5500 Ownership/HR or Finance?

[Guest Diane Furry]

This is my first tax year at my new company. In prevoius companies, as HR Manager, my involvement in 5500's was merely as a "data collector"; our Finance Department would always delegate this to an accountant (usually with tax experience.) At my new company, the discussion has been raised as to which department 'owns' this responsibility. I am not comfortable taking this on due to my lack of experience, and the consequences for not filing accurate and timely reports. What do other companies do? Who is responsible? If HR, does your accounting/finance dept. assist? Do you have an outside service perform these? And, is it not true that 5500's must be included as part of the company's annual audit? Thanks for your help!

[Archimage]

Most companies pay either their CPA firm or TPA(third party administrator) to do this. I actually do not know of any clients I have ever had that have done it themselves. If your company has over 100 participants, you will generally have to have an audit of your retirement plan. There are some minor exceptions to this but I cannot tell you for sure without knowing how many participants you have and if last year a schedule H or schedule I was filed with your 5500.

[BFree]

And many times when a new person is hired into a company, he gets to take charge of the work that no one else wants to do.

Seriously, though, you can get a third-party to prepare the form for a fee. Even if a tpa prepares the form, you should become comfortable with it, as your firm will need to sign off on it. Most of the forms are not that difficult to understand.

[david rigby]

Minor modification to comment from Archimage:

The determination of whether an audit is required is whether the plan has over 100 participants. The number of company employees is not relevant.

BTW, there is no requirement that the plan auditor be the same as the company auditor.