SSA Information

[Guest furiousfurrball]

How do you report balance information for the SSA - do you report it as the employee's termination date or the last day of the plan year?

[masteff]

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i5500.pdf Instructions page 64, for "line 4, box h": "For defined contribution plans, enter the value of the participant’s account at the time of separation."

[WDIK]

masteff hits the nail on the head with the guidance given in the instructions. It may be of some interest to view the discussion in the following thread (although it is starting to get dated).

http://benefitslink.com/boards/index.php?showtopic=27078

[BG5150]

I try to give the most recent balance, since there may have been additional contributions since the termination date.

[Guest furiousfurrball]

I try to give the most recent balance, since there may have been additional contributions since the termination date.

I was thinking the same thing -- also what if they took their money out between separation date and the last day of the plan year.

[masteff]

I was thinking the same thing -- also what if they took their money out between separation date and the last day of the plan year.

You really should familiarize yourself w/ the instructions for sched SSA which I linked above. It gets a bit convoluted... if the participant has received all or some of their accrued benefit, then you don't report, unless they've stopped receiving it in which case you then might have to report them, etc. And the important one is if you report them, then you have re-report them if they zero out their account later on.

[Guest Jennyb473]

I believe if they no longer have a balance - even if they took distribution after end of plan year, but before completion of return and SSA, you do not need to include them on the SSA. So if plan year end is 12/31 and return is due 7/31 and they take distribution leaving a zero balance in May, you do not report

[BG5150]

I see no sense in putting someone on there who has taken a full distribution in the time between termination and filing.

[doombuggy]

I report terminated participants with a balance on the last day of the plan year, the year after they terminated. So anyone who terminated in 2007, and still has a balance on 12/31/08 (for 12/31/08 PYE), gets reported with their vested balance as of 12/31/08/ If they take a distribution in 2009, they will get reported as a D on the 2009 SSA.

[KateSmithPA]

The SSA instructions read, "A participant is not reuqired to be reported on Schedule SSA if, before the date the Schedule SSA is required to be filed (including any extension of time for filing), the participant: 1. Is paid some or all of the deferred vested retirement benefit.