2016 Form 5500 – IRS Says Do Not Answer these Questions

Late last year, the U.S. Department of Labor released the 2015 Form 5500.  This new form included proposed compliance questions that were not approved by the Office of Management and Budget when the 2015 Form 5500 was published on December 7, 2015.  At the time, the IRS had stated that these proposed questions would be optional on the 2015 filing.  In February of this year, the IRS decided that plan sponsors should NOT complete certain questions for the 2015 plan year.  Now the IRS has updated this list to include questions that should not be answered on the 2016 Form 5500 as well.  The questions to skip are included below.

• Form 5500
  Preparer Information (page 1 bottom)
• Schedule H
  • 2015 plan year: Lines 4o-p, 6a-d
  • 2016 plan year: Lines 4o, 6a-d
• Schedule I
  • 2015 plan year: Lines 4o-p, 6a-d
  • 2016 plan year: Lines 4o, 6a-d
• Schedule R
  • 2015 plan year: New Part VII (Lines 20a-c, 21a-b, 22a-d, and 23)
  • 2016 plan year: Part VII (Lines 20a-b, 21a-b, and 22a-b)
• Form 5500-SF
  • 2015 plan year: Preparer Information (page 1 bottom), Lines 10j, 14a-d, and New Part IX  (Lines 15a-c, 16a-b, 17a-d, 18, 19, and 20)
  • 2016 plan year: Preparer Information (page 1 bottom), Lines 14a-d, and Part IX
    (Lines 15a-b, 16a-b, 17a-b, 18, and 19)
• Form 5500-EZ
  • 2015 plan year: Preparer Information (page 2 bottom), Lines 4a-d, 13a-d, 14, 15, and 16
  • 2016 plan year: Preparer Information (page 2 bottom), Lines 4a-d, 13a-b, 14, and 15

Additional information regarding the Form 5500 is available in the Health & Welfare or 401(k) sections of Compliancedashboard.  The 2016 Form 5500 has not yet been released by the IRS.  The IRS maintains a listing of Form 5500s for both past and current versions on their website.