Got Form 5500 Questions? We've Got Answers: IRS

July 25, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has come up with the equivalent of a frequently asked questions list for filing the required Form 5500 - a duty most employee benefit plans will be carrying out by July 31

>IRS officials said they collected questions received by both their own call centers as well as the US Department of Labor’s Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA) and added in the IRS’s experience with common reporting and filing errors from past year.

Included on the tips list – among other things –   is:

  • a caution that electronic filers must keep a signed copy of the form and all schedules and attachments on file and that the form itself has to be properly signed and dated
  • information on finding out the proper business code for a company
  • suggestions on making sure a plan number is properly assigned
  • a caution that to be considered a final return, a filer must check Form 5500, Part I, Line B(3) and have no assets or participants remaining at the end of the plan year

“Paying attention to the tips should help employers and plan administrators avoid errors that can slow the processing of returns and cause extra correspondence between employers and the IRS,” the tax officials said in a statement.

The tips are at  http://www.irs.gov/retirement/article/0,,id=110293,00.html .

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