NU Online News Service, April 17, 6:16 p.m. – The Internal Revenue Service is trying to give sponsors of section 125 cafeteria plans and some other plans a break on tax reporting requirements.
The agency says employers that sponsor cafeteria plans, section 127 educational assistance programs and section 137 adoption assistance programs, can stop attaching Schedule F "annual information returns" to their plans' Form 5500 returns.
"This notice does not affect annual reporting requirements under Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act," Felix Zech, an IRS associate chief counsel, writes in Notice 2002-24, the document that explains the new policy.
Sponsors of cafeteria plans, educational assistance programs and adoption assistance programs still have to file Form 5500 returns and all required schedules other than Schedule F, Zech writes.
But the IRS is promising not to trap sponsors that rely on its advice to stop filing the Schedule F returns.
