Benefits & ERISA Law

Form 5500 Information Coming Soon to a Website Near You

By Suzanne Wynn

With 5500 season about to start, now is a good time to take another look at Section 504 of the Pension Protection Act. Section 504 is the requirement that, for plan years beginning after December 31, 2007, the plan sponsor will display information from Form 5500 on an Intranet website maintained by the plan sponsor for communicating with employees and not the public. Section 504 also requires the Secretary of the Treasury to accept electronic filing of Form 5500 in a format which accomodates display on the Internet, and to provide for displaying that information on an Internet website maintained by the Secretary within 90 days after the filing date.

Even though this requirement applies to plan years beginning after December 31, 2007, it is worth considering when completing Form 5500 for the 2007 plan year as information from the 2007 plan year will be displayed as the beginning balance for the 2008 plan year. Now is also the time to start planning for how to display the information electronically to employees on a website maintained by the plan sponsor, or maintained by the plan administrator on the plan sponsor’s behalf.

ON a related 5500 note, the Dept. of Labor has made older versions of Form 5500, along with the applicable schedules, available on their website here. Posted on the website are Form 5500s for years 1995 through 2007.

Full post as published by Pension Protection Act Blog on February 26, 2008 (boomark / email).