An employer that maintains a one-participant retirement plan will file its Form 5500EZ reports for calendar plan years 2008 (on extension), 2007 (a slight amendment of a timely filed report), and 2006 (seeking delinquent-filer relief). For the 2007 and 2006 reports, is it okay to use the current forms? These will be handwritten, not electronic.

You can access prior IRS Forms on the IRS website. Click on Forms & Pubs, and then Previous Years.

Yeah, but the 5500 series forms on the website have the "for information purposes only, do no use for filing" watermark on them. I know you can order some by phone, but I'm not sure how far back. And I know you can use current forms instead of "really old forms that are not available" but I'm not sure where that cutoff might be; I'd think they would expect that you could dredge up a 2006 and 2007 form (I got a 2007 form by phone not too long ago and suspect 2006 is still available). They're probably available on a software vendor's system also.

Knowing that using the website forms is a processing no-no, I had used the IRS ordering system to get paper forms. The system presented no choice about which year's forms to order. Sieve and Bird, thanks for your kind help.

FWIW--and, as you may know--the DOL delinquent filer program permits using the current 5500 for earlier years (Section 3.02(b)(2)). Even though EZ filers are not eligible for DFVCP--although you indicate that you are seeking such releif for 2006. How so?--I would certainly take the DFVCP process as a strong indication that using the current form for prior 5000 filings, even EZ filings, would be acceptable.

If the employer was truly a 5500-EZ filer for 2006, a filing under DFVCP will be rejected, and you will receive a letter requesting some ungodly amount for filing late--although you probably will be successful getting it abated after-the-fact.

Just a thought, but someone in our office did bring up the question of just because you can file a 5500EZ, does that mean you have to (i.e., with that 2006 filing, couldn't you go in filing a 5500 rather than 5500EZ)?

EZ filers are permitted to file the Form 5500 if they so choose. However, it's not just the filing of an EZ that makes you ineligible for the delinquent filer program--it's the fact that a plan where no employees are participants (which means any plan where they only participants are (i) sole proprietor & spouse, (ii) sole shareholder & spouse, or (iii) partners & spouses.

Here is a quote summarizing the rule from IRS Notice 2002-23:

"The relief [from IRS penalties for delinquent Forms 5500] is available [for those who file under the DOL's delinquent filer program] only to the extent that a Form 5500 is required under Title I of ERISA. Therefore, for example, Form 5500–EZ filers and Form 5500 filers for plans without employees (as described in 29 CFR 2510.3–3(b) and (c)) are not eligible for the relief in this notice. Because such plans are not subject to Title I of ERISA, they are ineligible to participate in the DFVC Program."