DoL Releases Advance Copies of Revised Form 5500

Advanced copies of the 2007 Form 5500 Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plans and related instructions were released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Labor (DoL), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC).

According to a press release from the DoL, the three significant changes to the Form 5500 for plan year 2007 are:

  • A new simplified reporting option for eligible plans with fewer than 25 participants required by the Pension Protection Act (PPA),
  • Revised Schedule B instructions to reflect updated mortality tables and the list of codes used for valuation purposes, as well as for calculating current liability for plan years beginning on or after Jan.1, 2007, and
  • Instructions that caution certain filers that, due to form changes required by the PPA that will appear in the 2008 Form 5500, they will have to wait for the 2008 forms rather than using the 2007 forms if they must file a 2008 short plan year report.

Revisions of the Form 5500 package for 2009 along with electronic filing and EFAST2 changes are expected to be released soon, according to the press release.

Never miss a story — sign up for PLANADVISER newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan adviser news.

The instructions for filling out the Form 5500 are here.

The actual Form 5500 is here.

General information about the Form 5500 is available here.

«