EBSA Press Release: Labor Department, IRS Extended Filing Time for Annual Reports Due to Severe Weather in Minnesota, Dakotas [05/20/1997]

For more information call: 202-219-8921
 

The U.S. Department of Labor's Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration and the Internal Revenue Service today announced an extension for filing annual returns/reports due to the severe weather and flooding in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

The extension applies to counties in the three states that have been designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as federal disaster areas. Those who qualify for an extension include employee benefit plans in those counties as well as banks, insurance companies and certain investment entities in the disaster areas that file reports directly with the Labor Department.

The extension also applies in cases where administrators of plans located outside the disaster areas are unable to obtain the information necessary for filing from service providers, banks or insurance companies whose operations are located in the disaster areas.

The following rules apply in the case of pension and other employee benefit plan annual returns/reports (Forms 5500 Series)required to be filed on or after April 15, 1997.

The agencies will consider filers affected by the disaster as having reasonable cause for late filing, and will therefore not impose any late filing penalties if the relevant returns/reports are filed by June 30, 1997.

To qualify for the extension, returns/reports must be marked in red, bold print "97 Floods" on the top center of the first page. The return/report of an employee benefit plan not located within a designated disaster area must include an attachment identifying the plan's service provider affected by the severe weather or floods and the county in which the service provider is located.