Form 5500 season is upon us, which means many businesses are scrambling to determine their filing deadline and figure out what information needs to be submitted to their retirement plan administrator to avoid hefty fines.
What is Form 5500?
Form 5500 reports a retirement plan's provisions, financial condition, and number of participants to the IRS and DOL. This ensures that a plan is compliant with governing standards and satisfies ERISA's annual reporting requirement.
Who Needs to File Form 5500?
Any business with a 401(k) plan must file Form 5500 every year.
When is Form 5500 due?
For most retirement plans, Form 5500 is due on July 31st. However, if a plan does not follow the typical calendar year model, Form 5500 is due on the last day of the seventh month after the plan's year-end date.
What Happens if Form 5500 Isn't Filed?
Unfortunately, failing to file Form 5500 comes with steep penalties.
The IRS charges $25 per day, with a maximum fine of $15,000 and the DOL penalty for late filing can run up to $2,529 per day, with no maximum.
Fortunately, Leading Retirement Solutions helps businesses with backdated 5500s take corrective actions so that they can avoid paying fines.
Is there a way to make Form 5500 less stressful?
We know that filing Form 5500 can be stressful for business owners. That's why Leading Retirement Solutions does the heavy lifting for our clients.
We prepare Form 5500 for our clients and communicate months ahead of schedule so that clients never forget their 5500 deadlines.
Are there other options?
We get it, Form 5500 is a lot of work. That's why Leading Retirement Solutions offers Pooled Employer Plans (PEP) and Multiple Employer Plan (MEP) options that eliminate the need for individual businesses to file Form 5500.
For more tips and information regarding retirement plans, contact us.
