business DOL Makes Changes to Form 5500 May 01, 2023 Attention plan sponsors…are you up to speed on the changes to Form 5500? This is the third and final phase of changes to forms to comply with the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement (SECURE) Act of 2019. Here are the details. The Department of Labor (DOL) has issued final changes to the 2023 Form 5500 and Form 5500-SF Annual return/Reports of employee benefit plans. The DOL estimates that these changes will reduce overall EBP filing costs by approximately $95 million annually. What is form 5500? The Form 5500 and 5500-SF are required to be filed by the Employee Retirement Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code (IRC), for employee benefit plans. They are used by the Department of Labor (DOL), Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) as a research and compliance tool and are available to the public. Form 5500-SF (short form) is for plans that do not require an audit and Form 5500 is for plans that do require an audit. For a calendar year plan, the due date for Form 5500 is July 31st (the last day of the 7th month after the plan year end) with a two-and-a-half-month extension available to October 15th. What’s new? Plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2023 will be subject to the following changes: New counting methodology for determining eligibility for simplified reporting alternatives available to small plans (typically plans with fewer than 100 participants)- The new methodology will be based on the number of participants with account balances (instead of the current method which counts eligible individuals who have not elected to participate and do not have an account)Improved reporting by multiple-employer plans (MEPs), which includes pooled-employer plans (PEPs) Added breakout categories to the Administrative Expenses category of the Income and Expenses section of the Schedule H balance sheet. The DOL expects that this will improve fee and expense transparency. Consolidated form 5500 reporting option for certain groups - a defined contribution group (DCG) reporting arrangement and a new Schedule DCG (individual plan information). Under this change, DCGs will now typically be subject to large pension plan form 5500 requirements.Further improvements in financial and funding reporting by the PBGC covered defined benefit plans.More IRC compliance questions to improve tax oversight and compliance of tax-qualified retirement plans. Technical and conforming changes (as part of the annual rollover of forms and instructions) For full details, visit Changes for the 2023 Form 5500 and Form 5500-SF Annual Return/Reports Questions? Contact us.
