Form 5500: Who Files, Which Version, and When
Form 5500 for small employers: who must file, choosing between 5500, 5500-SF and 5500-EZ, the participant count that triggers an audit, and the penalties.
The first time somebody asked whether we had filed our Form 5500, I had to look up what it was. We had a 401(k), we had a recordkeeper, and I had quietly assumed that the recordkeeper handled everything with a form number attached to it.
That assumption is a common reason small employers end up with a delinquent filing. The provider usually prepares the report. The employer is the one legally on the hook for filing it, and the daily penalty for not doing so is measured in thousands of dollars rather than hundreds.
This guide walks through who actually has to file, how to tell which of the three versions applies to you, the participant number that decides whether you owe an accountant audit, the deadline and the extension, and what happens if you have already missed one.
I build the people and records tooling for businesses without an HR department at FirstHR, and FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform rather than a plan recordkeeper or a filing service. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.
What Form 5500 Is
Form 5500 is the annual report an employee benefit plan files to satisfy the reporting requirements of ERISA (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act) and the Internal Revenue Code. It is a joint form: the Department of Labor, the IRS, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation all use the same submission.
One point that surprises employers: the filing is public. Anybody can search accepted Form 5500 and 5500-SF reports by employer name and read your participant counts, your asset totals and what you pay your providers. One-participant filings are the exception and are never published online. That transparency is deliberate, and it is why the duty exists under ERISA.
The Department of Labor publishes the forms, instructions and filing system for each plan year (Employee Benefits Security Administration), and the IRS maintains its own guidance for the same form (Internal Revenue Service).
Who Has to File
Retirement plans covered by ERISA file every year regardless of size, with IRA-based arrangements the one large exception. Health and welfare plans file only when they reach one hundred participants or when they hold assets in a trust, so many small employers file for their 401(k) and file nothing for their medical plan.
Some plans outside ERISA do not file at all. Governmental plans, church plans that have not elected coverage, and arrangements maintained solely to comply with state workers compensation or disability law sit outside the requirement entirely. So does a payroll practice such as paying wages during a short absence, because it never becomes a plan.
SEP (simplified employee pension) and SIMPLE IRA arrangements are the exception that matters most to small employers. Neither files a Form 5500: SEPs use the alternative compliance method at 29 CFR 2520.104-48 and 2520.104-49, and for a SIMPLE IRA the financial institution handles the reporting. If that is your retirement benefit, there is no annual report to miss.
The one-participant case is its own category. If the plan covers only the business owner, or an owner and spouse, with no other eligible employees, it uses Form 5500-EZ.
The one-participant form is required only once total assets across all such plans you sponsor exceed $250,000 at the end of the plan year (Form 5500-EZ instructions). A final report is required for the year the plan terminates whatever the balance.
Which Version You File
Three versions exist and the plan picks one for you. Most small business retirement plans land on Form 5500-SF, the short form, which is why the term form 5500 for 401k coverage usually describes a filing far shorter than the name suggests.
The filing data bears that out. According to the Department of Labor Private Pension Plan Bulletin (January 2026, covering 2023 filings), about 714,000 of roughly 837,000 private pension plans filed the short form, a count that leaves out one-participant plans.
Eligibility for the short form is narrower than the participant count alone. Under the instructions for the short form, a plan also has to meet further conditions. Among them, it must be free of employer securities, such as company stock, hold only assets whose fair value is readily determinable, and be eligible for the small plan audit waiver.
The plan also cannot be a multiemployer plan or a pooled employer plan, and it cannot be required to file a Form M-1, the report for multiple employer welfare arrangements. Miss any one of the conditions and the long form applies even to a very small plan.
How Participants Get Counted
For a defined contribution retirement plan, you count participants with account balances at the beginning of the plan year. That method applies to plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2023 (Employee Benefits Security Administration), and it replaced a rule that counted everybody eligible to participate whether or not they had ever contributed anything.
| Plan type | Who counts | Measured when |
|---|---|---|
| Defined contribution retirement plan | Participants with an account balance | First day of the plan year |
| Defined benefit plan | Participants covered under the plan, including certain former employees | First day of the plan year |
| Health and welfare plan | Covered employees and covered former employees, including those on continuation coverage | First day of the plan year |
| Covered spouses and children | Not counted as separate participants | Not applicable |
| Eligible employees who never enrolled | Excluded for a defined contribution plan under the current method | Not applicable |
The new method is one of the most useful pieces of relief small employers have received on this question. A business with a long roster of eligible employees who never enrolled used to cross the threshold on eligibility alone and inherit an audit it could barely afford. Counting funded accounts moves many of those plans back below the line.
