Form 5500 filers under ERISA who miss the due date can use the Department of Labor's Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program, DFVCP, to pay a capped fee instead of the penalty. The one condition that ends the option is a written notice from the Department, and this page is built around it.
This page is about the ERISA Form 5500, the annual return/report that employee benefit plans file with the Department of Labor and the IRS through EFAST2. The same number is used for an unrelated US Navy supply form, and other countries use different form numbers for their pension returns; none of that applies here.
Tell the clock the plan year end, the filing date, the participant count and whether a DOL letter has arrived. It says whether DFVCP is open, what the fee is, and what each agency could assess instead.
The Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program, DFVCP, is run by the Employee Benefits Security Administration at the Department of Labor. A plan administrator who has not filed a Form 5500 files it now through EFAST2, pays a fixed fee, and the Department agrees not to assess its own late-filing penalty for that return. The fee is small next to the penalty it replaces. The schedule is the one in the program notice at 78 FR 6135, last changed on 29 January 2013.
The DFVCP fee is $10 for each day the report is late, and under 78 FR 6135, Section 3.03(b)(1) the fee runs from the original due date, without regard to any extension.
Without the program, the Department of Labor may assess up to $2,739 a day for 2026 under ERISA section 502(c)(2), the figure the Department carried into 2026 by its notification at 91 FR 31358, published 27 May 2026 and indexed under 29 CFR 2575.3 and the Department of Labor's annual adjustment table at 90 FR 1854.
Two conditions. The plan is subject to Title I of ERISA, and the Department has not yet told the administrator in writing that the return is missing. A one-participant plan filing Form 5500-EZ is outside Title I and outside the program; the IRS runs a separate relief program for those. Everything else, from a two-person 401(k) to a large welfare plan, is eligible while the letter has not come.
Under 78 FR 6135, Section 2.02, DFVCP is open only to a plan administrator who completes the submission before being notified in writing by the Department of a failure to file a timely annual report under Title I of ERISA.
The condition that matters is the written notice. The Department's own program page names a Notice of Intent to Assess a Penalty as the document that closes the door. No primary source separates that from a plain late-filing letter, so treat any written notice from the Department about a missing annual report as a stop for that plan year. Not a phone call, not an IRS notice, not a reminder from the recordkeeper. A letter from the Department.
So the question is never "is the plan late". It is "has the letter arrived". If it has not, DFVCP is open. If it has, DFVCP is closed for that plan year and the conversation is with the Department about the penalty itself.
| Line | Amount | How it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Per day, every plan | $10 | each day from the original due date to the date the delinquent report reaches EFAST2 |
| Cap, small plan, one annual report | $750 | one late report, plan filing as a small plan |
| Cap, small plan, per plan on a multi-year submission | $1,500 | more than one late report for the same plan |
| Cap, large plan, one annual report | $2,000 | one late report, plan filing as a large plan |
| Cap, large plan, per plan on a multi-year submission | $4,000 | more than one late report for the same plan |
| Small plan of a 501(c)(3) | $750 | a small plan sponsored by a Code 501(c)(3) organisation pays $10 a day up to $750 per submission, however many years it covers, under 78 FR 6135, Section 3.03(b) |
| Top hat or apprenticeship plan | $750 | apprenticeship and training plans and top hat plans pay a flat $750 per submission, under 78 FR 6135, Section 4.03(b) |
| Submission covering any large plan year | $2,000 or $4,000 | if the plan was a large plan in any year the submission covers, the large plan caps apply to the whole submission |
Under 78 FR 6135, Section 3.03(b), a small plan's DFVCP fee is capped at the greater of $750 per annual report or, where one submission covers more than one delinquent report for the plan, $1,500 per plan.
The two small plan rows are one cap read two ways, and so are the two large plan rows. The notice words each pair as the greater of the two figures rather than the lesser, so a multi-year submission is not priced by adding up single-report caps. For a large plan the cap is the greater of $2,000 per annual report or, for a submission covering more than one delinquent report for the plan, $4,000 per plan. The clock prices the submission from the notice and names which branch it applied.
Small or large is the plan's own filing status for the year in question, and the clock takes it from the participant count on the line. The 80-to-120 election belongs to the filer, so the clock flags a count that sits in that band and still prices the caps off the count it was given. That is why the count page matters more than it looks: the count picks the pair, and a first-year defined contribution plan can land on the other side of the line.
Two rows of the schedule above are not the clock's arithmetic. It prices the small and large pairs and the 501(c)(3) cap from the inputs it takes. It does not price the top hat or apprenticeship flat amount, because it has no input for either kind of plan, and that row is here as the schedule rather than as an answer.
One thing the sources do not settle: whether the submission day itself counts is not stated in the program notice or on the Department's page, so the clock labels it as an assumption. It also cross-checks that day count against the Department's own calculator so the two agree before anyone pays.
The route is fixed: the delinquent reports go through EFAST2 with the DFVC box at Part I line D checked, and the fee is paid online through the Department's DFVC calculator and payment system; paper submissions and paper payments are no longer accepted.
