Compliance Reminder: Upcoming Form 5500 Deadline for Calendar
Year Plans

Employers sponsoring health and welfare benefit plans subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) should take note of the upcoming Form 5500 filing deadline on July 31, 2025 for calendar year plans.

Read on for more information about the Form 5500 requirements and upcoming filing deadline.

Form 5500 Purpose & Background

Purpose: According to the Department of Labor (DOL) Form 5500 webpage, the Form 5500 “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, and 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.”

Background: Employers sponsoring ERISA-governed group health and welfare plans^[1] with at least 100 plan participants covered at the beginning of the plan year are required to file a Form 5500. Form 5500 is filed annually with the DOL and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Click here for the 2024 Form 5500 filing instructions.

Form 5500 contains information about the type of plan and plan features, plan funding, the number of participants, service providers, and compensation for service providers, among other items. Form 5500 must be filed electronically using the DOL’s EFAST2 filing system.

Form 5500 Filing Deadline

Form 5500 is due 7 months after the last day of the plan year, which typically falls on July 31 each year for calendar year ERISA-governed plans.

Employers may file an extension through IRS Form 5558 that provides an automatic 2 ½ month filing extension, typically resulting in an October 15 filing deadline for calendar year ERISA-governed plans.

Wrap Plans

Employers often combine or “wrap” several ERISA-governed group health and welfare plans together into a single plan for Form 5500 filing purposes.

In these situations, each plan “wrapped” together will be considered a single plan, subject to the applicable “wrap” document and incorporating by reference all applicable carrier booklets, benefit summaries, policies, and summary plan descriptions. Only one Form 5500 is filed for a “wrap” plan, typically with the single plan number of 501.

If there is no “wrap” document in place, a Form 5500 must be filed for each plan with at least 100 plan participants covered at the beginning of the plan year.

Filing Exemptions

The following ERISA-governed health and welfare plans are exempt from Form 5500 filing requirements:

• Small unfunded plans, small insured plans, and small combination unfunded/insured plans,
  • Small plans are those with fewer than 100 plan participants covered on the first day of the plan year.
  • To determine the number of plan participants for Form 5500 filing purposes, employers must count only covered employees, covered former employees who are COBRA qualified beneficiaries, as well as covered retirees. Covered dependents (e.g., spouses and children) are not counted when determining if a plan qualifies for the small plan exemption.
  • The plan participant count threshold includes any ERISA-governed plan benefit, even if there are fewer than 100 plan participants covered under the group health plan.
    Unfunded/Insured Plans

    The Form 5500 filing instructions clarify that:

    • Unfunded plans are those where benefits are paid from the general employer assets and not from plan assets. A plan with employee contributions that is associated with a cafeteria plan under Internal Revenue Code Section 125 may be treated for Form 5500 reporting purposes as an unfunded welfare plan if it meets the requirements of DOL Technical Release 92-01. Also, a plan that uses a trust or separately maintained fund to hold plan assets is not considered “unfunded.”
    • Insured plans are those where benefits are provided exclusively through insurance contracts or policies. Premiums must be paid directly by the employer from its general assets or premiums may be paid partly from an employer’s general assets and partly by participant contributions, which the employer forwards to the insurance carrier within 3 months of receipt.
• Plans not subject to ERISA, such as church plans and governmental plans,
• Plans maintained outside the United States primarily for persons substantially all of whom are nonresident aliens,
• Unfunded or insured plans for certain select employees (management or highly compensated employees)^[2],
• Plans maintained solely to comply with workers’ compensation, unemployment compensation, or disability insurance laws.

Short Plan Years

For a short plan year, which means a plan year of less than 12 months, the Form 5500 generally must be filed by the last day of the 7th calendar month after the short plan year ends.

Filers of short plan years must identify the short plan year beginning and ending dates on the line provided at the top of the Form 5500, and should check the appropriate box in Part I, Line B of the Form 5500 main body. For Form 5500 purposes, the short plan year ends on the date of the change in accounting period or on the complete distribution of assets of the plan.

Final Form 5500

If an employee benefit plan was terminated in a prior year, a final Form 5500 (sometimes referred to as a “terminal report”) is generally due on the last day of the 7th month following the date of the plan termination. In certain situations, this may be a short plan year.

The final Form 5500 cannot be filed until all the plan’s assets have been distributed or legally transferred to the control of another plan, or all benefit liabilities under a welfare benefit plan have been satisfied. A terminated plan will file a final Form 5500 by checking Part I, Box B of Form 5500.

Summary Annual Report (SAR)

The Summary Annual Report (SAR) is a general summary of a plan’s Form 5500, and must be distributed to plan participants on an annual basis. Click here for the model DOL SAR form.

SARs generally include information on the plan funding arrangement, applicable insurance carrier information including total premiums paid, applicable plan expenses, and a financial statement of the plan funded by a trust, when applicable. Unfunded plans, such as HC FSAs and HRAs, are generally exempt from SAR requirements, even when a Form 5500 is required.

SARs must be distributed to all plan participants (including COBRA qualified beneficiaries) within nine months of the end of the plan year, which typically is September 30 each year for ERISA calendar year plans. Electronic distribution of SARs is permissible under the same ERISA electronic delivery safe harbor rules as Summary Plan Description (SPD) distribution.^[3]

If the Form 5500 deadline is extended through IRS Form 5558, the SAR distribution deadline is extended 2 ½ months, typically resulting in a December 15 distribution deadline.

Plans that are exempt from the Form 5500 filing requirements (such as small plans detailed above) are also exempt from the SAR distribution requirement.

Penalties & Voluntary Compliance

For employers that fail to file Forms 5500 by the applicable date or submit incomplete Forms 5500, potential penalties can be steep (up to $2,739 per day imposed by the DOL).

The DOL provides a voluntary compliance program for employers to satisfy their overdue Form 5500 filing obligations, called the Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program (DFVCP). Employers are eligible to pay reduced civil penalties under the DFVCP if the required filings under the program are made prior to the date on which the employer is notified in writing by the DOL of a failure to file a timely Form 5500.

Since the DOL has taken the position that there is no statute of limitations for filing the Form 5500, all overdue filings must be included in the DFVCP for compliance purposes.

Next Steps for Employers

For employers sponsoring ERISA-governed health and welfare plans subject to the Form 5500 filing and SAR distribution requirements, your eBen account team will support your compliance efforts by the applicable deadlines. As a reminder, the upcoming Form 5500 filing deadline for calendar year plans is July 31, 2025.

Contact your eBen account team with any questions here.

^{[1] Form 5500 requirements also apply to ERISA-governed qualified retirement plans.}

^{[2] In accordance with 29 CFR 2520.104-24.}

^{[3] ERISA electronic distribution safe harbor is generally permissible for employees with work-related computer access that is integral to work duties pursuant to DOL Reg. §2520.104b-1(c).}

^{The contents of this article are for general informational purposes only and eBen makes no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy or completeness of any information contained herein. Any recommendations contained herein are intended to provide insight based on currently available information for consideration and should be vetted against applicable legal and business needs before application to a specific client.}