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5500 Preparer's Manual for 2012 Plan Years

5500 Preparer's Manual for 2012 Plan Years
The premier resource in the field of Form 5500 preparation, 5500 Preparer's Manual will help you handle the required annual Form 5500 filings for both pension benefits and welfare benefit plans.

CCH® PENSION AND BENEFITS — 9/12/08

IRS provides 2007 Form 5500 series filing tips

The IRS has provided some 2007 Form 5500 series filing tips for small and one-participant pension plans and welfare plans that are non-calendar year plans or have filed for an extension. The filing deadline for 2007 calendar year plans was July 31, 2008.

Advice for pension plans with less than 25 participants

Under the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA; P.L. 109-208), a new simplified reporting option is available for eligible plans with fewer than 25 participants, as of the beginning of the plan year. The simplified reporting option limits the required filing to:

(1) The entire Form 5500;

(2) Schedule A for any insurance contract for which a Schedule A is required under current rules, completing lines A, B, C, D, and the insurance fee and commission information in Part I;

(3) The entire Schedule B;

(4) The entire Schedule I;

(5) Schedule R identifying information and Part II; and

(6) The entire Schedule SSA.

For further information, see the discussion on page 8 of the 2007 Form 5500 Instructions of the “Voluntary Alternative Reporting Option for Certain Plans with Fewer Than 25 Participants.”

Reminders for one-participant plans

Plans established on or before December 31, 2006, for which a Form 5500-EZ was required to be filed, will not need to continue filing the Form 5500-EZ, unless their total plan assets (for one or more one-participant plans, separately or together) exceed $250,000 at the close of the plan year beginning on or after January 1, 2007.

However, all one-participant plans must file a Form 5500-EZ for their final plan year even if the total plan assets have always been less than $250,000. The final plan year is the year in which the distribution of all plan assets is completed. (This would include rollovers to IRAs or transfers to other plans.) Filers should check the “final return” box in Part I, Line A of Form 5500-EZ and report zero assets on line 11a(b), assets at the end of the year.

The IRS also reminds Form 5500-EZ filers that they are no longer required to file any schedules with the form. Defined benefit plan filers are still required to collect and retain a completed and signed Schedule B, but are not required to file them with their Form 5500-EZs.

Welfare plan filing requirements

The filing requirement for fringe benefit plans, which includes Code Sec. 125 cafeteria plans, Code Sec. 127 educational assistance plans, and Code Sec. 137 adoption assistance plans, was suspended by Notice 2002-24 (see CCH Pension Plan Guide ¶17,123P ). It did not, however, change the filing requirements for welfare plans. In addition, welfare benefit plans required to file must use a Form 5500 and cannot use Form 5500-EZ.

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