Schedule A

[Alex Daisy]

We took over a plan last year, and I am reviewing their 2006 5500 in preparation to complete the 2007 5500.

I noticed that they included a Schedule A for Oxford Health Insurance, Inc. on the 2006 5500.

My question is should a separate 5500 have been done for the Welfare Benefit Plan, or can it be included on the 401(k) 5500?

[PAL]

I've run into the same thing and from what I've been able to determine, you can't combine both the 401(K) AND THE h&w FILINGS TOGETHER.

[Guest fvel]

Two seperate form 5500's are required. On the form 5500 there are two distinct types of forms to file. One is for Pension Plans (401K) and the other is for Welfare Plans (health). Also the Plan numbers are generally different. Consult your plan documents to determine/identify your Plan Numbers.

[jpod]

All good advice. In addition, consult with your client about it's possible failure to file separate 5500s in the past for the welfare plan and what to do about it. (Note: there may not have been any failure to file if welfare plan did not cover more than 100 participants at the beginning of any plan year.)

[Ron Snyder]

A 401(k) plan may include a 401(m) account which may cause a health plan Schedule A to be attached to the 401(k) 5500.

[Lori Friedman]

In addition, consult with your client about it's possible failure to file separate 5500s in the past for the welfare plan and what to do about it.

Just curious...what WOULD you do about this situation? Let's say that a welfare benefit plan has existed for a long time -- decades, perhaps -- and has never filed a Form 5500. It would be impossible to assemble the information needed to prepare all of the overdue returns; nobody retains records for that many years. Is there a Dept. of Labor corrections program that's geared to fixing this sort of problem?

[jpod]

The first thing I would do is to try to be creative in "assembling" all of the various offerings under the plan, or plans, in a reasonable manner so that each of the offerings can be considered a separate "plan" that never covered more than 100 participants at the beginning of the plan year. If that fails, I would try to assemble the offerings in a reasonable manner so as to minimize the number of plans and years for which a 5500 was required.

Assuming I ended up with one or more plans for which one or more 5500s were late, I would explain the options to the client. One option is to do nothing, thereby theoretically never avoiding the risk of at least some failure to file penalties. The other option is to go back in time and assemble as much information as is reasonably available and file per DFVCP, in which case while I could never give any guaranty the risk is probably low that the DOL would assess penalties for earlier years.