Beware: M&A Activity Can Trigger Unexpected Tax Issues

During a merger or acquisition, the issues surrounding employee benefit plans may not get a great deal of attention. But afterwards, the complexities of merging a variety of benefit arrangements can overwhelm the companies. Even worse, the IRS is on the lookout for compliance failures after a merger or acquisition and may step in to conduct a “team audit.” Here are the key issues the IRS looks for when conducting an employee benefit plan audit.

The IRS has an Employee Plans Team Audit (EPTA) program to enforce the tax rules for employee benefit programs in large companies. According to the tax agency, one of the top ten concerns of this group of auditors is how mergers and acquisitions affect compliance with employee benefit rules. Recurring or uncorrected compliance failures can lead to tax penalties or worse — such as outright disqualification of tax-favored employee retirement and benefit programs.

Here are four key issues IRS auditors are told to look for in the M&A environment:

We help clients navigate the most important challenges impacting their businesses.Want to talk more about M&A activities and related issues?  Our team can help make sure you prepare of the unexpected.  Our consultants – who have lead fast growing and profitable organizations, raised capital and exited businesses – arm leadership teams with the strategy, knowledge and expertise to inform decision-making and drive value. Whether you’re an emerging company or an established business, our team can get you from point A to B, including strategic planning, value creation, fund raising and exit strategy preparedness and M&A related services.

1.Profit-Sharing Allocations Made to Employee Accounts – IRS examiners check whether timely allocations of profit sharing plan contributions are made to the accounts of employees of the acquired business. For example, these allocations may fall through the cracks due to incompatibilities between the payroll systems of the acquired company and the acquirer.

2. Employer Matching Contributions Made to Employee Accounts – The IRS will examine whether the acquiring company continues to make proper retirement plan matching contributions to the accounts of employees of the acquired business. Problems can arise due to payroll system incompatibilities or misunderstood differences between the plans operated by the two companies.

Improperly calculated matching contributions for employees of the acquired business can also occur because the acquiring company uses faulty data for employee compensation amounts and/or incorrect employee participation beginning dates.

3. The Operation of Merged Plans – Retirement plans operated by the acquiring and acquired companies are often merged into a single plan after an acquisition. When this happens, IRS auditors will make sure that employees of the acquired company are not improperly prevented from exercising distribution and loan options that are mandated by law.

4. The Acquired Company’s Accrued Contribution Obligations –  When an acquiring company assumes a target company’s accrued obligations to make employee benefit plan contributions, these liabilities generally must be capitalized as part of the cost of the acquired stock or assets. In other words, the acquiring company generally cannot claim current tax deductions when these accrued contribution liabilities are paid in cash. IRS auditors will check for proper treatment.

We help clients navigate the most important challenges impacting their businesses.

Our consultants – who have lead fast growing and profitable organizations, raised capital and exited businesses – arm leadership teams with the strategy, knowledge and expertise to inform decision-making and drive value. Whether you’re an emerging company or an established business, our team can get you from point A to B, including strategic planning, value creation, fund raising and exit strategy preparedness and M&A related services.