All is not lost for some small retirement plans that were late in filing certain required retirement plan returns. The IRS on May 1 issued a reminder in news release IR-2015-74 that eligible small businesses can file the returns by June 2 and not suffer the penalties they would otherwise face.
The relief is available through a one-year, temporary pilot program the IRS launched on June 2, 2014. It is intended to help small businesses that may not have been aware of the reporting requirements applicable to their retirement plans.
The relief generally is available to small business with retirement plans such as owner-spouse plans, and plans of business partnerships (together, “one-participant plans”) as well as certain foreign plans. Ordinarily, plan administrators and sponsors that fail to file required annual returns — usually Form 5500-EZ — can face penalties of up to $15,000 per return.
Filers eligible for the program can avoid penalties if they file late returns by June 2. If they have more than one return that is late, they may submit those multiple returns together in a single submission. Filers do not need to make any payment or pay any filing fee with their submissions.
Small businesses that already have been assessed a penalty for late filings are not eligible for this program.
The IRS reports that so far, about 6,000 delinquent returns have been filed under this program.
Details on how to participate are available in a special YouTube video, as well as in Revenue Procedure 2014-32.
The relief is available through a one-year, temporary pilot program the IRS launched on June 2, 2014. It is intended to help small businesses that may not have been aware of the reporting requirements applicable to their retirement plans.
The relief generally is available to small business with retirement plans such as owner-spouse plans, and plans of business partnerships (together, “one-participant plans”) as well as certain foreign plans. Ordinarily, plan administrators and sponsors that fail to file required annual returns — usually Form 5500-EZ — can face penalties of up to $15,000 per return.
Filers eligible for the program can avoid penalties if they file late returns by June 2. If they have more than one return that is late, they may submit those multiple returns together in a single submission. Filers do not need to make any payment or pay any filing fee with their submissions.
Small businesses that already have been assessed a penalty for late filings are not eligible for this program.
The IRS reports that so far, about 6,000 delinquent returns have been filed under this program.
Details on how to participate are available in a special YouTube video, as well as in Revenue Procedure 2014-32.
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