Counting balances also means the number moves with participation rather than headcount. A plan with automatic enrollment gives a balance to every eligible employee who does not opt out, and plans that push hard on sign-ups through benefits enrollment can approach the threshold faster than expected. That is a good problem, but it is a budget item.
When an Audit Becomes Required
A retirement plan at or above one hundred participants on the first day of the plan year is a large plan, files the long form, and attaches a report from an independent qualified public accountant. Below that count the plan is a small plan and generally qualifies for a waiver of the audit requirement.
The waiver is conditional rather than automatic. At least ninety-five percent of plan assets must be qualifying plan assets, broadly those held by regulated institutions such as banks, insurers, broker dealers, and registered investment companies, plus participant loans. Where less than that share qualifies, the person handling the remaining assets must be bonded for at least their value (29 CFR 2520.104-46).
Disclosure conditions come with the waiver, most of them inside the Summary Annual Report, the yearly summary sent to participants. That report has to name each institution holding qualifying assets and their year end value, and name the surety company where a bond is required.
The report must also tell participants that they may request the institution statements and evidence of any bond at no charge, and that they should contact the regional office of the Employee Benefits Security Administration if they cannot get those documents. The administrator must hand them over free when asked. Skip any of these disclosures and the waiver does not hold.
Health and Welfare Plans
A welfare plan files when it covers at least one hundred participants at the beginning of the plan year, or when it is funded through a trust regardless of size. Otherwise a small welfare plan that is unfunded, fully insured, or a combination of the two is exempt from the annual report.
That exemption is the reason many small employers with medical, dental and life coverage have never filed anything for those benefits. Premiums are paid from the general assets of the business, benefits come exclusively through insurance contracts, and the plan sits under the limited exemption at 29 CFR 2520.104-20.
The filing numbers show how far that exemption reaches. According to a Department of Labor fact sheet (February 2023), only about 63,000 of an estimated 2.5 million health plans covered by ERISA filed a Form 5500 for 2020.
| Welfare plan situation | Annual report required? |
|---|---|
| Fewer than 100 participants, fully insured, premiums from general assets | No, exempt |
| Fewer than 100 participants, benefits paid from general assets, unfunded | No, exempt |
| Fewer than 100 participants, assets held in a trust | Yes |
| 100 or more participants at the start of the plan year | Yes |
| Health flexible spending arrangement funded by salary reduction | Treated as a welfare plan; count participants and apply the same test |
| Plan subject to the Form M-1 requirement | Yes, the small plan exemption does not apply |
Two practical traps sit inside that table. A trust converts an exempt plan into a filing plan instantly, and a health flexible spending arrangement is a welfare plan in its own right even though nobody thinks of it that way. Both are worth checking against your benefits administration setup once a year rather than once.
The Deadline and the Extension
The report is due the last day of the seventh month after the plan year ends, which is July 31 for a calendar year plan. Filing IRS Form 5558 on or before that date grants an automatic extension of two and a half months, moving the deadline to October 15 (26 CFR 1.6081-11).
| Obligation | Calendar year plan date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Form 5500 or 5500-SF original due date | July 31 | Last day of the seventh month after the plan year ends; a weekend or federal holiday moves it to the next business day |
| Form 5558 extension application | On or before July 31 | Automatic when timely; nothing to approve |
| Extended filing deadline | October 15 | Two and a half months beyond the original date |
| Summary Annual Report, no extension | September 30 | Within nine months of the plan year end |
| Summary Annual Report, extended filing | December 15 | Within two months after the extension period closes |
The extension is automatic only if the application is timely. A Form 5558 filed even one day after the due date achieves nothing, which is a harsh outcome for such a small slip and a good reason to file the extension early whenever the financial information looks like it might be slow.
The Summary Annual Report is a separate obligation that employers routinely forget because it is not a filing. It is a participant disclosure, it sits alongside your summary plan description duties, and it is due whether or not anybody asks for it.
The Summary Annual Report for a 401(k)
The Summary Annual Report is the participant-facing half of what you just filed: a short financial account of the plan that goes to every participant and to every beneficiary receiving benefits. The format is prescribed by 29 CFR 2520.104b-10, and furnishing it is a duty in its own right rather than a courtesy you can skip in a quiet year.
The content is set for you. It carries a basic financial statement showing the value of plan assets, contributions and investment earnings, total expenses split between administrative costs and benefits paid, and the number of participants. It closes by telling people they can request the full annual report, what copies cost, and where to ask.
