For 5330 - Filer Tax Year for Off-Calendar Tax Year

[PensionPro]

Here is the situation.  We are filing Form 5330 for a prohibited transaction between a plan and the employer.  The plan is on a 12/31 calendar year, and the employer is on a 6/30 fiscal year.  Do we have the option to file the Form 5330 with either a 12/31 or 6/30 fiscal year end?  The instructions seem to indicate that is the case.  Thank you.

Specific Instructions for Form 5330

Filer Tax year.  Enter the tax year of the employer, entity, or individual on whom the tax is imposed by using the plan year beginning and ending dates entered in Part I of Form 5500 or by using the tax year of the business return filed.

[Peter Gulia]

For § 4975, it is never the employee-benefit plan or its trust that owes the excise tax.

Under Internal Revenue Code of 1986 § 4975(a), the excise tax “shall be paid by any disqualified person who participates in the prohibited transaction (other than a fiduciary acting only as such).”

For § 4975, the instructions say “file Form 5330 by the last day of the 7th month after the end of the tax year of the employer or other person who must file this return.”  See table 1 on page 2.  https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i5330.pdf

Under “Who Must File”, it is “[a] disqualified person liable for the tax under section 4975 for participating in a prohibited transaction (other than a fiduciary acting only as such)[.]”

In your situation, ground Form 5330 on the employer's tax year.