Form 5558 old form vs new form

[Golgi]

New version of the form was released Friday. Did not see any mention of how long the IRS would continue to accept the prior version of the Form. Called the IRS and was told the old form would no longer be accepted now that the new version was released. Called back today to see if I get the same answer and was told they have not had any training on that subject. Our software vendor does not plan on issuing a service pack to update the form any time soon. Does anyone have any insight to offer regarding if/how long the IRS will accept the prior version of the form? We are wanting to send in extensions this week for all calendar year plans that have not signed their form 5500 yet but are hesitant to do so pending this form issue. Thanks

[QNPG]

New version of the form was released Friday. Did not see any mention of how long the IRS would continue to accept the prior version of the Form. Called the IRS and was told the old form would no longer be accepted now that the new version was released. Called back today to see if I get the same answer and was told they have not had any training on that subject. Our software vendor does not plan on issuing a service pack to update the form any time soon. Does anyone have any insight to offer regarding if/how long the IRS will accept the prior version of the form? We are wanting to send in extensions this week for all calendar year plans that have not signed their form 5500 yet but are hesitant to do so pending this form issue. Thanks

A small excerpt from Janice Wegesin's website concerning your question:

"Presumably IRS will accept the prior version of the form through the end of this month, allowing software providers time to update their products. Unofficially, the IRS generally permits the prior version of a form to be used for a minimum of 90 days unless they indicate otherwise."

This statement was printed July 8, 2011. The title of the article is "At Last! Form 5558 Rev. June 2011).

[http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f5558.pdf]

Hope this helps.