Cafeteria vs. Welfare

[Guest LWilson]

After reading through several threads and reviewing reference material, I am clearer on this whole Fringe Benefit vs. Welfare Benefit thing . . . I think . . .

Please correct me if I'm wrong . . .

As I see it, the Cafeteria Plan "houses" an assortment of Fringe and Welfare Benefit plans. So the key is knowing which of the components of the Cafeteria are Fringe and which are Welfare?

If that's all I need to worry about, then where does a dependent care FSA fall? Fringe?

And what about Health Insurance Premiums? Welfare?

And finally, when we're talking about the number of participants determining whether or not we file on behalf of a Welfare Plan, are we talking about Eligible Employees, or are we only looking at the number of employees who have chosen to participate?

[Guest PDDeBoy]

The 100 employee benchmark for reporting is for enrolled individuals - not total workforce.

There are lots of different ways to report now for your 5500 filings. Overall, file the report by Plan Number. If you have one plan number that encompasses ALL of your insurance products (i.e. medical, dental, life, AD&D, dependent life), then you file one 5500 for that particular plan number (i.e. 501). Most companies have different plan numbers for each insurance product, however.

The "fringe benefit" difference is that you used to have to complete an entire 5500 form if you only had a Fringe Benefit Plan (i.e. even those with fewer than 100 participants have to file when they have this benefit). The goal of the changes, as I understand them, is to make it less cumbersome to report for fringe benefit plans.

FYI - my understanding is OJT from completing them myself and asking questions of vendors.