REPORTING TO IRS BY FRINGE BENEFIT PLANS
Prepared by: Debra L. Mackey
Johnston Barton Proctor & Powell LLP
Birmingham, AL
Under Notice 2002-24, the IRS has indefinitely suspended the Code § 6039D filing requirement imposed on certain fringe benefit plans. Cafeteria plans, educational assistance plans, and adoption assistance plans had been required by Code § 6039D to file Schedule F (Form 5500), Fringe Benefit Plan Annual Information Returns, for each plan year. (The Code § 6039D filing requirement was previously suspended under Notice 90-24 for other fringe benefit plans.) Because Schedule F is an attachment to Form 5500, compliance with Code § 6039D required the filing of a completed Form 5500 along with Schedule F.
The suspension is effective immediately and applies to all plan years, i.e. current and prior, for which Schedule F (Form 5500) has not been filed. While the suspension applies only to the IRS filing requirement, a Form 5500 should not be required under ERISA as the plans subject to Code § 6039D are not ordinarily “employee benefit plans” under ERISA.
Effectively, the suspension means that Schedule F and Form 5500 need not be filed on these plans, and, if a prior year’s filing is delinquent, that year’s Schedule F and Form 5500 need not be filed either. Plan sponsors are further instructed not to seek relief from the IRS or the DOL with respect to a past failure to file as the suspension provides automatic relief from filing.