Pension Plan Deadlines Extended
for Disaster Areas

WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of Labor's Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration have granted relief to taxpayers in areas designated as federal disasters this month. Pension and other employee benefit plans will have until April 30, 1997, to file required returns.

The extension applies to employee benefit plans, banks and insurance companies located in the federal disaster areas, as well as to plan administrators located outside the disaster areas who are unable to obtain the information necessary for filing from service providers, banks, or insurance companies whose operations were directly affected by the storms and floods.

The agencies will not impose late filing or late payment penalties for pension and employee benefit plan returns/reports and related excise taxes due on or after February 28, 1997, if the filing or payment occurs by April 30, 1997. This would include, for example, Form 5500 series and excise tax returns.

To qualify for the extension, returns/reports must be marked in red, bold print "Midwest/South Severe Weather '97" on the top center of the first page. The return/report of an employee benefit plan not located within a designated disaster area must have an attachment identifying the plan's service provider affected by the disaster and the county in which the service provider is located.

The IRS cannot administratively extend certain deadlines set by law and these deadlines must be met:

-- contributions to qualified employee benefit plans must be made by the due date of the return (with extensions) to be deductible on that return; -- contributions to pension plans under the minimum funding standards of Internal Revenue Code Section 412 must be made by the dates specified; -- a rollover to a qualified plan or individual retirement account (IRA) must be completed within 60 days of receipt of the distribution; and -- IRA contributions for 1996 must be made by April 15, 1997.

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