[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 214 (Tuesday, November 5, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 59660-59661]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-24122]
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PENSION BENEFIT GUARANTY CORPORATION
Proposed Submission of Information Collections for OMB Review;
Comment Request; Reportable Events; Notice of Failure To Make Required
Contributions
AGENCY: Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.
ACTION: Notice of intention to request OMB approval of modifications to
currently-approved information collections.
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SUMMARY: The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) intends to
request that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approve, under
the Paperwork Reduction Act, collections of information under PBGC's
regulation on Reportable Events and Certain Other Notification
Requirements with modifications. This notice informs the public of
PBGC's intent and solicits public comment on the collections of
information.
DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before January 6, 2020.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted by any of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
Follow the website instructions for submitting comments.
Email: [email protected].
Mail or Hand Delivery: Regulatory Affairs Division, Office
of the General Counsel, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, 1200 K
Street NW, Washington, DC 20005-4026.
All submissions received must include the agency's name (Pension
Benefit Guaranty Corporation, or PBGC) and refer to Reportable Events
and Certain Other Notification Requirements. All comments received will
be posted without change to PBGC's website, http://www.pbgc.gov,
including any personal information provided.
Copies of the collections of information and comments may be
obtained without charge by writing to Disclosure Division, Office of
the General Counsel, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, 1200 K
Street NW, Washington, DC 20005-4026; faxing a request to 202-326-4042;
or calling 202-326-4040 during normal business hours. (TTY users may
call the Federal relay service toll-free at 1-800-877-8339 and ask to
be connected to 202-326-4040.) The reportable events regulation, forms,
and instructions are available at http://www.pbgc.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Stephanie Cibinic, Deputy Assistant
General Counsel for Regulatory Affairs ([email protected];
202-229-6352), Office of the General Counsel, Pension Benefit Guaranty
Corporation, 1200 K Street NW, Washington, DC 20005-4026. TTY users may
call the Federal relay service toll-free at 1-800-877-8339 and ask to
be connected to 202-229-6352.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 4043 of the Employee Retirement
Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) requires plan administrators and
plan sponsors to report certain plan and employer events to PBGC. The
reporting requirements give PBGC notice of events that indicate plan or
employer financial problems. PBGC uses the information provided in
determining what, if any, action it needs to take. For example, PBGC
might need to institute proceedings to terminate a plan (placing it in
trusteeship) under section 4042 of ERISA to ensure the continued
payment of benefits to plan participants and their beneficiaries or to
prevent unreasonable increases in PBGC's losses.
The provisions of section 4043 of ERISA have been implemented in
PBGC's regulation on Reportable Events and Certain Other Notification
Requirements (29 CFR part 4043).
Form 10
Subparts B and C of the regulation deal with reportable events.
PBGC has issued Forms 10 and 10-Advance and related instructions under
subparts B and C (approved under OMB control number 1212-0013). PBGC is
proposing to modify the Form 10 for the ``Failure to make required
contributions'' reportable event to provide that if payment was made to
satisfy a missed contribution, the filer must submit documentation of
that payment, e.g., a copy of the cancelled check or wire transfer,
etc. Documentation is needed to give evidence that the missed
contribution was made up and no risk to the plan remains before PBGC
closes the event.
OMB approval of this collection of information expires February 28,
2022. PBGC intends to request that OMB extend its approval for three
years, with modifications. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a
person is not required to respond to, a collection of information
unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.
PBGC estimates that it will receive 590 reportable event notices
per year under subparts B and C of the reportable events regulation
using Forms 10 and 10-Advance and that the average annual burden of
this collection of information is 1,860 hours and $439,550.
Form 200
Section 303(k) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of
1974 (ERISA) and section 430(k) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986
(Code) impose a lien in favor of an underfunded single-employer plan
that is covered by PBGC's termination insurance program if (1) any
person fails to make a required payment when due, and (2) the unpaid
balance of that payment (including interest), when added to the
aggregate unpaid balance of all preceding payments for which payment
was not made when due (including interest), exceeds $1 million. (For
this purpose, a plan is underfunded if its funding target attainment
percentage is less than 100 percent.) The lien is upon all property and
rights to property belonging to the person or persons that are liable
for required contributions (i.e., a contributing sponsor and each
member of the controlled group of which that contributing sponsor is a
member).
[[Page 59661]]
Only PBGC (or, at its direction, the plan's contributing sponsor or
a member of the same controlled group) may perfect and enforce this
lien. ERISA and the Code require persons that fail to make payments to
notify PBGC within 10 days of the due date whenever there is a failure
to make a required payment and the total of the unpaid balances
(including interest) exceeds $1 million.
PBGC Form 200, Notice of Failure to Make Required Contributions,
and related instructions implement the statutory notification
requirement. Submission of Form 200 is required by 29 CFR 4043.81
(Subpart D of PBGC's regulation on Reportable Events and Other
Notification Requirements, 29 CFR part 4043). PBGC currently requires
filers to report the due date of the required payment that triggered
the notification to PBGC and to calculate the cumulative amount of
unpaid balances. PBGC is proposing to modify the form to include a
separate field showing the payment amount that triggered the
notification in order to better track missed contributions and identify
the amount by which liens associated with missed contributions must be
updated.
OMB has approved this collection of information under OMB control
number 1212-0041, which expires February 28, 2022. PBGC intends to
request that OMB extend its approval for three years, with
modifications. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is
not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it
displays a currently valid OMB control number.
PBGC estimates that it will receive 100 Form 200 filings per year
and that the average annual burden of this collection of information is
100 hours and $72,500.
Method of Filing
PBGC's reportable events and certain other notification
requirements regulation (29 CFR part 4043) provides that reportable
event notices required under this part must be filed electronically in
accordance with the instructions posted on PBGC's website. Those
instructions currently provide two options for electronic filing:
Using the 4043 module of PBGC's e-filing portal, or
Emailing a completed form and any required attachments to
[email protected].
PBGC's e-filing portal, which has been available since 2016, offers a
secure application for submitting Form 200 and Form 10 and 10-Advance
information. The e-filing portal allows filers to review filings and
generate a list of omissions and inconsistencies prior to submission to
ensure completeness; save a partially completed filing; modify
information any time prior to submission; pre-populate a filing with
data from a previously submitted filing; route the filing as needed to
facilitate e-certifications; and review prior filings submitted via the
e-filing portal. PBGC is proposing to eliminate the email option for
filings due after September 30, 2021. In other words, starting in
October 2021, these filings would have to be submitted via PBGC's e-
filing portal.
PBGC also intends to make other editorial changes to the forms and
instructions in these collections.
PBGC is soliciting public comments to--
solicit feedback on the anticipated impact of eliminating
the email filing option;
evaluate whether the proposed collections of information
are necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the
agency, including whether the information will have practical utility;
evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the
burden of the proposed collections of information, including the
validity of the methodologies and assumptions used;
enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the
information to be collected; and
minimize the burden of the collections of information on
those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection
techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting
electronic submission of responses.
Issued in Washington, DC.
Stephanie Cibinic,
Deputy Assistant General Counsel for Regulatory Affairs, Pension
Benefit Guaranty Corporation.
[FR Doc. 2019-24122 Filed 11-4-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7709-02-P