Behind on your Form 5500 or your ACA reporting? It can still be fixed.
Missed benefits filings are common, and almost all of them can be corrected. What decides the cost is rarely how late you are. It is who notices first — you or the agency. We can help you with the filing, including back years, even if you are out of compliance today.
The penalty depends on who finds the gap first.
The same missing filing can cost a few hundred dollars or several thousand a day. The difference is whether you correct it before you are contacted.
Before the Agency Writes
For a late Form 5500, the Department of Labor runs a voluntary correction program. It is open to any plan administrator who has not yet received a notice of intent to assess a penalty.
File the missing years, pay a capped amount, and the filing penalty is settled.
After It Writes
Once that notice arrives, the program is closed to that filing. The Department of Labor’s civil penalty for a missing annual report runs up to $2,739 a day, per plan, per year.
[2026 figure, unchanged from 2025]
ACA Reporting Has No Program
There is no voluntary correction program for Forms 1094-C and 1095-C. The IRS penalty per form steps up the longer a return stays missing.
So the cheapest day to file a late ACA return is the day you find it.
A missed 5500 comes with a price list. Use it.
The Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program swaps an open-ended daily penalty for a fixed schedule: $10 a day, capped.
Small Plans
Fewer than 100 participants at the start of the plan year: capped at $750 per late filing, and $1,500 per plan when several years are brought current together.
Large Plans
100 or more participants: capped at $2,000 per late filing, and $4,000 per plan when several years are brought current together.
How It Is Filed
Each missing year is filed electronically as a complete Form 5500 with its schedules, marked as a DFVC filing. The penalty is paid online; paper submissions are no longer accepted.
Check Whether It Was Owed
A fully insured or unfunded welfare plan with fewer than 100 participants at the start of the plan year is exempt from filing. Participants are covered employees plus COBRA and retiree enrollees, not dependents.
Some “late” filings turn out never to have been due.
Check Every Plan, Not Just Medical
Each ERISA welfare plan at 100 or more participants files, dental, vision, life and disability included, unless they are combined under one wrap plan document.
A review often finds the medical plan filed and the others never were.
What the Program Does Not Fix
It settles the filing penalty. It does not create the plan document or Summary Plan Description a filing assumes already exists.
If those are missing too, they get fixed in the same pass.
Late 1094-C and 1095-C forms cost more the longer they wait.
Who Has to File
Employers with 50 or more full-time and full-time-equivalent employees file Forms 1094-C and 1095-C. Smaller employers with a self-funded plan, level funded included, report their coverage on the B forms.
The Penalty Steps Up
Per form: $60 if corrected within 30 days, $130 through August 1, $340 after that or if never filed, and $680 for intentional disregard [2026 amounts].
Filing with the IRS and furnishing to the employee are separate failures, so one missing 1095-C can be two penalties.
An Unfiled Year Never Closes
For returns due from 2025 on, the IRS has six years to assess an employer mandate penalty, counted from the due date or the date the forms were actually filed, whichever is later. Earlier returns have no time limit at all.
Either way, a year that was never filed does not age out.
The Letters to Watch For
Letter 5699 asks why the IRS has no ACA return from you. Letter 226-J proposes an employer mandate penalty; the response window is at least 90 days for tax years from 2025 on, and 30 days for earlier years.
Neither is the moment to start gathering the data.
Reasonable Cause Still Counts
The IRS can reduce or remove information-return penalties when there were significant reasons for the failure and you acted responsibly before and after it. A penalty notice gives you 45 days to make that case.
It is built from records, not from memory.
Filing Late Is the Correction
With no program to enter, the fix is to file the missing returns accurately, furnish the employee statements, and document why they were late.
The order and the paper trail are what we manage.
Out of compliance is a starting point, not a disqualifier.
We can help you with the filing, including years that are already behind. The order matters more than the speed.
1. Find Out What Was Actually Owed
Plan by plan and year by year: participant counts at the start of each plan year, how each plan was funded, and whether you were an applicable large employer. That settles which filings were due before anything is filed.
2. Rebuild the Data
Enrollment, eligibility, offers of coverage and hours come back out of payroll and the benefits platform, carrier by carrier. This is the part that takes the time, and the part most late filings get wrong.
3. File, Oldest Year First
Missing 5500s go through the voluntary program, brought current together so the per-plan cap does its work. Missing ACA returns are filed and the employee statements furnished, with the reasons documented.
4. Keep It From Happening Again
Every filing date goes onto your compliance calendar, held by your account manager. When a question runs past what a licensed insurance broker should answer alone, CPAs and ERISA attorneys are available through the firm.
What employers ask the week they find a missed filing.
Each of these arrives from an employer who has just realized a filing never went in.
We never filed a Form 5500. Is it too late?
No. The Department of Labor’s voluntary correction program stays open until you receive a notice of intent to assess a penalty. Until then, the missing years can be filed with the penalty capped.
How many years back should we go?
Every year the plan owed a filing and did not make one. A year left out stays outside the correction, and filing the years together is what lets the per-plan cap apply.
We already got a letter. Can we still use the program?
It depends on the letter. A Department of Labor notice of intent to assess a penalty closes the program to that filing. An IRS late-filer letter does not. Either way, respond before the date on the letter; we bring in ERISA counsel when it gets that far.
We have fewer than 100 employees. Did we have to file?
Only if the plan fails the small-plan exemption. It needs fewer than 100 participants at the start of the plan year and benefits paid through insurance or the employer’s general assets. A plan with a trust files at any size.
Doesn’t our carrier file the 5500?
No. The plan administrator, usually the employer, is responsible for the filing. The carrier supplies the insurance information that goes on Schedule A, which is one piece of it.
We are under 50 employees. Do we have ACA reporting?
Not on the C forms, unless you are an applicable large employer. If your plan is self-funded or level funded, you report coverage on the B forms. If it is fully insured, the carrier reports it.
We filed the ACA forms, but they were wrong. Is that a late filing?
An incorrect return is penalized the same way as a late one, on the same stepped scale. The lowest tiers go to corrections made within 30 days or by August 1, which is the reason to fix errors as soon as they surface.
Can we send employees their 1095-C and skip the IRS filing?
No. Filing with the IRS and furnishing to employees are separate obligations with separate penalties. The newer option to post a notice instead of mailing every form only works if the notice went up on time.
We received Letter 226-J. What now?
It is a proposed penalty, not a final one. The response is due by the date on the letter: at least 90 days out for tax years from 2025 on, 30 days for earlier years. The response is built from month-by-month offer data for each employee named, and errors in the original 1095-C forms are a common reason the proposal is wrong.
Is it cheaper to wait and see whether anyone notices?
No, on either filing. For the 5500, waiting risks the program closing to you. For ACA reporting, the per-form amount steps up, and an unfiled year never starts the clock that would eventually close it.
General information about late ACA and Form 5500 filings, not legal or tax advice. Plan-specific questions belong with ERISA counsel or a CPA, and we will bring them in.
Send us your renewal.
We’ll tell you whether it looks competitive, where we see opportunity, and the five questions we’d put to your carrier. No cost, and no obligation to move anything.
The renewal letter
Your current plan summary
Contribution split by tier
Enrolled counts by tier
Four documents — two more if your group is 50 or more. Nothing else; every extra one is a reason to postpone.
An independent employee benefits consulting firm. We look at the entire benefits program — cost, plan performance, risk and administration.
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