File Form 5500-SF online
The short annual return for a small plan — fewer than 100 participants, eligible assets, and no audit requirement.
$99 per filing, paid by card when it goes. Preparing and checking it is free. All prices
The essentials
Who files it
A pension or welfare plan with fewer than 100 participants at the start of the plan year, holding eligible assets and meeting the audit-waiver conditions.
When it is due
The last day of the 7th month after the plan year ends, extended to 15 October for a calendar-year plan by filing Form 5558.
Who cannot use it
A plan with 100 or more participants files the full Form 5500. A defined benefit plan must also file Schedule SB, signed by an enrolled actuary.
What it asks
Plan and employer details, participants, assets, income and expenses, compliance questions, and 401(k) testing.
How filing it here works
- Type an EIN and we fill in what DOL's public record already holds about the plan.
- Income, expenses, net income and net assets are added up from your answers rather than asked for.
- Compliance questions are paired with their amounts, so a yes without a figure never reaches EFAST2.
- Sign with your own EFAST2 credentials, and follow the filing through to its acknowledgement.
This page explains the form in general terms. It is not tax or legal advice, and the plan administrator remains responsible for what is filed.
Questions
What is the difference between Form 5500 and Form 5500-SF?
Form 5500-SF is the short form. A plan may use it only if it covered fewer than 100 participants at the start of the plan year, is exempt from the independent audit (other than through enhanced bonding), has all its assets in secure investments with a readily determinable fair market value, holds no employer securities, and is not a multiemployer plan, a pooled employer plan or a plan that must file Form M-1. Every other plan that must file uses the full Form 5500.
What is the 80–120 participant rule?
If the plan had between 80 and 120 participants at the start of the plan year and filed a return for the prior year, it may file in the same category as last year. A plan that filed as a small plan can keep filing Form 5500-SF while it stays within that range.
Must Form 5500-SF be filed electronically?
Yes. The Department of Labor requires every Form 5500-SF to be filed electronically through EFAST2, using approved software such as ours or the government's own IFILE.
Does a defined benefit plan file anything with it?
Yes: Schedule SB, signed by an enrolled actuary. It is included in the Form 5500-SF price here, and a PBGC-covered plan also owes its PBGC premium filing, which you can prepare from the same plan record.
Can I file a late Form 5500-SF?
Yes. A late return for a plan covered by Title I of ERISA can be filed under the Department of Labor's Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance (DFVC) program, which lowers the civil penalty. We tick the DFVC box the program requires; the program's own payment is made to the Department, not to us.
Who signs Form 5500-SF?
The plan administrator must sign it electronically in EFAST2, using their own EFAST2 signer credentials. An unsigned filing is subject to rejection and civil penalties. You can invite the signer by link.
Official sources
- DOL: Form 5500 series
- DOL: EFAST2 filing system
- DOL: Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program
- IRS: Form 5500 Corner
Rules change. These are the government pages the answers above come from.
Work out your dates with the due date calculator.