Form 5500 Series

The Form 5500 Series is part of ERISA’s overall reporting and disclosure framework, which is intended to assure that employee benefit plans are operated and managed in accordance with certain prescribed standards and that participants and beneficiaries, as well as regulators, are provided or have access to sufficient information to protect the rights and benefits of participants and beneficiaries under employee benefit plans. 

The DOL may assess a civil penalty against a plan administrator of up to $2,400 per day starting from the date of the administrator’s failure or refusal to file Form 5500. The IRS penalty for late filing of a 5500-series return is $25 per day, up to a maximum of $15,000. The penalty may be reduced under the DOL delinquent and late-filer programs, subject to annual increases for inflation. A willful failure to distribute a SAR or failure to complete 5500 reporting is subject to criminal penalties, punishable by a fine of not more than $100,000 or imprisonment for not more than 10 years, or both. Fines can be increased up to $500,000 if assessed against an entity (and not the responsible individual). A participant requesting a SAR, who does not receive the SAR within 30 days of that request, can be awarded up to $2400/day (until the SAR is provided).

Only 2019 and 2020 Forms will be accepted by EFAST2: Effective January 1, 2021, the EFAST2 System will only accept 2019 and 2020 forms. Therefore, if an earlier plan year filing needs to be submitted (for an amended filing or a first-time late filing) the prior to 2019 form needs to be prepared on the most current available form, which right now is a 2020 Form 5500.