Who must file Form 5498-ESA
The trustee or issuer of a Coverdell ESA must file Form 5498-ESA for each designated beneficiary for whom a contribution or rollover contribution was made during the calendar year, and furnish a statement to the beneficiary by April 30. Contributions made by the return due date for the prior year are reported for that prior year. No form is required for an account with no contributions in the year. Distributions are reported on Form 1099-Q. Form 5498-ESA is now a continuous-use form and is one of the low-volume forms the IRS lets you fill in online and file on paper with Form 1096 if you are under the e-file mandate.
Threshold: All amounts, every Coverdell ESA that received a contribution or rollover contribution during the year.
What is reported, box by box
| Box | What it reports | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Coverdell ESA contributions | Contributions for the year, including those made through the due date. |
| 2 | Rollover contributions | Including trustee-to-trustee transfers from another Coverdell ESA, and military death gratuity or SGLI rollovers. |
Box titles follow the current revision of the form. The IRS reads the payer and recipient name, TIN, address, account number and the money boxes; the state boxes are for the state copy only.
Payments that are not reported on Form 5498-ESA
- Accounts with no contributions or rollovers in the year.
- Transfers that change the designated beneficiary to a family member without a rollover.
Due dates and extensions
| Copy | Due | For 2026 returns |
|---|---|---|
| To the IRS, paper | May 31 | Tuesday, June 1, 2027 (May 31 is Memorial Day) |
| To the IRS, electronic | May 31 | Tuesday, June 1, 2027 (May 31 is Memorial Day) |
| To the recipient | April 30 | Friday, April 30, 2027 |
An automatic 30-day extension is available on Form 8809, filed by the due date on paper or through IRIS; a second 30 days requires a hardship showing. Recipient statements can be extended 30 days on Form 15397, online or by fax only. 10 or more information returns of any type in aggregate must be e-filed (T.D. 9972); IRIS is the only IRS intake system from filing season 2027, FIRE having been retired. A payer who e-files the originals must e-file the corrections.
For 2026 forms filed in 2027: January 31 falls on a Sunday, so that deadline moves to Monday, February 1, 2027; February 28 also falls on a Sunday, so the paper deadline moves to Monday, March 1, 2027. March 31 (electronic) and March 15 are weekdays. February 28 does not become February 29 in a leap year. The compliance calendar has every date with the weekend shifts applied.
Withholding and TIN matching
Contributions are not payments; backup withholding does not apply and the form is not in the IRS TIN Matching program. The penalty is $50 per return under IRC 6693. The beneficiary is a child whose SSN was supplied by a parent at account opening; the name on the account is frequently a nickname or omits a later name change, so a check against the SSA record before the first 1099-Q distribution years later saves a CP2100 line.
Name and TIN errors on this form
Every information return is matched by the IRS on the first four characters of the payee's name (the name control) against the TIN. For this form the penalty is IRC 6693: $50 per return for each failure to file or furnish, with no annual maximum, unless the failure was due to reasonable cause. A mismatch still produces a CP2100 line the following autumn. The errors that recur on Form 5498-ESA:
- Beneficiary, not contributor. The designated beneficiary (the child) is the recipient on the form, under the child's SSN; the parent or other contributor is not named.
- Change of beneficiary to a family member creates a new account record under the new beneficiary's SSN going forward.
The name control calculator shows what the IRS will derive from a name line, and the CP2100 guide covers what to do when the notice arrives.
Recipient statements and substitutes
The recipient statement for Form 5498-ESA need not be a copy of the official form: a substitute may be combined with other account statements or reports, provided every required item is numbered and titled as on the official form, the tax year, form number and form name appear together, the recipient instructions are included, and, for the forms Pub 1099 lists, a telephone number with direct access to someone who can answer questions is shown. Publication 1179 (Rev. Proc. 2026-18) has the specifications; logos, slogans and advertising are not permitted on the statement itself. Statements may be furnished electronically only to a recipient who has affirmatively consented in a way that shows they can access the format, after the disclosures in Pub 1099 part M, and must stay posted through October 15. Copy B may show a truncated TIN (xxx-xx-1234); the IRS copy never may.
Corrections and state copies
A wrong amount, code or checkbox is a Type 1 correction: one corrected return with the CORRECTED box checked. A wrong or missing payee TIN, a wrong payee name, or the wrong form type is a Type 2 correction: a zeroed-out copy of the original plus a new original, in that order. Publication 1099 also says you are not required to file a correction for a missing or incorrect TIN if you meet the reasonable-cause standard, only to use the right TIN on the next return, although the IRS encourages the correction. Details and the paper error charts are on the 1099 corrections page.
Form 5498-ESA is not in the Combined Federal/State Filing program, so any state that requires it must receive it directly. Requirements by state are on the state pages.
Questions people ask about Form 5498-ESA
Why is the beneficiary's statement due April 30?
So the family can verify the $2,000 annual contribution limit before the April filing deadline; the IRS copy follows on May 31.
Do we report a transfer between two Coverdell ESAs?
Yes, as a rollover contribution in box 2 on the receiving trustee's form.
Which penalty applies?
$50 per return under IRC 6693.
Other federal forms
1042-S · 1097-BTC · 1098 · 1098-C · 1098-E · 1098-F · 1098-Q · 1098-T · 1098-VLI · 1099-A · 1099-B · 1099-C · 1099-CAP · 1099-DIV · 1099-G · 1099-INT · 1099-K · 1099-LS · 1099-LTC · 1099-MISC · 1099-NEC · 1099-OID · 1099-PATR · 1099-Q · 1099-QA · 1099-R · 1099-S · 1099-SA · 1099-SB · 3921 · 3922 · 5498 · 5498-SA · W-2G · 1099-DA · Comparison table
Sources: IRS Publication 1099 (2026), General Instructions for Certain Information Returns, which replaced the separate General Instructions starting with tax year 2026; Instructions for Form 5498-ESA (continuous use); Pub 1099 (2026) What's New, Guide to Information Returns and part O; IRC 530, 6693. Threshold amounts are indexed for inflation from calendar year 2027; check IRS.gov/InflationAdjustment for the current year.