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Compensation and contribution limits are subject to annual cost-of-living adjustments. The annual limits are:

• salary deferrals - $19,500 in 2020 ($19,000 in 2019), plus $6,500 in 2020 ($6,000 in 2015 - 2019) if the employee is age 50 or older (IRC Sections 402(g) and 414(v))
• annual compensation - $285,000 in 2020, $280,000 in 2019 (IRC Section 401(a)(17))
• total employee and employer contributions (including forfeitures) - the lesser of 100% of an employee’s compensation or $57,000 for 2020 ($56,000 for 2019 not including "catch-up" elective deferrals of $6,500 in 2020 ($6,000 in 2015 - 2019) for employees age 50 or older) (IRC section 415(c))

Example: Mary, age 49, whose annual compensation is $360,000 ($30,000 per month), elects to defer $1,500 per calendar month, up to $19,000 for the 2019 year. Mary may contribute to the plan until she reaches her annual deferral limit of $19,000 even though her compensation will exceed the annual limit of $280,000 in October.

Employer matching contributions

If your plan provides for matching contributions, you must follow the plan’s match formula.

Example: Your plan requires a match of 50% on salary deferrals that do not exceed 5% of compensation. Although Mary earned $360,000, your plan can only use up to $280,000 of her compensation when applying the matching formula for 2019. Mary’s matching contribution would be $7,000 (50% x (5% x $280,000)). Although Mary makes salary deferrals of $19,000, only $14,000 (5% of $280,000) will be matched. She must receive a matching contribution of $7,000 (50% x $14,000) under the terms of the plan.

What does your plan say?

Although not common, a plan can specifically require that salary deferrals cease once a participant’s compensation reaches the annual limit.

If your plan specifies that salary deferrals be based on a participant’s first $280,000 of compensation, then you must stop allowing Mary to make salary deferrals when her year-to-date compensation reaches $280,000, even though she hasn’t reached the annual $19,000 limit on salary deferrals, and must base the employer match on her actual deferrals.

https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans...e-annual-limit

What Is the 415 Limit?

Named for section 415 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC), the 415 limit reflects the maximum allowable contributions to a qualified retirement savings plan in a given year. The maximum employee contributions are dictated by section 402(g), but the overall contributions from all sources are limited by section 415. This includes employee deferrals, employer matching, and profit-sharing contributions.

These types of contributions are considered to be annual additions. This means that your employer can potentially contribute much more than an individual to a 401(k), although this is not at all usual. In fact, most employer's match only up to 2-5% of employee contributions.

For example, the 415 limit for 401(k) plans for 2019 is $56,000. Of this, employees may contribute up to $19,000, according to the limits outlined in IRC section 402(g). The remaining $37,000 can be composed of employer contributions and matching or profit-sharing contributions. Anything above the 415 limit is considered overfunding of the retirement account and those monies do not enjoy the same tax-deferred benefits of qualified retirement money. If those excess funds are used incorrectly, the IRS may further impose fines and back-taxes.

https://www.investopedia.com/ask/ans...-415-limit.asp