The Department of Labor, IRS and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) on Dec. 29 released information copies of the Form 5500, Form 5500-SF and Form 5500-EZ for use in reporting about the 2021 plan year, as well as their accompanying instructions.
Information copies are not to be used for filing and reporting on the 2021 plan year. They are useful, however, in preparing for actual filing.
Following are the most important modifications that have been made to the Form 5500 and the Form 5500-SF and their instructions.
Multiple Employer Plans (MEPs)
The instructions have been revised to implement an amendment the SECURE Act made to ERISA Section 103(g) that requires MEPs to report aggregate account balance information by employer on the existing Form 5500/Form 5500-SF attachment for reporting participating employer information.
Pooled Employer Plans (PEPs)
The following changes have been made:
- The Form 5500 instructions have been amended to make clear that a PEPis a MEP that files a single Form 5500.
- PEPs are required to check the MEP box in Part A of the Form 5500 and include the attachment for reporting participating employer information for MEPs to the form.
- Either on a separate attachment or as part of the participating employer attachment for MEPs, PEPs must answer whether the pooled plan provider (PPP) administering the plan has complied with the Form PR filing requirements. If the answer is yes, the AckID number for the PPP’s latest Form PR filing must be provided.
- The Form 5500-SF instructions have also been amended to provide that PPPs must file the Form 5500 and cannot file the Form 5500-SF.
Retroactively Adopted Plans
A new checkbox has been added to Part I of the Form 5500 and Form 5500-SF for a plan sponsor that adopted the plan in the 2021 plan year and treated it as being adopted and effective in the 2020 plan year under Section 201 of the SECURE Act. For defined benefit plans in this category, the 2021 instructions provide information about how to report data regarding 2020 funding requirements (i.e., Schedule SB data).
Administrative Penalties
The instructions have been updated to reflect an increase in the maximum civil penalty amount assessable under ERISA Section 502(c)(2), as required by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015.
Schedule MB
The following changes have been made to the Schedule MB:
- A new line 3(d) has been added to require a multiemployer DB plan to report the amount of withdrawal liability payments included in line 3(b) employer contributions.
- Line 6c, mortality table, has been revised to add new mortality tables released by the Society of Actuaries and to simplify reporting of older mortality tables.
- Line 7, New Amortization Bases Established, has been revised reflecting changes made by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 for Code 8 to be used for net investment losses and other losses related to the coronavirus incurred in either or both of the first two plan years ending after Feb. 29, 2020.
Schedule SB
Line 6, target normal cost, is broken down into new lines 6a, 6b and 6c. Line 6a requires the plan to report the present value of current plan year accruals decreased by any mandatory employee contributions. Line 6b requires the plan to report expected plan-related expenses included in target normal cost, and line 6c requires it to report the total target normal cost (i.e., the sum of lines 6a and 6b). The table in the instructions for line 27 contains an additional code (Code 9) for community newspapers as described in the SECURE Act.
Copies Available
Information copies of the Form 5500 Series are posted on the EBSA website, here.
