Posted by Stacey Snyder
When the Department of Labor (DOL) made filing changes for Form 5500, it resulted in the revision of Form 8955-SSA. The revision also required that the form must now be filed with the IRS.
The IRS took that requirement as an opportunity to revise the Form 5558, Application for Extension of Time To File Certain Employee Plan Returns. The new extension form allows users to file an extension for three forms at the same time. The forms are Form 5500, Form 5330, and the recently revised Form 8955-SSA. By filing Form 5558, the plan receives a 2 ½ month extension for the filing of Forms 5500, 5330 and 8955-SSA.
Another change to Form 5558 that may cause some confusion among users is that only one plan may now be listed on an extension. This means that plan administrators/sponsors must now file multiple Forms 5558 for a year if it is seeking to extend the relevant due dates for more than one plan.
When mailing extensions for multiple plans, it is probably a good idea to send each Form 5558 in a separate envelope. This is because there is a tendency for the IRS to miss multiple forms included in one envelope. If you do, insist on mailing them in one envelope, a cover letter should be included listing all of the plans for which you have enclosed a Form 5558. Also, the only time a signature is required when filing Form 5558 is when an extension is requested for a Form 5330.
