Total Articles: 7
Filing Due Date Extended For Form 8955-SSA
Many of you who are familiar with the Form 5500 will remember the Schedule SSA. The Schedule SSA was formerly part of the annual Form 5500, used to notify the Social Security Administration about separated plan participants who retain vested benefits in a pension or retirement plan. Ideally, when a participant retires and applies for Social Security, the Social Security Administration then alerts the individual that she or he might still be owed pension or retirement money from the plan.
IRS Releases New Form For Extension Of Time
Last month, the IRS released an updated version of Form 5558, "Application for Extension of Time to File Certain Employee Plan Returns." In prior versions, the Form 5558 was used to provide either a one-time extension of the due date for the filing of a Form 5500 Series Return for a plan (meaning a Form 5500, a Form 5500-SF or a Form 5500-EZ Return), or to request an extension of time for filing of a Form 5330 to report excise taxes associated with an employee benefit plan.
Calendar Year Plans Need to File Form 5500 by August 1, 2011
The Form 5500, Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan, including all required schedules and attachments, is used to report information concerning employee benefit plans. Generally, any administrator or sponsor of an employee benefit plan subject to ERISA must file information about each benefit plan every year. Typically, Form 5500 reports must be filed by the last day of the 7th calendar month after the end of the plan year. For calendar year plans, this means the Form 5500 is due by August 1, 2011 (as July 31 is a Sunday), unless a Form 5558 is submitted and received by the IRS on or before the Form 5500 report's normal due date.
Service Provider Fee Disclosure: Another Step Towards Fee Transparency.
Plan fi duciaries who are in the midst of implementing
the new Form 5500 Schedule C requirements for
service provider fees may not want to think about
additional fee disclosures. But, on July 16, the
Department of Labor (DOL), concluding that
Congress did not intend to act on this issue, released
an interim fi nal regulation requiring service providers
to make additional disclosures to plan fi duciaries.
Form 5500 Filing Due for Calendar Year Plans.
The Form 5500, Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan, including all required schedules and attachments, is used to report information concerning employee benefit plans. Generally, any administrator or sponsor of an employee benefit plan subject to ERISA must file information about each benefit plan every year. Typically, Form 5500 reports must be filed by the last day of the 7th calendar month after the end of the plan year. For calendar year plans, this means the Form 5500 is due by August 2, 2010 (as July 31 is a Saturday), unless a Form 5558 is submitted and received by the IRS on or before the Form 5500 report's normal due date.
Form 5500 Schedule SSA Update.
Section 6057 of the Internal Revenue Code requires reporting of plan participants who separate from service with a right to a deferred vested benefit. The form for filing these reports has been the Schedule SSA (Form 5500), Annual Registration Statement for Deferred Vested Participants. When the new EFAST-2 electronic filing system for Forms 5500 went into effect — for 2009 returns — the Schedule SSA was eliminated. The information previously contained on Schedule SSA (i.e., names, Social Security Numbers, etc.) was not suitable to be disclosed online with the newly-filed Forms 5500. In its place, a new Form 8955-SSA is required to be filed with the IRS in order to comply with Code Section 6057.
EFAST2 Filing System Now In Place.
The Form 5500 is changing! Forms in the 5500 series (including the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan and Form 5500-SF Short Form Annual Return Report of Small Employee Benefit Plan) are used annually to report information concerning a welfare benefit or retirement plan's funding, size, operations and other characteristics.
