Extension for Form 5500 Denied

[david rigby]

On 10/1/2019 at 1:21 PM, Earl said:

Why is there an extension, anyway?  Seems to me to be just a waste of everyone's time and paper.

The due date is statutory.  ERISA (remember?) states the annual report (ie, 5500) is due at the end of the seventh month after the plan-year-end.  The IRS has statutory authority (somewhat general, I think) to extend certain deadlines up to 75 days. 

[MarZDoates]

One of our clients received a letter that their extension was granted.  We did not extend it.  5500 was filed in May.  

 

[Bird]

15 hours ago, MarZDoates said:

One of our clients received a letter that their extension was granted.  We did not extend it.  5500 was filed in May.  

 

Classic!  But somewhat interesting and it might shed light on something I was wondering about - what database are they pulling the addresses from when they approve (or disapprove)?  We had a client who received an extension approval, but it had a prior trustee's name on it.  He asked us to fix it...we checked everything and had been using the new trustee's name correctly.  So I thought it might be stuck in the TIN database and we prepped a letter changing the "address" (trustee name).  A year from now we might - or might not - have some insight.  Of course many plans don't have their own TIN so I'm not sure what that means.

[Nicola]

Unfortunately it happens. When it does, the plan sponsor needs to write a letter requesting reconsideration, providing an explanation and it should include a evidence of mailing prior to the extension deadline. The letter should also include a copy of the incorrect rejection letter.

www.form5500pros.com 

 

[RatherBeGolfing]

15 hours ago, Nicola said:

Unfortunately it happens. When it does, the plan sponsor needs to write a letter requesting reconsideration, providing an explanation and it should include a evidence of mailing prior to the extension deadline. The letter should also include a copy of the incorrect rejection letter.

www.form5500pros.com 

 

Not necessarily.  If you just had one or a few denials, yes.  If the denial was part of a larger submission done by a service provider, and the service provider had a lot of denials, it can usually be done on the provider level.  In some cases they will accept lists or even excel files from the provider to correct multiple incorrect denials.  We have done it before and I know some who are doing it now.  It is on a case by case basis though.

[Nicola]

On 10/13/2019 at 1:54 PM, RatherBeGolfing said:

Not necessarily.  If you just had one or a few denials, yes.  If the denial was part of a larger submission done by a service provider, and the service provider had a lot of denials, it can usually be done on the provider level.  In some cases they will accept lists or even excel files from the provider to correct multiple incorrect denials.  We have done it before and I know some who are doing it now.  It is on a case by case basis though.

I think we are both saying the same thing. Sometimes there are accidental denials (whether it's a plan sponsor or service provider level) and when it happens you need to provide proof of delivery/receipt that you mailed it on time.

[Janice F]

A client just sent us an approval of 5558 extension dated 10.21.2019 for the 2008 calendar plan year.  10 years too late.

 

[cfull]

MarZDoates - did you do any follow up for your client that got an unnecessary approval letter?

One of our clients just got an approval for a 5558 for the 2018 plan year.  Their plan started January 1, 2019 and is a calendar plan year end, so their first plan year will be 2019.  We did not file a 5558 for 2018 (or at all for this client as their first plan year has not even ended yet), nor did the client.  I'm wondering if we should respond to IRS with a 'friendly reminder' of these facts or just ignore this notice as the IRS seem to be in total disarray this year with respect to 5500 extensions.