On July 31, 2015, President Obama signed the "Surface
Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of
2015" (P.L. 114-41) (the "Act"). The Act primarily
served to extend the Highway Trust Fund and various related
measures, but it also included a number of unrelated provisions,
one of which was a revision in the rules relating to extensions for
filing Forms 5500. (There were also changes made to the due dates
of various other tax returns, but those changes are beyond the
scope of this Alert; you may contact the author if you would like
additional information regarding those changes as well.)
Currently, employee benefit plans are required to file an Annual
Return/Report on Form 5500 – or its related short form, the
Form 5500-SF – within seven months after the end of a plan
year (July 31 for calendar-year plans). An automatic extension is
available, upon timely request, for up to another two and one-half
months (October 15 for the calendar-year plan).
