of your census being successfully uploaded.
Why we need this information:
Termination dates are used to determine eligibility for non-discrimination testing, allocation purposes, and for IRS Form 5500 preparation.
Assumptions:
If an employee on the census does not have a date of termination and does not have compensation nor contributions for the plan year being tested, we will assume that the employee terminated during a prior plan year. However, if our records indicate that an employee made contributions for the plan year, we will include the employee in your tests.
| 8. Date of Re-hire |
Column H
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Please provide in the following format: �MM/DD/YYYY�. Please be sure to include the original hire date and most recent termination date and indicate an �S� in the status column if initial eligibility requirements have never been met. If an employee has multiple dates of re-hire: (1) provide original hire date and most recent hire and termination dates on census, (2) please mail/e-mail the additional information to your analyst under separate cover. This information must be provided within 48 hours of your census being successfully uploaded.
Why we need this information:
These dates are used to determine if an employee has met the service requirement and is eligible to participate in the plan.
Assumptions:
Assumptions will not be made.
| 9. Pre-entry Compensation |
Column I
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Pre-entry compensation is compensation for any employee who becomes eligible to participate in your plan during the current plan year. The compensation earned from the date of hire or beginning of the plan year, whichever is later, to his or her entry date is considered pre-entry compensation. For example, based on a plan year that is a calendar year if an employee is eligible to enter your plan on July 1, 2005, pre-entry compensation would be the amount earned from January 1, 2005, through June 30, 2005. This compensation should be net of any amounts that are defined in your document as excluded, such as bonuses, commissions or overtime. Please review the following examples for further clarification:
A plan has a December 31, 2005, plan year-end with entry dates of January 1 and July 1. A participant is eligible to enter the plan on July 1. From the period of January 1, 2005, through June 30, 2005, the participant made $45,000. From the period of July 1, 2005, through December 31, 2005, the participant earned $55,000 for a total of $100,000 for the plan year. The census should be completed as listed below:
 Column I = 45,000
Column J = 100,000
Column K = 100,000
Using the same criteria from above, presume this employee had excluded compensation during the year of $10,000. Of this amount, $5,000 was earned before July 1, 2005, and $5,000 was earned after the entry date. You would complete the census as follows:
Column I = 40,000
Column J = 90,000
Column K = 100,000
Why we need this information:
As applicable to your plan, pre-entry compensation is used to allocate employer contributions and could result in more favorable testing results.
Assumptions:
If pre-entry compensation is required under your plan document, no assumptions will be made.
| 10. Plan Compensation |
Column J
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Plan compensation is total compensation (as defined in item #11) less any amounts that are defined in your plan document as excluded, such as bonuses, commissions, or overtime.
If your plan does NOT have any exclusions from compensation, your plan compensation will equal your total compensation as illustrated in the Sample Census.
Why we need this information:
If your document allows for excluded compensation, there are additional tests that must be completed.
Assumptions:
If your plan compensation equals total compensation, we will assume you did not have any excluded compensation for the year.
| 11. Total Compensation |
Column K
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Your plan document provides for one of the following definitions of total compensation:
W-2 Wages: This amount generally encompasses all amounts included in income which are received for the provision of services to the employer and includes taxable group term life insurance.
�3401(a) (Withholding Wages): If the employer has to withhold income taxes, then it applies; generally includes all amounts included in income which are received for the provision of services to the employer. Excludes taxable group term life insurance.
�415 Compensation: All amounts paid for personal services which are includible in gross income regardless of form of payment, including tips, taxable fringe benefits, and taxable group term life insurance.
It is important to refer back to your plan document for further clarification on the compensation you have selected for your plan. You will also need to ensure that the amount includes or excludes employee deferrals as defined by your plan.
Why we need this information:
We need compensation for each employee to properly calculate the testing results and to determine the Key Employees for the plan year.
Assumptions:
If we are not provided compensation for an employee that we show has made contributions for the plan year, we will include the employee in your tests. If an employee does not have compensation, contributions or hours listed for the plan year being tested, we will assume that the employee terminated during the prior plan year.
| 12. Prior 12 Months� Compensation |
Column L
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This is the TOTAL compensation received during the 12 months immediately preceding your plan year beginning date. You only need to provide this data for those employees who made over $95,000.
Why we need this information:
This information is necessary to determine the Highly Compensated Employees. We will need this information if the previous plan year was a short plan year or if this is the first year we are providing compliance services for your plan.
Assumptions we will make if we do not receive this information:
If this information is not provided for employees who had over $95,000 of compensation on your prior year census, we will use the prior year�s census for this information.
| 13. Employee Deferrals (if applicable) |
Column M
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This is the total amount of employee pre-tax contributions made to the plan through payroll deduction for the plan year. If any employee is in the process of making up missed contributions due to military leave, please be sure that you are only providing us the contributions for the current plan year and do not include make up contributions.
Why we need this information:
This information is used to complete your testing.
Assumptions:
If your plan assets transferred to us, we cannot make assumptions. For all other plans, if we do not receive this information, we will use the employee deferral amounts that were submitted during the plan year.
| 14. Employer Matching Contributions (if applicable) |
Column N
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This is the total amount that your company matches based on employee contributions. If any employee is in the process of making up missed contributions, please be sure that you are only providing us the contributions for the current plan year and do not include make up contributions.
Why we need this information:
This information is used to complete your testing.
Assumptions:
If your plan assets transferred to us, we cannot make assumptions. For all other plans, if we do not receive this information, we will use the employer match amounts that were submitted during the plan year unless you have requested that we calculate your match.
| 15. Employee After-Tax Contributions (if applicable) |
Column O
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This is the total amount of employee after-tax contributions made to the plan through payroll deduction for the plan year.
Why we need this information:
This information is used to complete your testing.
Assumptions:
If your plan assets transferred to us, we cannot make assumptions. For all other plans, if we do not receive this information, we will use the employee after-tax amounts that were submitted during the plan year.
| 16. Employer Non-Elective Contributions (if applicable) |
Column P
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Employer contributions, other than matching, made to the plan.
Why we need this information:
This information is used to complete your testing.
Assumptions:
If your plan assets transferred to us, we cannot make assumptions. For all other plans, if we do not receive this information, we will use the non-elective contributions that were submitted during the plan year unless you have requested that we calculate your non-elective contribution.
| 17. Employee Roth Contributions (if applicable) |
Column Q
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This is the total amount of employee Roth contributions made to the plan through payroll deduction for the plan year.
Why we need this information:
This information is used to complete your testing.
Assumptions:
If your plan assets transferred to us, we cannot make assumptions. For all other plans, if we do not receive this information, we will use the employee Roth contribution amounts that were submitted during the plan year.
Please indicate which employees were Corporate Officers at any time during the current plan year by putting a �Y� in this Column. All other employees must have an �N�.
Why we need this information:
This is needed to determine the Key Employees.
Assumptions we will make if we do not receive this information:
Assumptions will not be made.
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Warning:
If any assumptions detailed in this
summary are used
and result in the need for a re-test,
additional fees will apply.
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