IRS Letter regarding filing 5500 EZ or 5500 SF

Hi All:

One of our clients, who historically filed a 5500-EZ Form, filed their final 5500-EZ Form for their 10/31/2019 plan year.  The form was marked as a final form.  The client received a letter from the IRS dated 12/7/2020 with a heading:  Filing Requirements Reminder:  Review to determine if you must file Form 5500-EZ or 5500-SF.  The letter references the Plan period ending 10/31/2020, for which the client will not be filing a form.  There doesn't seem to be anything in the letter that requires a reply of any sort.  It appears to just be a reminder to the client that if they are required to, they must file either an EZ by mail or an SF via EFAST2.  

Has anyone else had clients receive such a letter, and is it safe to just file this in our records for future reference?  Anyone know why the IRS is sending these?  Are more to follow?

They might be worried about the problem of trailing assets not yet distributed from a plan. Sounds like it's just a reminder to be aware of the requirements for filing if any assets have not been distributed by YE 10/31/19.

It has been mentioned on this forum that the EZ Forms that were sent during the pandemic are not being processed. This might explain why the IRS sent this reminder even though the form was marked as the final form. The IRS seems to send this yearly to EZ filers.

On 12/23/2020 at 11:17 AM, SSRRS said:

It has been mentioned on this forum that the EZ Forms that were sent during the pandemic are not being processed. This might explain why the IRS sent this reminder even though the form was marked as the final form. The IRS seems to send this yearly to EZ filers.

I just got this form too but several years. But I was told it was sent because when I filed the final 5500-EZ form for the number of participants end of year I put 1 instead of 0 for the solo 401k plan even though I wrote final return filed for the plan. is this a common error? When I called the IRS they immediately know about this even without asking for my personal info