I don't work with SEPs too often, but have been asked to look into a couple of things. I was looking in the Pension Answer Book and saw the following: "The trustee or issuer of the IRA is required to furnish annual information regarding contributions to the SEP and the fair market value of assets in the SEP. For this purpose, Form 5498 must be filed with IRS by May 31."

I thought the advantage of SEPs was that the employer didn't have an annual filing requirement. What is this 5498, and who files it? Would it be filed by the financial institution? Thanks in advance for any help.

The reporting and filing of the 5498 is done by the financial institution sponsoring the SEP, not the employer. They are required to report annual contributions and year-end market value to the IRS. Similar reporting is also done for Traditional and Roth IRA's. Hope this helps.