HOW TO OBTAIN EFAST CREDENTIALS FOR IRS FORM 5500
If you are the individual with your organization that is responsible for reviewing and signing IRS Form 5500, you are required by government regulations to obtain and file utilizing your EFAST credentials. Read on for instructions on obtaining your EFAST credentials.
Because you sponsor a company retirement plan, you may be required to file IRS Form 5500 with the Department of Labor (DOL). Effective 2009, the DOL requires that all Form 5500’s be submitted online and the DOL no longer allows paper filings. Leading Retirement Solutions will prepare your required IRS Form 5500 and we will transmit the 5500 to you for review and submission to the DOL via our direct, integrated access with the DOL. At that time, you will be required to enter the UserID and PIN that you received through the process outlined below.
Who Needs a UserID & PIN?
If this was the first year your Company sponsored a retirement plan and/or you have not been required to file Form 5500 prior to this plan year, follow the instructions below for obtaining your required DOL UserID, PIN and password.
If you have not previously been responsible for reviewing and submitting your company retirement plan Form 5500 but you are now responsible and have not previously applied for a DOL UserID and PIN, you will need to apply for such, now.
Next Steps:
- Proceed to http://www.efast.dol.gov and select the link to register as a Form 5500 signer
- You will be asked to read and sign a privacy statement.
- Complete your profile. You will be taken to a screen where you will be required to complete information that will serve as your profile (name, address, email and user type).
- It is important that you record exactly how you have entered your name in the DOL system and provide that exact naming convention to us. Your name as we input it into Form 5500 must match up exactly with what the DOL has on record.
- Your user type is "filing signer".
- Challenge question. Once your profile information is complete, you will be asked to select a challenge question and answer. This is required and will be used to obtain your UserID and PIN.
- Confirm email. Check your email and click on the link provided in the email.
- Answer your Challenge question. You will be asked the challenge question you set up earlier in the process.
- PIN agreement. You will then be asked to sign a PIN Agreement whereby you will agree not to share the PIN that is assigned to you.
- Signature Agreement. You will then be asked to agree to a more detailed "signature agreement".
- UserID and PIN. You will then be provided a UserID and PIN. We strongly suggest printing this page for your records. 1
- Password. The last step in the process is to create a password that will be assigned to the UserID and Password that you were just provided. We suggest making a note of the password that you enter for your records.
- Upon receipt of your UserID, PIN and password from the DOL, you may call or email and provide us with the UserID only. Do not provide us with the PIN, as you are to keep that confidential and the DOL prohibits us as service provider(s) from retaining your PIN.
- Maintain the UserID, PIN and password in a secure location. This information is needed to sign your form 5500 electronically.
- You will need the UserID, PIN and password when LRS completes your Form 5500.
I completed the registration online but did not receive an email to complete my registration. What should I do?
- Once you complete the online registration, the system sends an email to your registered email address within 5 minutes. If you did not receive the email in your inbox, it may have been blocked as spam or junk mail. Check your “spam” or “junk” email folders to see if you have received the email. If you’ve checked your “spam” or “junk” email folders and the email has not been received, call 1-866-463-3278 (1-866-GO EFAST).
- Some e-mail providers require that you add an e-mail address to your address book before you can receive any e-mail from that address. To ensure that our messages can be delivered to your inbox, enter the DOL originating e-mail address, efast2@efastsys.dol.gov and the reply to e-mail address, efast2@efast.dol.gov into your address book.
You can continue to use the DOL UserID and PIN in future years. However, if a different individual signs the Form 5500 filing in a future year, that person will have to register with the DOL for signing credentials at that time. As a reminder, if another individual associated with your organization will sign the Form 5500, they will also need to go through the above process and obtain signing credentials. For Frequently Asked Questions about the credential process:
EFAST2 Credentials FAQs
We strive to make the transition from paper filing to electronic filing with the DOL as smooth as possible. Call us if you have questions, we are here to help.
Leading Retirement Solutions
(206) 430-5084 phone
(800) 974-2814 (toll free)
service@leadingretirement.com
www.leadingretirement.com
Our mission: to proactively support organizations and lead them toward a secure future.