Author, Ryan Gorman, Atlanta, +1 404 572 4609, rgorman@kslaw.com
Employers and plan sponsors must comply with numerous filing and notice deadlines for their retirement and health and welfare plans. Failure to comply with these deadlines can result in costly penalties and excise taxes. To avoid such penalties and excise taxes, employers must remain informed with respect to the filing and notice deadlines associated with their plans.
The filing and notice deadline table below provides key filing and notice deadlines common to calendar year plans for the next two months. Please note that the deadlines will be different if your plan year is not the calendar year. Please also note that the table does not include all applicable filing and notice deadlines, just the most common ones. King & Spalding is happy to assist you with any questions you may have regarding compliance with the filing and notice requirements for your employee benefit plans.
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Deadline
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Item
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Action
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Affected Plans
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January 31
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IRS Form 945
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Deadline for employer to file IRS Form 945 to report income tax withheld from qualified plan distributions made during the prior plan year. However, the deadline may be extended to February 11 if taxes were timely deposited during the prior plan year.
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Qualified Retirement Plans*
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IRS Form 1099-R
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Deadline for employer to distribute IRS Form 1099-R to participants and beneficiaries who received a distribution (including a direct rollover) during the prior plan year. This includes a direct rollover from a Qualified Retirement Plan.
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Qualified Retirement Plans
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IRS Form W-2
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Deadline for employers to distribute Form W-2, which must reflect aggregate value of employer-provided benefits (e.g., imputed income for group-term life insurance, employer Health Savings Account Contributions, etc.) for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2012 (i.e., the first W-2 affected will be the W-2 issued in January 2013).
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Health and Welfare Plans
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Cycle B Determination Letter Applications
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Deadline for employers having Taxpayer Identification Numbers ending in 2 or 7 to apply for an IRS determination letter with respect to their Qualified Retirement Plans.
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Qualified Retirement Plans
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February 14 (within 45 days after the close of the fourth quarter of previous plan year)
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Quarterly Benefit Statements for Participant-Directed Plans
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Deadline for plan administrator to send quarterly benefit statement for the fourth quarter of previous plan year to participants in participant-directed defined contribution plans.
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Defined Contribution Plans that allow participants to direct investments
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Quarterly Fee Disclosure
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Deadline for plan administrator to disclose fees and administrative expenses deducted from participant accounts during the fourth quarter of the previous plan year. Note that the quarterly fee disclosure may be included in the quarterly benefit statement or as a stand-alone document.
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February 28 (if filing paper forms)
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IRS Form 1099-R
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Deadline for employer to file IRS Form 1099-R. If the form is filed electronically, the deadline can be extended until April 1.
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Qualified Retirement Plans
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February 28 (end of the 2nd month of the plan year)
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Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) Form 1-ES
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Deadline for plan administrator with 500 or more participants on the last day of the plan year preceding the PBGC premium payment to file Form 1-ES and pay an amount equal to at least 90% of the flat rate premium paid in the prior plan year.
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Defined Benefit Plans
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March 1
(60 days after the beginning of the plan year)
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Medicare Part D Creditable Coverage Disclosure
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Deadline for employers that provide prescription drug coverage to Medicare Part D eligible individuals to disclose to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) whether the coverage is “creditable prescription drug coverage” by completing the Online Disclosure to CMS Form at https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Prescription-Drug-Coverage/CreditableCoverage/CCDisclosureForm.html.
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Health and Welfare Plans that provide prescription drug coverage to Medicare Part D eligible individuals
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March 15
(2 ½ months after the plan year)
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Excess Contributions
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Deadline for plan administrator to distribute any excess contributions and earnings from the prior year to avoid 10% excise tax on employer (other than eligible automatic contribution arrangements (EACAs)).
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401(k) Plans Other Than EACAs
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March 31
(last day of 3rd month following the end of the prior plan year)
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Certification of Adjusted Funding Target Attainment Percentage (AFTAP)
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Deadline for actuary to certify AFTAP to avoid presumption that AFTAP is 10 points less than prior year AFTAP.
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Defined Benefit Plans
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See §902 of the Relief Act.
IRS guidance on the prior “in-plan” Roth conversion limited conversions to the vested portion of the account. See IRS Notice 2010-84. We assume that the IRS will issue similar guidance for the expanded Roth conversions made available under the Relief Act, but that remains to be seen.
See §101 of the Relief Act.
See §203 of the Relief Act.
Note that excess income tax withholding cannot be reimbursed or repaid to the employee. See IRS Notice 2013-8.
See §101 of the Relief Act.
See §208 of the Relief Act.
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. The Business Conduct Standards were adopted in January 2012 by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
U.S. Department of Labor.
* Qualified Retirement Plans include all defined benefit and defined contribution plans that are intended to satisfy Code §401(a).
