Brief Case

IRS Covered Compensation

Covered compensation tables for permitted disparity under IRC 401(l)(5)(E) and Treas. Reg. 1.401(l)-1(c)(7): the average of the Social Security taxable wage bases for the 35 calendar years ending with the year the employee reaches Social Security retirement age, with wage bases after the plan year held at the plan year's amount. Plans may use the exact (unrounded) amounts or the IRS rounded table. Related: IRS Retirement Plan Limits (taxable wage base), IRS Segment Rates.

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Every birth year is listed (the IRS groups years with dashes); the rounded table adds the calendar year of Social Security retirement age (SSRA year) the IRS leaves out. Drag or Shift+click cells, then Ctrl+C, or use the clipboard buttons; all paste straight into Excel. The IRS rounded table starts at 1937; earlier birth years are rounded the same way.

Table 1 (T1) Unrounded

Table 2 (T2) Rounded

Birth years down, plan years across. Click a plan year to open its IRS revenue ruling. Birth years past a plan year's table take that year's wage base. The .xlsx has a T1 Unrounded sheet, a T2 Rounded sheet and a Rulings sheet.

Sources: the annual IRS revenue rulings on covered compensation (linked by plan year) and the Social Security Administration contribution and benefit base history. Tables are computed from the wage base history and checked against the text of each IRS ruling; the next plan year's table appears once its wage base is announced and is marked provisional until the IRS ruling is published.