Form 5500 penalties under ERISA move when the Department of Labor publishes its annual inflation adjustment to the section 502(c)(2) daily maximum. This year it did not move, the Department published its reason in the Federal Register, and any page showing a higher figure than last year's is wrong.
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.
The clock carries the current figures from the register. Run a plan, or paste a list, and the DOL exposure column is priced at the daily maximum that actually applies this year.
The Department of Labor's late-filing penalty maximum under ERISA section 502(c)(2) is adjusted for inflation by an annual notice in the Federal Register. This year no adjustment was made. The figure for 2026 is the figure for 2025, and there is a published reason on the record.
Under ERISA section 502(c)(2), the Department of Labor may assess up to $2,739 a day for 2026, the same figure as 2025, as indexed at 29 CFR 2575.3 and the Department of Labor's annual adjustment table at 90 FR 1854.
The Department's own notification, at 91 FR 31358, published 27 May 2026, says that no 2026 inflation adjustment was made, because the October to November 2025 lapse in appropriations meant the Bureau of Labor Statistics could not produce the October 2025 CPI-U figure, and the statute allows no alternative method, so the 2025 amount continues to apply.
That is unusual. The adjustment is arithmetic on one input, the October Consumer Price Index for urban consumers, and the input never arrived. The statute leaves no second method, so the figure stayed where it was. The authority for that paragraph is the notification itself, at 91 FR 31358, published 27 May 2026, read with 29 CFR 2575.3 and the Department of Labor's annual adjustment table at 90 FR 1854.
| Year | Daily maximum | What the Department published |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $2,739 | An annual inflation adjustment rule, with the figure in its table. |
| 2026 | $2,739 | A notification that no adjustment was made and the prior amounts continue. |
The figure does normally move. It was $2,670 before the 2025 adjustment. What the register behind this page carries is the daily maximum and no figure for a total, so no total is stated here, and on a plan several years late the number that matters is the day count.
Under 29 CFR 2575.3 and the Department of Labor's annual adjustment table at 90 FR 1854, an annual inflation adjustment applies to penalties assessed after the date the annual adjustment is published in the Federal Register.
That applicability clause is the one that matters for a late plan book. The figure a plan is exposed to is set by when the penalty is assessed, not by the year the return was due. So do not price a four-year-old missed filing at the maximum that was in force when it was missed.
This is a checkable point, and the reason to read this page rather than a summary rebuilt from last year's template. Any page that raises the daily maximum every January by habit shows a 2026 figure higher than 2025. There is no such figure. Department of Labor, Form 5500
The second dated item is older and still moving through late filings. The small or large decision for a defined contribution plan counts account balances rather than everyone eligible.
From plan years beginning in 2023, a defined contribution pension plan counts the participants with account balances at line 6g(1), except that a plan checking the first return box uses the end of year figure at line 6g(2); welfare and defined benefit plans still count total participants at line 5, under 88 FR 11984.
Two things follow for a book with late years on both sides of that date. The same plan can be large in one late year and small in the next, so the DFVCP cap pair changes between years. And a plan filing its first return counts line 6g(2), account balances as of the end of the plan year, which is the one case where the category is decided by where the year ended rather than where it started. Lists built from an old census still carry the old count. Detail on the small plan or large plan page.
Rebuilt every January, once the Department has published the year's forms and the penalty position for the year is on the Federal Register record, whether that is an adjustment rule or a notification that there is no adjustment. Rebuilt again in the year if either agency issues something that touches a late-filing decision: a new DFVCP notice, a change to the Rev Proc for Form 5500-EZ, a change to the IRS notice on 8955-SSA relief. Not rebuilt for changes to schedules, line items or EFAST2 mechanics that do not touch whether a plan is late, what it costs, or whether relief follows. IRS Form 5500 corner
Every figure here is a row in the register behind the clock, cited to the paragraph it came from and last verified on 21 September 2026. This page carries no revision date for the 2025 instructions, because the register does not verify one. Where this page and the agency disagree, the agency is right, and the address for telling us is in the footer.
The practical read is short. A register built last January is still right on the DOL column, which almost never happens, so the repricing work this season is zero. The count column is where the movement is, because the census changes every year and the 2023 counting rule is still catching late years that predate it. Rerun the book, not the figures. If you hold one plan, the clock has the current figure already. If you hold a book, the TPA and broker page covers the list format and the recurring build.
No. Under ERISA section 502(c)(2) the daily maximum is $2,739 for 2026, the same figure as 2025. The Department of Labor published a notification at 91 FR 31358, published 27 May 2026 saying the prior amounts continue.
Because the October to November 2025 lapse in appropriations meant the Bureau of Labor Statistics could not produce the October 2025 CPI-U figure, and the statute allows no alternative method, so the 2025 amount continues to apply. The Department set that out in its notification at 91 FR 31358, published 27 May 2026.
$2,739 a day, which is also the 2025 figure. It applies to penalties assessed after the date the annual adjustment is published in the Federal Register, so the figure follows the assessment rather than the plan year that was missed.
No. The fee is $10 a day, 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 for a small plan and at 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 for a large plan. The schedule was last changed on 29 January 2013.
Every January, once the Department of Labor has published the year's forms and the penalty position for the year is on the Federal Register record, and again during the year if either agency issues something that touches a late-filing decision.
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.
The DOL column did not move this year, so the work this season is the list, not the figures. A call with our engineers is about the list: