labor lawAdivision of labor law center

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration or EBSA is giving some employers a reprieve from filing annual reports and returns following Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

 

On September 22, 2008 the Employee Benefits Security Administration announced that employers in 29 Texas counties and 14 Louisiana parishes have until January 5 to file documents that are normally due between September 7, 2008 and January 4, 1009. These include Form 5500 and Form 5500 EZ annual reports and returns.

 

The extension applies to plan administrators, employers and others who normally file these reports. The extension applies to all employers in the affected areas identified by FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In Texas, that includes employers in Angelina, Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Cherokee, Fort Bend, Galveston, Grimes, Hardin, Harris, Houston, Jasper, Jefferson, Liberty, Madison, Matagorda, Montgomery, Nacogdoches, Newton, Orange, Polk, Sabine, San Augustine, San Jacinto, Trinity, Tyler, Walker, Waller and Washington counties.

 

In Louisiana, employers in Acadia, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, Iberia, Jefferson, Jefferson Davis, Lafourche, Plaquemines, Sabine, St. Mary, Terrebonne, Vermilion and Vernon parishes are covered by the extension.

 

In addition, employers outside the affected areas may be included in the extension when they are unable to obtain necessary information from service providers, banks or insurance companies whose operations were directly affected by the recent hurricanes and aftermath.

 

Filers should check Part I, Box D on the Form 5500 or Part I on Form 5500-EZ and attached a statement, as specified in the instructions. Employers with questions can contact the EFAST helpline at 866-463-3278 for more information.

 

Form 5500 is filed by more than one million pension and employee benefit plan administrators each year. Along with the abbreviated Form 5500-EZ, the form satisfies the annual reporting requirements for employee benefit plans under federal regulations and the Internal Revenue Code.

 

The Department of Labor, Internal Revenue Service and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation created the EFAST system to streamline the forms and the methods by which they are filed and processed.

 

 

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