On December 4, 2015, President Obama signed the Fixing
America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act). In addition to
authorizing $305 billion in funding for federal highway projects,
the FAST Act also repeals the recently enacted extension to the
Form 5500 filing deadline included in the Surface Transportation
and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act (Surface
Transportation Act).
Background
Plan administrators generally must file a plan's Form 5500
by the last day of the seventh month after the plan year ends (July
31 for calendar year plans). Under prior law, a plan administrator
could obtain a one-time extension of this deadline for up to 2 1/2
months (October 15 for calendar year plans). On July 31, 2015,
President Obama signed the Surface Transportation Act, which, among
other things, increased the length of the automatic extension from
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 months for plan years beginning after December 31,
2015. The FAST Act repeals the automatic 3 1/2
