Does your group #healthcare plan have 100 or more "participants" at the beginning of the plan year? If so a Form 5500 filing requirement exists. In addition, funding plans, such as self-insured, self-funded, ASO) which are paid out of a trust are required to file Form 5500 regardless of the number of participants in the plan.
Instructions on completing Form 5500 can be found here.
Form 5500 is required to be filed by the last day of the 7th calendar month after the end of the plan year. Therefore, if a group healthcare plan has a plan year of 1/1/18 – 12/31/18, the Form 5500 will be due to the Department of Labor (DOL) by 7/31/19.
Plans may request a 2 1/2 month extension to file by submitting Form 5558, Application for Extension of Time to File Certain Employee Plan Returns, by that plan’s original due date.
What is Form 5500?
The Department of Labor, Internal Revenue Service, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation jointly developed the Form 5500 Series so employee benefit plans could utilize the Form 5500 Series forms to satisfy annual reporting requirements under Title I and Title IV of ERISA and under the Internal Revenue Code.
The Form 5500 Series is an important compliance, research, and disclosure tool for the Department of Labor, a disclosure document for plan participants and beneficiaries, and a source of information and data for use by other Federal agencies, Congress, and the private sector in assessing employee benefit, tax, and economic trends and policies. 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.
Electronic Filing Requirement
Effective January 1, 2010, all Form 5500 Annual Returns/Reports of Employee Benefit Plan and all Form 5500-SF Short Form Annual Returns/Reports of Small Employee Benefit Plan and any required schedules and attachments, must be completed and filed electronically using EFAST2-approved third-party software or using IFILE.
Non-Calendar Year Plan - Filing Dates
If your group healthcare plan is a non-calendar year plan, the requirement to file remains the same in that they are due no later then the end of the 7th month in which the plan year ends. Below is a listing of filing due dates for non-calendar year plans based on the month in which the group healthcare plan ends.
