Thursday was the deadline for most qualified retirement plans to file their Form 5500, that often-maligned bureaucratic entanglement that is the only real mechanism that government and the private sector have to understand the retirement industry.
By one account in a recent Government Accountability Office report on the inefficiencies of the form, 5500s can end up being over 1,000 pages long. The problems spotlighted by the GAO could, of course, contribute to problems in meeting Thursday's deadline.
As most deadline-busters know, the DOL's Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program is a purgatory, of sorts, for sponsors and administrators that simply can't get their Form 5500 done on time, or simply don't want to.
Recommended For You
But there's hope, according to the DOL's fact sheet on the DFVCP, and there are ways to keep the penalties, which can mount quickly, from spiraling out of control. Here's what sponsors need to know, quoting the government's fact sheet:
-
The DFVCP gives delinquent plan administrators a way to avoid potentially higher civil penalty assessments by satisfying the program's requirements and voluntarily paying a reduced penalty amount.
-
Eligibility for the DFVCP continues to be limited to plan administrators with filing obligations under Title I of ERISA who comply with the provisions of the program and who have not been notified in writing by the Department of a failure to file a timely annual report under Title I of ERISA (emphasis added).
-
The maximum penalty for a single late annual report is $750 for a small plan (generally a plan with fewer than 100 participants at the beginning of the plan year) and $2,000 for a large plan. The DFVCP also includes a "per plan" cap. This cap is designed to encourage reporting compliance by plan administrators who have failed to file an annual report for a plan for multiple years. The "per plan" cap limits the penalty to $1,500 for a small plan and $4,000 for a large plan regardless of the number of late annual reports filed for the plan at the same time.
-
File the delinquent Form 5500/5500SF electronically with EFAST2.
-
DFVCP does not relieve filing penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or Title IV of ERISA. The DOL understands that the IRS may provide relief from late-filing penalties under the Internal Revenue Code for a delinquent Form 5500 or Form 5500-SF of a Title I plan if (i) all applicable conditions of the DFVC Program have been satisfied, and (ii) any information required concerning separated deferred vested participants (Form 8955-SSA) for the applicable plan year has been filed directly with the IRS.
-
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation may provide certain penalty relief for delinquent annual returns/reports filed for Title I plans where the conditions of the DFVCP have been satisfied.
See? Not all is lost. But act quickly, or the consequences get uglier.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Nick Thornton
Nick Thornton is a financial writer covering retirement and health care issues for BenefitsPRO and ALM Media. He greatly enjoys learning from the vast minds in the legal, academic, advisory and money management communities when covering the retirement space. He's also written on international marketing trends, financial institution risk management, defense and energy issues, the restaurant industry in New York City, surfing, cigars, rum, travel, and fishing. When not writing, he's pushing into some land or water.
