Does anyone have any insights on the process of an unagreed 5500 retirement plan cases?

[Guest Enda80]

Does anyone have any insights on the process of an unagreed 5500 retirement plan cases?

[Guest Sieve]

I am involved in one right now, and cannot give you any particualr insight other than describe what is going on. I will briefly describe it here, rather than in a PM at this time, so that others can see if there is something they would like to explore further in a PM.

We have refused to agree to extend the statute of limitations, which causes us to lose our internal IRS appeals process becasue we are running out of time. I asked the IRS simnply to extend the audit up one year so that the statue will not run, but, apparently, they cannot do that because they must close the audit that was intitiated originally (even though it was extended into earlier and subsequent years). The IRS is now frantically writing up their position (which they have been doing for about 4 months now, and they have just 6 weeks to complete it before the statute runs). At that point, we will have to file suit in Tax Court so that we don't have to pay the high 6-figure PT tax (an ESOP gone horribly wrong). The attorney leading the charge on this matter has even filed suit vs. the IRS for bringing the DOL into the audit, which is contrary, he says, to the IRC.

Feel free to send me a PM if you want additional information.