A Guide to Filing Form 5498 for the 2020 Tax Year

The deadline to file is June 30, 2021!

Stephanie Glanville | June 1, 2021 | Read time: 5 minute(s) | Form 5498 Series | No Comments

It’s getting closer! Summer? Yes! Wonderful, warm weather? Yes! Vacations? Maybe! The deadline to file Form 5498? Definitely.

While filing IRS tax forms may not be the most exciting part of your summer activities, it is a must for maintaining the IRS compliance of your organization.

Here’s what you need to know to breeze through the filing process and leave the paperwork behind!

What is Form 5498?

Form 5498 is an IRS tax form used to report information about Individual Retirement Accounts. This includes the following types of IRA plans.

Traditional IRA
Roth IRA
SEP-IRA
SIMPLE IRA

When is the deadline for filing?

The deadline for filing the Form 5498 with the IRS is June 30, 2021. Recipient copies should also be distributed to the account participants by this date as well. With the exception of recipient copies reporting Fair Market Value and Minimum Distribution Requirements should have already been distributed by February 1, 2021.

Who is required to file Form 5498?

Trustees or issuers of the IRA are required to file Form 5498 with the IRS and distribute recipient copies to the IRS. The entity that issues and manages these retirement accounts is generally a bank or a financial institution.

What information does the IRS require on Form 5498?

Form 5498 reports contributions, rollovers, conversions, recharacterizations, and the year-end Fair Market Value of the account.

In addition to these amounts, trustees should be prepared to provide their own details (name, address, TIN, and contact information). Trustees should report the account participant’s information as well. This includes their name, address, TIN/SSN, and account number.

What does the Form 5498 look like?

There are three different copies of the Form 5498, each should go to a different party.

For example, Copy A, the infamous red copy should be submitted to the IRS.

Copy B should be distributed to the account participants.

Finally, Copy C should be kept by the trustee/issuer for their records.

Paper vs. E-filing

Trustees have the option to mail paper copies of Form 5498 with the IRS or file electronically. While both options are available, it is worth mentioning that e-filing is the IRS-prefered method. The IRS is able to process electronically filed forms much more quickly than paper forms. This means faster updates from the IRS. E-filing also promotes accuracy. When you choose to e-file with TaxBandits, we check your form against IRS business rules to catch errors.