Enter your employee count, your non-highly-compensated employee count, and your estimated annual plan cost. For employers with 50 or fewer employees the §45E credit is the lesser of your cost and the cap — the greater of $500 or the lesser of $250 × NHCEs or $5,000 — plus $500 a year under §45T with auto-enrollment. The result is almost always below the flat $5,000 you read elsewhere.
Your plan
Estimated credits
Assumptions used
- §45E: employers with 50 or fewer employees claim 100% of qualified startup costs; 51–100 employees claim 50%. Both are capped at the greater of $500 or the lesser of $250 × NHCEs or $5,000, for three years. Over 100 employees: no §45E credit.
- §45T: $500 per year for three years, for plans with an eligible automatic contribution arrangement, employers with 100 or fewer employees. This calculator assumes your plan includes auto-enrollment.
- The three-year total assumes your plan cost and NHCE count stay constant — in reality both move.
- The employer contribution credit (up to $1,000 per employee) is excluded here because it depends on contribution design. How it works →
- No double-dipping: expenses used for the credit cannot also be deducted. Your CPA decides which is worth more on your return.
Common questions
What is the § 45E startup credit?
100% of qualified startup costs for employers with 50 or fewer employees, 50% for 51 to 100, capped at the greater of $500 or $250 per non-highly-compensated employee, up to $5,000 a year, for three years.
What is the § 45T credit?
A flat $500 a year for three years for adding an eligible automatic-enrolment feature, available to employers with 100 or fewer employees.
Why does the calculator clamp NHCEs to headcount?
Because non-highly-compensated employees are a subset of all employees; the cap is $250 per NHCE, so the count cannot exceed the total.
Want your credit number checked before your CPA sees it?
We run the formula on your real census and plan quotes, and show the arithmetic line by line.