On April 5, 2018, the IRS introduced on its Certified PEO (CPEO) website a new “controlled group license.” CPEOs and CPEO applicants that are members of a controlled group that includes other CPEOs or CPEO applicants may now create a controlled group license, which serves to “formalize the link” between the group members.
With a controlled group license, the annual audited financial statements and surety bond may be submitted once on behalf of all CPEO and CPEO applicant members of the group instead of having to submit the same documents separately for each entity. However, the IRS Online Registration system does not currently provide for the submission of quarterly assertions and attestations under the controlled group license, so those documents must continue to be submitted separately for each CPEO or CPEO applicant group member.
Each controlled group license must have a controlled group representative, who must be registered as a responsible individual. The representative is the only person who may submit documents on behalf of the controlled group.
A controlled group license may be cancelled at any time. Cancelling the license does not result in the voluntary termination of an individual CPEO’s certification.
It appears that the annual $1,000 IRS user fee will continue to apply separately to each CPEO member of a controlled group.
More information on the controlled group license may be viewed on the following IRS web pages: