How Are Contributions Made?

Contributions under a salary reduction agreement are called salary reduction contributions. They are made on your behalf by your employer. Your employer must also make either matching contributions or nonelective contributions.

Salary reduction contributions. During the 60-day period before the beginning of any year, and during the 60-day period before you are eligible, you can choose salary reduction contributions expressed either as a percentage of compensation, or as a specific dollar amount (if your employer offers this choice). You can choose to cancel the election at any time during the year.

Your employer cannot place restrictions on the contributions amount (such as by limiting the contributions percentage), except to comply with the salary reduction contributions limit, discussed under Salary reduction contributions, later.

Matching contributions. Unless your employer chooses to make nonelective contributions, your employer must make contributions equal to the salary reduction contributions you choose (elect), but only up to certain limits. See How Much Can Be Contributed on My Behalf?, later. These contributions are in addition to the salary reduction contributions and must be made to the SIMPLE IRAs of all eligible employees (defined earlier) who chose salary reductions. These contributions are referred to as matching contributions.

Matching contributions on behalf of a self-employed individual are not treated as salary reduction contributions.

Nonelective contributions. Instead of making matching contributions, your employer may be able to choose to make nonelective contributions on behalf of all eligible employees. These nonelective contributions must be made on behalf of each eligible employee who has at least $5,000 of compensation from your employer, whether or not the employee chose salary reductions.

One of the requirements your employer must satisfy is notifying the employees that the election was made. For other requirements that your employer must satisfy, see Publication 560.

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