8955-SSA line 6

[doombuggy]

If I have a person who I am reporting as a "D" they do not get counted in line 6? Those people that I am reporting as a "D" on the 2009 form terminated prior to 1/1/2008.

[Tom Poje]

well it depends. (Discussed this a few months ago in an earlier thread) if using FT William the system will generate an warning message if the body count does not equal the number of bodies listed on the next page.

if you file electronically the form will be rejected if the count total does not equal the list total(or at least that is what I have been told)

one of the people at the support desk at the IRS says you should not include 'D' people.(but that might simply be there reading of the instructions)

The instructions on the form say report people who have separated with a vested benefit. well, someone who has been paid out no longer has a vested benefit.

however the actual instructions say participants who have a deferred vested benfit includes those previously reported but have been paid out.

however for line 6 they simply say "those entitled to a deferred vested benefit."

stupid english language.

since I will file electronically in batch through FT William I have included the D people in the count so the SSAs don't get rejected.

[doombuggy]

Thanks for your thoughts, Tom. I think when the forms first came out, I was counting them, but now that the forms have been added to Datair's software, I think they do not get counted. At least that was my interpretation of the instructions...

As I mentioned, we use Datair, so I will give one a try to see if I get a similar error.

[doombuggy]

i just tried creating page 1 with a plan that has two "A" and 1 "D." line 6a says 2 (they term'd in 2008), but I have 3 participant pages. no errors so I guess this is good to go.

[chc93]

As far as I know, like Tom said earlier, ftwilliam.com issues a warning if the line 6-7 count doesn't equal the number participants listed... they say the warning is issued since electronically filing will fail. But if paper filing, maybe it's OK?

[Bird]

As far as I know, like Tom said earlier, ftwilliam.com issues a warning if the line 6-7 count doesn't equal the number participants listed... they say the warning is issued since electronically filing will fail. But if paper filing, maybe it's OK?

I'm pretty sure it's ok for paper filing. Not so sure that it's not ok for electronic filing too.

[Tom Poje]

so if the IRS comes back and says "You are not supposed to include the D people" then simply ask them "How can you file electronically?"