Final Form 5500 After Asset Purchase??

[kmhaab]

I have a question about the filing of a final Form 5500 after a 401k plan termination.

All assets of a 401k Plan Sponsor are being purchased in an asset sale and while the Plan Sponsor legal entity will continue to exist for a period of time, there will be no employees. The Plan Sponsor is terminating all benefit plans, including the 401k, as of the day of the transaction. The Buyer is not assuming any of the Plan Sponsor's benefit plan liabilities in the purchase agreement.

Clearly it will take some time for the 401k assets to be distributed after the plan termination date. So who files the Final Form 5500 in a situation like this? I would assume the Plan Sponsor is responsible for the filing as long as the entity is still in existence at that time, right? Would the Buyer have any responsibility?

I'm curious how others have seen this handled. Thank you!

[Lou S.]

Typically the Plan Sponsor(seller) is responsible for closing out the old plan and filing all required IRS forms, including Form 5500.

The buyer might assume responsibility in the buy/sell agreement in some instances, but this is not usually the case in my experience.