when must a self employed 401-k file form 5500?

[KevinMc]

Does a person who has a self employed 401-k (This is the term Fidelity uses) have to file a form 5500 if the assets are less than $250,000? Is this rule different than if a person has a traditional 401-k with multiple participants?

[Tom Poje]

well, the instructions for form 5500-ez still say:

Who Does Not Have To File Form
5500-EZ
You do not have to file Form 5500-EZ for the 2014 plan
year for a one-participant plan if the total of the plan's
assets and the assets of all other one-participant plans
maintained by the employer at the end of the 2014 plan
year does not exceed $250,000, unless 2014 is the final
plan year of the plan.

this holds true even if you were to file the 5500-sf as a one participant plan (which is simply the IRS way of getting you to file a 5500-ez electronically.)

if you have other 'participants', then you can't file the EZ, so it wouldn't matter what the balance is.

[mbozek]

I thought that the one participant plan with less than 250k in assets was exempt from the 5500 filing if the only other participant was the spouse.

[Lou S.]

Does a person who has a self employed 401-k (This is the term Fidelity uses) have to file a form 5500 if the assets are less than $250,000? Is this rule different than if a person has a traditional 401-k with multiple participants?

If the self-employed person (or them and their spouse) are the only eligible participants and assets are less than $250K then you do not have to file form 5500 series,

If you have even 1 eligible participant who is not the owner or their spouse employed, you have to file Form 5500 or Form 5500-SF no matter how small the assets are.

I believe this is probably the exact same answer that Tom is quoting above.