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Release Date: November 16, 2007
Release Number: 07-1767-NAT
Contact Name: Gloria Della/Richard Manning
Phone Number: 202.693.8664/202.693.4676
Washington – The U.S. Department of
Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), the Internal
Revenue Service and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) today
announced the publication of revisions to the Form 5500 annual
return/report for plan year 2009, including a deferral for one year of
the move to the wholly electronic filing system.
Plans and service providers now will have additional
time to comply with changes to the 2009 Form 5500 and the change to the
wholly electronic filing system. Plans and service providers will not be
required to comply with these changes until the due date for the
plan’s 2009 Form 5500.
The revised Form 5500 annual report will be the
primary source of information about the operations, funding and
investments of about 800,000 pension and welfare benefit plans. The
department estimates that the form revisions and move to electronic
filing together will save plans up to about $100 million per year.
“Today’s action completes the first component of
our fee transparency initiative for employee benefit plans,” said
Bradford P. Campbell, assistant secretary of labor for EBSA. “The
expanded reporting of compensation received by service providers will
make it easier for plan officials to understand and monitor investment
fees charged to plan accounts and revenue sharing arrangements that
compensate brokers, pension consultants and other investment service
providers.”
Other highlights of the changes include:
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A new simplified annual reporting
form for small plans with secure, easy to value investments with
regulated financial institutions. The Labor Department estimates
that approximately 594,000 of the 629,000 small plans required to
file an annual report will be eligible to use the new Form 5500-SF
or short form.
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Improved financial disclosure by
the approximately 16,000 tax sheltered 403(b) annuity plans subject
to Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by making
the reporting rules for those 403(b) plans on par with 401(k) plans.
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Incorporating various technical
improvements and clarifications to the form and instructions in
response to public comments.
The forms also include annual reporting changes
required by the Pension Protection Act (PPA) for defined benefit pension
plans and multiemployer plans. Because the PPA required those changes to
be implemented for the 2008 plan year, they will be included in the 2008
Form 5500 in a way that allows them to be filed in paper form under the
current EFAST form processing system.
The 2009 Form 5500 package will be published on
November 16 as two Federal Register notices – Notice of Adoption of
Revisions to Annual Return/Report Forms and Notice of Final Rulemaking.
Informational copies of the forms will be available on EBSA’s Web site
at www.dol.gov/ebsa.
U.S. Department of Labor news releases are accessible on the
Department's Newsroom
page. The information in this news release will be made available
in alternate format upon request (large print, Braille, audio tape or
disc) from the COAST office. Please specify which news release when
placing your request at 202.693.7828 or TTY 202.693.7755. The U.S.
Department of Labor is committed to providing America's employers and
employees with easy access to understandable information on how to comply
with its laws and regulations. For more information, please visit the
Department's Compliance
Assistance page.
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