Two exemptions are worth knowing about. A totally unfunded welfare plan owes no summary at all, and a defined benefit plan covered by Title IV of ERISA sends participants an annual funding notice in its place. A 401(k) covering employees falls outside both, so the year is not finished until the summary has gone out.
How the Filing Actually Happens
Forms 5500 and 5500-SF are filed electronically through the Department of Labor filing system, using either approved third party software or the government online tool. There is no paper option for either form.
One-participant plans work slightly differently. Form 5500-EZ may be filed electronically through the same system. Paper filing is available only to sponsors outside the IRS electronic filing mandate, which applies once you file at least ten returns of any type during the relevant calendar year.
Dwight SchruteSales3 people
Darryl PhilbinWarehouse1 person
Kelly KapoorCustomer Service1 personWhat Missing It Costs
Two agencies assess separate penalties for the same failure and they stack. The Department of Labor amount is per day with no ceiling, which is what makes an old missed filing so dangerous.
The two amounts move on different tracks. According to the Department of Labor civil penalty adjustment for 2025, the annual report figure is indexed to inflation rather than fixed in statute, and the adjustment published in January 2025 is what carried it to $2,739. The IRS amount in section 6652(e) of the Internal Revenue Code is statutory instead, so only Congress changes it.
The annual report penalty did not rise for 2026. According to the Department of Labor notification for 2026, the adjustment was skipped because the October 2025 consumer price data the formula depends on was not published, so $2,739 still applies.
Neither penalty depends on the plan having lost money or on anybody being harmed. The failure is the missing report, and the daily clock keeps running until the report arrives or the agency assesses. A plan that quietly skipped a filing four years ago is theoretically carrying a seven figure exposure on the Department of Labor side alone.
In practice the agencies do not sweep small plans at random, but a plan that stops filing does get noticed. According to the Department of Labor reporting compliance enforcement manual, database queries flag plans that filed in a prior year but not in the current one.
Plans that never filed, the same manual notes, have historically come in mostly as referrals from enforcement staff inside the Department of Labor or from the IRS. The other realistic triggers are a participant complaint, a plan audit, or the moment somebody in due diligence searches your filing history during a financing round. That is exactly when the number is least convenient.
Fixing a Late Filing
If you have missed a filing and the Department of Labor has not written to you yet, the Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program is the answer and it is inexpensive. The penalty drops to $10 per day with hard caps that make even several missed years affordable.
| Situation | Cap per report | Cap per plan |
|---|---|---|
| Small plan, one or more delinquent reports | $750 | $1,500 for a submission covering any number of years |
| Large plan, one or more delinquent reports | $2,000 | $4,000 for a submission covering any number of years |
| One-participant plan | Not eligible for the Department of Labor program | Use the IRS relief program instead |
| After the Department of Labor sends a notice of failure to file | Program unavailable | Full penalties apply |
The sequence matters. File the delinquent reports electronically first and mark them as program submissions, then pay the fee through the separate program channel (Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program).
The IRS penalty comes off the table on a separate track, and that is the second half of the value. The Internal Revenue Service generally waives its own late filing penalty for a plan that satisfies the program requirements and sends the agency any Form 8955-SSA still owed for those years.
One-participant plans use the IRS program for late filers of the one-participant form instead: a flat $500 per delinquent return, capped at $1,500 per submission for the same plan, and filed on paper because electronically filed delinquent returns are not eligible. Same logic, different door.
Where Small Employers Get It Wrong
Five patterns show up again and again, and the first is the one to rule out before anything else.
Assuming the recordkeeper files it is the big one. The provider prepares the report and often prepares it beautifully. The plan administrator, which for a small business is usually the employer, is the party that must file and sign.
Filing for the retirement plan and forgetting the welfare plan is second. Once a medical plan crosses the participant threshold or acquires a trust, it owes its own report, and nobody sends a reminder.
Using the old participant counting method is third. Counting everybody eligible rather than everybody with a balance pushes a plan into large plan territory and buys an audit that was never required.
Treating Form 5558 as a formality is fourth. It is automatic only when timely, and there is no relief for filing the extension application a day late.
Waiting to see whether anybody notices a missed year is last, and it is the most expensive instinct on the list given the difference between $750 and a daily penalty with no ceiling.
Nick Anisimov, FirstHR founderThe worksheet below is what that calendar entry opens. One page per plan per year, filled in from the top: identification, the count, the version the count dictates, the audit answer, the dates, and who signs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who has to file a Form 5500?
