5500 Mia

[Guest ANNEBV]

I'm looking for suggestions on how to proceed with a new client who "doesn't know" if their 1999 5500 was filed or not for one of their 401(k) plans.

Their internal staff person, who used to do this plan's 5500s, retired well over a year ago, their previous recordkeeper passed away earlier this year and their auditor insists that they did not do it (the plan is not audited, but the client has other plans that are audited and the auditor does those 5500s. Sadly, the client thought that the auditor filed the 5500!)

For the record, the 5500 in question IS for 1999. Obviously, the 2000 5500 has not been filed and we know this for certain!

I am wondering if I should contact the PWBA and ask for a copy of the most recently filed 5500 for this plan or if I should just proceed as if the 1999 5500 has not been filed and see what happens. Interestingly, they have not received any correspondence, yet, from the DOL indicating that a return was missed. The last 5500 that we have on file is for 1998, which was timely filed.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[Steve72]

A starting place might be www.freeerisa.com. They claim to have the most recent publicly-available Forms 5500 for each plan viewable online.

If they've got the Form, I'd bet the PWBA does too.

[RCK]

freeerisa is a great resource. To ANNEBV: it works best if you can search by EIN, and you should be able to do that.

Searching by name can be a challenge, because you are dependant on the exact wording that the person filing out the form used. It seems like that should be obvious, but I have had trouble in the past finding documents I knew existed.

RCK

[Tom Poje]

I would agree thar free erisa is very good.

The problem with freeerisa is that I don't think the 1999 forms are listed yet. either that or evry plan I researched didn't file in 1999. but you can always try.

[TPAVP]

You can also use the voice response system through the EFAST filing system.

Dial (877) 711-9682, choose option one and provide the 9-digit EIN, then the 4-digit filing year and the 3-digit plan Number (ie 001,002,...). The system will advise you if the machine print or the hand print filing has been received.