5500 E-file: Appendix A - Accepted Forms and Schedules

Employee Benefit Plan electronic media filings that are transmitted electronically to the Department of Labor consist of the following:

Form 5500/5500-SF/5500-EZ filing data
schedules
attachments.

The filing must contain the same information as a comparable filing submitted entirely on paper.

Forms and Schedules for E-file

The forms and schedules listed at https://www.riahelp.com/html/2020/reports/ef_forms/5500_Federal_E-file_Forms.pdf are the only forms and schedules acceptable for e-file. The E-file Notes lists the number of forms allowable by the EFAST e-file system.

This document is kept current.

Attachment Formats

Paper attachments are not acceptable as attachments to an e-file. All attachments must be received with the filing as attachments. The following attachment types are allowable.

Format	Minimum Version
ASCII character (text) format	--
Adobe Portable Document format (PDF)	3.0

Exclusions from E-file

The following types of Employee Benefit filings are excluded from e-file:

Filings sent using software not approved by the DOL for e-file.
Filings with accounting periods of more than 365 or 366 days. (366-day accounting periods are only acceptable for leap-year filings.)
Filings partially e-filed and partially paper-filed.
Filings for which sections of the form are filed at different times rather than filed at the same time.
Filings submitted on unsupported media.
Filings including unsupported attachment types.
Unsigned filings (submitted without including the PIN and Signer ID as an electronic signature).
Filings that are not encrypted and are submitted via modem-to-modem or transmission.

E-file/5500_ef_app_a_forms_schedules.htm/TY2020

Last Modified: 12/16/2020

Last System Build: 09/13/2021