Nearly every retirement plan that ERISA covers has to report each year, whatever its size. That includes a 401(k), a profit sharing plan, and a defined benefit plan. The main exceptions are SEP and SIMPLE IRA arrangements, which file nothing. A health or other welfare plan reports only if it has at least one hundred participants on the first day of the plan year or if its assets sit in a trust. Under the Department of Labor small plan rule, a smaller welfare plan is exempt when its benefits come from the employer’s general assets, from insurance contracts, or from both. Governmental plans and church plans that have not elected coverage are outside ERISA and do not file. A solo owner plan files the one-participant version once its assets pass the threshold.
What is the difference between Form 5500, 5500-SF and 5500-EZ?
They are three versions of the same annual report for three different situations. Form 5500 is the full report, used by large plans and by small plans that cannot meet the short form conditions, and it carries the schedules and any required accountant report. Form 5500-SF is the short form for eligible small plans, with fewer questions and no audit attachment. Form 5500-EZ covers one-participant plans, meaning a business owner or an owner and spouse with no other eligible employees, and is only required once total one-participant plan assets exceed $250,000 at the end of the plan year. You do not choose between them by preference; the plan type and participant count decide.
When is Form 5500 due?
A Form 5500 is due on the final day of the seventh month counted from the end of the plan year. For a calendar year plan with a December 31 year end, that puts the due date at July 31. To get more time, file IRS Form 5558 on or before that original date. The extension is automatic as long as the application is timely, so nobody has to approve it. It adds two and a half months and moves a calendar year deadline to October 15, but an application filed after the original date does nothing. The Summary Annual Report that goes to participants follows its own clock: generally nine months after the plan year ends, or two months after an extension period closes.
Does a small 401(k) plan need an audit?
Generally no, and the rule changed in a way that helped small employers. Starting with plan years that begin on or after January 1, 2023, a defined contribution plan counts only the people who hold an account balance on the plan year’s first day, not everyone who is merely eligible. A plan that reaches one hundred participants on that count is a large plan, so it files the long form with an independent qualified public accountant report attached. A plan under it is small and generally qualifies for the audit waiver. The waiver has conditions: at least ninety-five percent of plan assets must be qualifying plan assets, or whoever handles the other assets must be bonded, and the Summary Annual Report must carry specific disclosures.
What is the penalty for not filing a Form 5500?
Two penalties apply and they add together: up to $2,739 per day from the Department of Labor, plus $250 per day capped at $150,000 per return from the IRS. The Department of Labor amount runs from the original due date with no statutory maximum, and the 2026 inflation adjustment was skipped, so $2,739 still holds. The IRS amount comes from section 6652(e) of the Internal Revenue Code, as amended by the SECURE Act for returns due after 2019. Because the Department of Labor count keeps going until the report is filed or the agency assesses, a filing missed several years ago can produce a number larger than the plan itself.
How do you fix a late Form 5500?
Use the Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program, as long as the Department of Labor has not contacted you yet. It lowers the penalty to $10 per day with caps. A small plan pays at most $750 for a single late report and $1,500 in total however many years are submitted together, while a large plan pays at most $2,000 per report and $4,000 for the whole submission. The order matters: file the delinquent reports electronically and mark them as program submissions, then send the fee separately. The IRS generally waives its own late filing penalty once the program requirements are met and any Form 8955-SSA still owed has reached the agency. One-participant plans cannot use the program and turn to the IRS late filer relief program for Form 5500-EZ, which costs $500 per return, up to $1,500.
Do health insurance plans have to file a Form 5500?
Only some of them. A health plan has to file if it covers one hundred or more participants on the first day of the plan year, and a plan funded through a trust files whatever its size. A smaller plan falls under the Department of Labor limited exemption for small welfare plans and owes no annual report when the employer pays benefits from general assets, buys insurance contracts to cover them, or does a mix of both. When counting participants, include covered employees and covered former employees, such as a former employee on continuation coverage. Covered dependents do not count. Some employers use a wrap document so several benefits file as a single plan rather than several.
Who actually prepares and signs the Form 5500?
The plan administrator is legally responsible, and for a small business the plan administrator is usually the employer itself rather than an outside firm. In practice your recordkeeper or third party administrator drafts the report and the financial information, and somebody at the company signs it electronically using credentials registered with the Department of Labor filing system. That division of work causes the most common failure mode: the employer assumes the provider files it, the provider assumes the employer will sign it, and the report sits complete and unfiled while the daily penalty clock runs.
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