5500 EZ Ft. William

Client has a simple 401k new in 2020. There are 2 employees in this company. Neither are owners. My Ft. William system keeps giving me warnings that I should be filing an EZ instead of an SF. When I run the edit checks, I get the error. When I "lock it" to get ready to notify the clients to sign, I get another pre-validation error.

Is anyone else running into this?

We've seen it; I believe it is a "warning" and not an "error."  I love FTW but some of this stuff is annoying (e.g. in compliance, if the plan is top heavy, it is shown as a "failure" - it's not a failure, it just "is.")  

Relius does the same thing.

It is my understanding the DOL made a change regarding using the SF vs. EZ form. 

https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/one-participant-plans-or-foreign-plans-can-file-form-5500-ez-electronically-using-efast2-filing-system

The DOL made the change, so the preparation software is giving warnings whenever an SF filing is created with only 1 or 2 participants.  They seem to only be warnings.  I've filed several forms successfully so far.

ASC did the same thing, too.  So yeah, I bet they advised their approved software vendors to check for it.

I remember calling FT William about this:

Hello Steve,

Per the DOL regulations that one participant plans must be filed on EZs starting this year, the warning is triggered if the participant count is 1 or 2, to ensure the owner and spouse scenario is covered. If this warning does not apply to your filing and the plan is not a one participant plan, you would continue with your filing as normal. Let me know if you need anything else and have a great day.

Best regards,
 

Thanks everyone! I feel better now!