I love Las Vegas and I haven’t gambled there in 20 years and I’ve been there a few times in that time span; I didn’t gamble a nickel. I hate gambling because I hate to lose. For me, getting up in the morning is a big enough gamble.
A lot of plan sponsors gamble when they refuse to self-correct a compliance error, trying to gamble that the statute of limitations will run out on the plan year’s Form 5500, so it won’t be audited by the government. When the cost of correction is dwarfed by any potential levy by the government, I think it’s a fool’s bet to gamble against an audit because if you’re the plan sponsor, you’re gambling your money, not the house’s.
Self-correction and voluntary compliance are the ways to go in correcting plan errors, gambling against an audit isn’t a way. Not only will refusing to fix an error get you fired by any reputable third-party administrator, but it also means you are at the mercy of an auditor when audited.
