Form 5500 for Employee Benefit Plans

[Guest Rettop]

Questions on filing Form 5500 for employee benefit plans:

1) Should contract date with the benefit carrier be the plan year end date to report on Form 5500?

2) If participants are over 100, is an audited financial statement required? What criteria to look for to determine if audit is required.

3) If the name of the plan changed, but the EIN remained the same, is there some type of reporting which must be done?

4) Should EAP be reported on Form 5500?

5) Is an audit required for a fringe benefit plan?

6) What penalties could be assessed for not filing for plan year 1999 and 2000?

7) Is an employee benefit plan exempt from filing Form 5500?

[david rigby]

Perhaps the 5500 instructions will be of some value to you. http://ftp.fedworld.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i5500.pdf

1. 5500 filings are plan-year based. For example, the 2000 5500 is for the plan year which began in CY 2000.

2. The audit requirement is based on the number of plan participants, not on number of contracts or amount of dollars.

7. What does this mean?