The Department's DFVCP calculator is good at its one job: type a plan year end, a filing date and a plan size, and it prices that filing under the schedule above. Use it when you pay.
It does not answer three questions. It does not say whether the plan is still eligible, because it does not ask about the letter. It does not put the DOL figure next to the IRS one, which is a different statute and a different agency. And it takes one plan at a time, so a book of two hundred plans is two hundred visits.
The Form 5500 Rescue Clock is also free. It asks about the letter, prices both agencies side by side, and takes the whole list in one paste. A plan book that has run it walks into the client meeting with the register already built.
The DFVCP fee replaces the Department of Labor penalty. It does not, on its own, touch the IRS penalty under Internal Revenue Code section 6652(e). IRS relief follows a DFVCP filing for Title I plans that also file Form 8955-SSA where one is required, and that condition is the one most delinquent filers miss. It has its own page, and the penalty page lays the two side by side.
An extension does not help the fee either. Under 26 U.S.C. 6652(e), the section 6652(e) count is determined with regard to any extension of time for filing, so a valid extension moves the day the IRS count starts. The program fee is counted from the original date whatever the extension said. Two clocks, two start dates, one filing.
One delinquent year, no letter, nothing filed yet. Read the two fee rows together. The daily rate passed the cap per annual report on the date the table gives, and the fee stopped growing there. The Department's own daily figure did not stop. That gap between the two is the case for the program.
| Plan year end | 31 December 2024 |
|---|---|
| Form | Form 5500-SF |
| Filed | not yet filed |
| Written notice from the Department received | No |
| Read as of | 21 September 2026 |
| Where the plan stands | not filed, and past the due date |
|---|---|
| Statutory due date | 31 July 2025 |
| DFVCP for this plan year | open for this plan year |
| Small or large for the fee caps | small plan |
| Days late for the fee, counted from the statutory due date | 417 |
| Fee at the daily rate, before any cap | $4,170.00 |
| Cap per annual report | $750.00 |
| Cap per plan on a multi-year submission | $1,500.00 |
| Which cap bound | the cap per annual report |
| Date that cap was reached | 14 October 2025 |
| DFVCP fee for this report | $750.00 |
| Department of Labor exposure without the program, at $2,739 a day | $1,142,163 |
| IRS exposure under section 6652(e) | $104,250 |
| Relief route the clock reports | follows the DFVCP filing |
Read the last row as the route, not as a finding. Relief follows a DFVCP filing only where any Form 8955-SSA required for the same year is also filed with the IRS on paper, and the clock takes no input for that form, so it cannot test the condition. The 8955-SSA page covers it.
Computed by the Form 5500 Rescue Clock engine from the inputs shown. Every date and amount is the engine's output, never typed by hand. An estimate, not a filing.
No DOL letter: DFVCP is open, the fee is the cost, and the DOL penalty is off the table once you file and pay. Letter received: DFVCP is closed for that return, and the IRS side is still its own question either way. If you hold one plan, run the clock and you are done.
The Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program, run by EBSA at the Department of Labor. A plan administrator files the missing Form 5500 through EFAST2, pays $10 a day capped at $750 per annual report for a small plan or $2,000 for a large plan, and the Department does not assess its late-filing penalty for that return.
Plans subject to Title I of ERISA whose administrator has not yet received written notice from the Department of Labor of a failure to file. The Department names a Notice of Intent to Assess a Penalty as the disqualifier. One-participant plans that file Form 5500-EZ are outside Title I and outside the program.
No. Under 78 FR 6135, Section 3.03(b)(1), the fee runs from the original due date, without regard to any extension. The IRS count under Internal Revenue Code section 6652(e) is the opposite: the section 6652(e) count is determined with regard to any extension of time for filing, so a valid extension moves the day the IRS count starts. One filing, two clocks, two start dates.
Yes. The Department of Labor publishes one and payment goes through it. It prices one filing at a time and does not ask whether a DOL letter has arrived or show the IRS penalty alongside. The Form 5500 Rescue Clock does both and takes a whole list of plans in one paste, free.
Not by itself. The fee settles the Department of Labor penalty. IRS relief follows for Title I plans that file under DFVCP and also file Form 8955-SSA where one is required. Miss the 8955-SSA and the IRS penalty stays live.
Yes. Several missing years for one plan go in one submission, and the cap is then read per plan: $1,500 for a small plan or $4,000 for a large one. One rule sits on top of both pairs: if the plan was a large plan in any year the submission covers, the large plan caps apply to the whole submission.
Figures on this page were last verified against these sources on 21 September 2026. Where this page and the Department of Labor or the IRS disagree, the agency is right and this page is wrong; tell us at hello@02launch.com.
02Launch is an AI engineering firm out of Google and Microsoft. We built the Form 5500 Rescue Clock because the late Form 5500 decision sits across two agencies and nobody had put it in one place for a plan book.
What a call with our engineers is for, once the clock has shown you how many plans in the book are sitting in the DFVCP window: