Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Simplify Form 5500 Reporting

Nine members of the U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce sponsored a bill in the House of Representatives to simplify—particularly when seeking an extension—the process of filing Form 5500, the federal return for employee benefit plans that is submitted to the Department of Labor, Internal Revenue Service and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

Representatives Glenn Grothman, R-Wisconsin, and Donald Norcross, D-New Jersey, sponsored the bill. Representatives Abraham Hamadeh, R-Arizona; Rick Allen, R-Georgia; Randy Fine, R-Florida; Mark Messemer, R-Indiana; James Moylan, R-Guam; Michael Rulli, R-Ohio; and Joe Wilson, R-South Carolina, cosponsored the measure to establish a uniform filing deadline and explicitly allow electronic filing for information required to be submitted with the  Form 5500. All nine are among the 45 representatives on the Education and Workforce Committee.

Under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, employers sponsoring benefit plans are required to file Form 5500 annually with the DOL, IRS and PBGC to disclose information about their employee benefit plans. Calendar year-end plans governed by ERISA must file the form by the end of the seventh month after the plan year ends. Plan sponsors may file Form 5558, the application for extension of time to file certain employee plan returns, when seeking a three-month extension.

The bill would amend ERISA to extend the Form 5500 filing deadline for calendar-year plans by nearly three months, to October 15 from July 31.

Grothman said in a statement that the current filing extension process “wastes time and money, creates unnecessary headaches for small and mid-sized businesses, and does nothing to help workers.”

Norcross said in a statement that “right now, an overly complicated filing system makes it harder for employers to stay on track and easier for mistakes to slip through. This bill fixes that by setting one clear deadline and cutting out redundant steps, so plans are filed accurately and on time and workers’ retirement savings stay protected.”

The legislation also directs the heads of the Treasury, DOL and the PBGC to modify the form to allow filers to sign the form electronically and to submit electronically any additional information that must be submitted with it. Filers are already required by the DOL to sign the Form 5500 electronically through its EFAST2 system.

According to the bill, the amendments it makes to Form 5500 filing would apply to plan years ending on or after the date it is enacted. A benefit plan would be deemed in compliance if it complies in good faith before the three agencies implement the proposed measures.

The bill is supported by the American Benefits Council, the American Retirement Association, the CHRO Association, the ERISA Industry Committee and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, according to information released by Grothman’s office. It has been referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means and the House Committee on Education and Workforce.