Changes to 2023 Forms 5500 Issued

The Department of Labor (DOL), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) issued final forms and instructions revisions for the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan and Form 5500–SF Short Form Annual Return/Report of Small Employee Benefit Plan, for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2023.

Changes to Form 5500

The revisions relate to statutory amendments to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code enacted as part of the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (SECURE Act) for multiple-employer plans and groups of plans. They also include changes intended to (1) improve reporting of certain plan financial information regarding audits and plan expenses; and (2) enhance the reporting of certain tax qualification and other compliance information by retirement plans. There are also some minor changes that further improve defined benefit plan reporting by building on changes made to the forms for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2022. They also include technical changes that are part of the annual rollover of the Form 5500 and Form 5500-SF forms and instructions. The revisions finalized in this document affect employee pension and welfare benefit plans, plan sponsors, administrators, and service providers to plans subject to annual reporting requirements under ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code.

Changes also include: an additional non-discrimination and coverage test question for the 2023 Form 5500 and Form 5500-SF; not adding trust questions to the 2023 Form 5500 series return; and not adding questions that consider relative costs and benefits of annual reporting on those subjects to the 2023 Form 5500 and Form 5500-SF.