Committed to Excellence
For more than 50 years, Samet has developed a solid reputation as trusted, resourceful certified public accountants and business advisors who develop unique financial, tax and consulting solutions for businesses and individuals.
Form 5500 Series
The U.S. Department of Labor, Internal Revenue Service, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation jointly developed the Form 5500 Series so employee benefit plans could utilize the Form 5500 Series forms to satisfy annual reporting requirements under Title IV of ERISA and under the Internal Revenue Code.
For the year ending December 31, 2020, employee benefit plans with fewer than 100 eligible participants at the beginning of the year may file 5500-SF. Employee Benefit plans between 100 and 119 eligible participants at the beginning of the year may file Form 5500-SF if the plan was eligible to file as a small plan during the year ending December 31, 2018.
Employee Benefit Plans with more than 120 eligible participants at the beginning of the year are required to file Form 5500 as a large plan and attach financial statements audited by an independent qualified public accountant.
EBSA Study
The U.S. Labor Department's Employee Benefits Security Administration ("EBSA") published a study in May 2015 to analyze the quality of employee benefit plan audits performed by Certified Public Accounting ("CPA") firms. The study broke down the CPA firms into 6 strata based on the number of employee benefit plan audits performed on an annual basis.
These strata included firms performing 1 or 2 audits, 3 to 5 audits, 6 to 24 audits, 25 to 99 audits, 100 to 749 audits and firms performing 750 or more audits. 51% of all firms performing employee benefit audits fell into the first strata, performing only one or two audits, and 92% of all firms performing employee benefit audits performed fewer than 25 audits annually.
EBSA then reviewed a statistical sample of 400 audit engagements performed by 232 firms across the 6 strata. EBSA defines a major deficiency as a deficiency in audit standards, in which the overall quality of the audit is adversely affected. Findings showed that 76% of audits performed by firms performing one or two audits annually had major deficiencies. Moreover, the next strata, firms performing 3-5 audits annually, had major deficiencies in 68% of their audit engagements.
Employee Benefit Plan Expertise
Samet provides audit and tax services to an extensive number of employee benefit plans. These plans range from 100 participants to an excess of 120,000 participants, including plans with excess of $3 billion.
Learn more about our unparalleled expertise in employee benefit plans and other services at Samet.
Let's work together.
If you are looking for a firm that specializes in employee benefit plans, contact us today. We look forward to doing business with you.
Samet & Company PC
1330 Boylston Street
Chestnut Hill, MA
Phone: 617.731.1222