IRS wrongly sent late-filing notices for Form 8955-SSA

The Internal Revenue Service mistakenly sent out late notices to retirement plan sponsors due to a programming glitch.

The problem involved Form 8955-A, "Annual Registration Statement Identifying Separated Participants With Deferred Vested Benefits." The American Retirement Association contacted the IRS last week to report that many of its members were receiving the late-filing notices from the IRS even though they had filed the forms. The problem appears to be due to the fact that many organizations were filing the forms through the Department of Labor's EFAST2 system, which is used for filing the Form 8500 Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan, ahead of the July 31 deadline.

Instead, the IRS was expecting to receive the Forms 8955-A through its Filing Information Returns Electronically (FIRE) system, according to the American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries. The IRS fixed the programming problems last week and plans to send out a newsletter article explaining what happened.

"As a result of a programming issue in the IRS system that receives Forms 8955-SSA, the IRS sent out CP 283-C penalty notices to plan sponsors who timely filed complete 2022 Forms 8955-SSA," an IRS spokesperson told Accounting Today. "The programming issue has now been resolved and IRS is working on a newsletter article to notify the public of the issue and what to do with the notices."

Natalia Bratslavsky/Adobe

On Friday afternoon, the IRS sent out a newsletter confirming that plan sponsors that filed timely and complete Forms 8955-SSA don't need to respond to penalty notices dated before Sept. 1, 2023, echoing the comments from the IRS spokesperson. 

"As a result of a programming issue in the IRS system that receives Forms 8955-SSA, the IRS sent out CP 283-C penalty notices to plan sponsors who timely filed complete 2022 Forms 8955-SSA," said the IRS. "The notices indicate a late or incomplete filing of Form 8955-SSA. Plan sponsors that timely filed a complete return do not need to respond to penalty notices dated prior to Sept. 1, 2023. The IRS has resolved the programming issue and is updating its records to reflect the timely and complete filings. If you have any questions, contact the IRS at 877-829-5500."

The IRS also reminded plan sponsors that Form 8955-SSA must be filed with the IRS, not with the Department of Labor through the EFAST2 system. If a Form 8955-SSA is filed in EFAST2, it will not be treated as timely filed by the IRS. Visit IRS.gov/5500corner for more information on filing Form 5500 series returns and Form 8955-SSA.