Annual Information Return/Reports

Following the launch of a consultation in 2021 by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) about revisions to Form 5500, the Annual Return/Report of pension plans, primarily to adjust the form to requirements set out in the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act and the subsequent revisions to the Form and enclosed schedules to accommodate some of the proposed changes in the past two years, the regulators have now published the third and last set of changes that will apply for reporting year 2023 and thereafter.
To recall, in 2021, the regulators proposed
(1) changes to Form 5500 to cover so-called defined contribution groups (DCGs). A contribution group consists of employers that file a single 5500 Form for multiple defined contribution plans, provided that the plans meet certain criteria such as the existence of common trustees or fiduciaries. The authorities thereby proposed to include a new schedule, schedule DCG, which would have to be filed on top of the regular Form 5500 templates;
(2) the introduction of new schedule MEP (Multiple-Employer Retirement Plan Information) for pooled pension plans by multiple employers within the same industry. This new schedule would include information on the participating employers of the plan;
(3) the addition of several new reporting requirements (schedules) i.e. to document fees and expenses incurred by the plan; and
(4) changes to the format on some schedules to enhance readability and information content. This particular concerns information about „assets held for investments“.
As most changes have already been integrated in Form 5500 in the past two year, this last revision addresses the remaining issues that were included in the 2021 proposal including the following – as quoted:
– DCG reporting arrangements,
– Schedule DCG and related audit issues,
– Schedule MEP and related reporting requirements regarding MEPs,
– financial statement improvements to the Schedule H and Schedules of Assets, changes in participant counting methodology for determining eligibility for small plan reporting purposes.
Some issues, so the regulators, were deferred so as to allow more time for more public input. The final Federal Register publication also contains various appendices to provide more detailed explanations and illustration of the changes.