Now that 125 Plans No Longer Require a Form 5500, What is Required for

[Guest EMC]

Assume a Cafeteria Plan with the following components plans: premium conversion for group health insurance (GHP), health flexible spending arrangement (Health FSA), and dependent care assistance program (DCAP). The employer is large and all plans have well in excess of 100 employees participating at the beginning of the plan year.

The 5500 for the Cafeteria Plan and the DCAP component are no longer required. But the GHP and Health FSA still require a filing. The employer used to file a "consolidated" 5500 for the Cafeteria Plan and all underlying component welfare plans (i.e., GHP and Health FSA).

Now that the Cafeteria Plan filing requirement has been removed, must the employer file 2 separate Form 5500s (one for the GHP and another for the Health FSA)?

Thanks for your thoughts!

[Theresa Lynn]

Is it all one plan, with a single plan number? If not, looks like you would need to file two separate Forms 5500 since they are separate plans with separate plan numbers. Of course, this is assuming that neither plan fits another exception from filing (for example, fully insured or unfunded small plan).

[Guest Boilerburm]

Based on what you have said and my understanding of what has been released, I believe that all you would do is remove the two schedule Fs from your filing. The plan's structure hasn't changed, so filing it all as one return theoretically shouldn't change either.

[Guest EMC]

Thanks for the comments. Boilerburm, I might be missing something, but the consolidated filing that was done before was a Form 5500 for the 125 plan. In other words, the Form 5500 listed the 125 plan as the Plan for which the form was being filed, and it is set up to list the welfare plan info on schedules.

When the 5500 requirement for the 125 plan went away, there is no overarching plan for which the 5500 can be filed. The GHP and the Health FSA are 2 separate plans.

Under your suggestion, which of the two separate plans would you list under basic paln information on Line 1a of the 5500, and which of the two plans would you provide a plan number for? My point is that with the 125 filing requirement gone, it appears that each component plan must file a separate 5500 (or be exempt, as before).

[KJohnson]

If you have over 100 participants in your GHP and FSA, I am not sure if your filing was actually correct before. If you had your 125 Plan, GHP and FSA "wrapped" into one plan with one plan number then you only had one 5500 requirement previously and that is still the case.

On the other hand, if your GHP and FSA have separate plan numbers, you have proably always had a mutliple plan 5500 requirement even before the change regarding 125 Plan reporting.

Doe a search on the Boards for "Wrap Plan" and you will probalby come up with some good suggestions about how to get your filings down to one 5500.