Labor Department Releases 2002 Form 5500s

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Washington, DC - The U.S. Department of Labor’s Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration (PWBA), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) today announced the release of information copies of the Form 5500 return/reports to be used by employee benefit plans for plan year 2002 filings.
The Form 5500 and Form 5500-EZ for plan year 2002 are essentially unchanged from 2001. Certain modifications have been made to reflect changes in the law or regulations, to improve forms processing and to clarify the instructions. Modifications include, among other things:

• Redesign of the signature areas on the Form 5500, Form 5500-EZ, and Schedules B, P, and SSA to highlight where to sign the forms;
• Addition of several new principal business activity codes for Form 5500, line 2d, and several new plan characteristics codes for lines 8a and 8b;
• Removal of lines 8c and 10c of Form 5500 and Schedule F as a result of IRS Notice 2002-24 that suspended the filing requirements for fringe benefit plans;
• Elimination of several lines from Schedules B and R due to the phasing out of certain rules under Internal Revenue Code section 412(l) and ERISA section 302(d);
• Addition of lines 16a through 16c and 17a through 17e to Schedule E concerning ESOPs maintained by S Corporations;
• Modification of Schedules H and I line 4a to highlight PWBA’s Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (VFCP) and Prohibited Transaction Exemption (PTE) 2002-51; and
• Advising Schedule SSA filers who need to report more separated participants than Schedule SSA (page 2) allows that the Social Security Administration requires that filers use additional Schedule SSA (page 2s) as attachments.

Information copies of the forms, schedules and Form 5500 instructions are available on PWBA’s Web site at www.efast.dol.gov . The official hand-print forms will be available in the near future by calling 1.800.TAX-FORM. Filers should monitor the EFAST web site for information on vendors with software approved for completing Forms 5500 by computer and for information on electronic filing options. Filers may contact the EFAST Help Line for general assistance by calling 1.866.463.3278.

U.S. Department of Labor news releases are accessible on the Internet. The information in this news release will be made available in alternate format upon request (large print, Braille, audio tape or disc) from the Central Office for Assistive Services and Technology. Please specify which news release when placing your request. Call 202.693.7773 or TTY 202.693.7755.

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Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.