Plan year end is last Friday of December - no 5500 on 2021 form

The plan document provides that the plan year end is the last Friday of the December. 

The plan runs from 12/28/2019 - 12/24/2020 so form 5500 and 8955 were filed on the 2019 Forms.  For 12/25/2020 - 12/31/2021 the Form 5500 and 8955 will be filed on the 2020 Forms.

My biggest concern is that 2021 form 5500 and 8955 would then be skipped because there is no plan year that starts in 2021. The next plan year is 1/1/2022-12/30/2022.  Due to the fact that the plan year starts in 2022 then the form 5500 and 8955 should be filed on the 2022 forms not the 2021 year.

 Another issue is that the year after would also be reported on the 2022 form 5500 and 8955 because the plan year is from 12/31/2022 – 12/29/2023. 

Any suggestions on how to handle this situation?

I think you have a short plan year 12/25/2020-12/31/2020, and then a plan year 1/1/2021-12/31/2021. Check your plan document's definition of plan year, it probably says it is the 12 consecutive month period ending on the last day of the plan year (and if it doesn't, does it have a determination letter?). You can't have a plan year that is longer than 12 months, so you have to add a short plan year to make up the difference. 

My suggestion would be to amend the plan out of this insane definition of plan year and onto a normal 12/31 plan year ASAP.

Boy, am I on a different planet from either of you.  If you look long and hard you will find that there are already existing rules that tie the 52/53 week plan year to, essentially, the calendar year that it just makes sense to use.  So, there will be one 5500 for each calendar year (showing the beginning of the "plan year" as 1/1 and the end as 12/31). Then the actual period over which the assets and transactions are determined is from the beginning of the 52/53 week year to the end of the 52/53 week year.  Simple, huh?

10 hours ago, Mike Preston said:

Boy, am I on a different planet from either of you.  If you look long and hard you will find that there are already existing rules that tie the 52/53 week plan year to, essentially, the calendar year that it just makes sense to use.  So, there will be one 5500 for each calendar year (showing the beginning of the "plan year" as 1/1 and the end as 12/31). Then the actual period over which the assets and transactions are determined is from the beginning of the 52/53 week year to the end of the 52/53 week year.  Simple, huh?

It has been 10+ years since I had a 52/53 week plan but what Mike is saying is my memory.   It was hard work for the plan auditor as they had to constantly figure out the actual value of the assets in the plan as of the odd date when all brokers issue monthly or quarterly statements.  However, the 5500 was not as hard as the first two comments made it out to be.     

Interesting. I looked it up as you suggested and sure enough the rules are found in IRC 441(f).

I do feel like I'm on another planet even reading this as this definition of a plan year is totally alien to me.

I wonder if the language in a preapproved document might limit a sponsor's ability to do this. If the plan document says "12 consecutive months" I don't know that you get to interpret that as 52 or 53 weeks just because you want to. You might need an IDP to use that definition in a plan.

2 hours ago, C. B. Zeller said:

Interesting. I looked it up as you suggested and sure enough the rules are found in IRC 441(f).

I do feel like I'm on another planet even reading this as this definition of a plan year is totally alien to me.

I wonder if the language in a preapproved document might limit a sponsor's ability to do this. If the plan document says "12 consecutive months" I don't know that you get to interpret that as 52 or 53 weeks just because you want to. You might need an IDP to use that definition in a plan.

The only time I have seen a 52/53 week plan the document was very clear.  It said the year end was the last Saturday in September.   It was a grocery store.   Their weeks ended on Saturday with the weekly specials and they wanted the plan to always end on the end of one of their business weeks in September.   I think I have seen a 52/53 week checkbox on some Adoption Agreements back in the day.   I haven't looked for them recently.