Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS)

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Form T-1, Trust Annual Report (Obsolete)

NOTE On July 16, 2007, in AFL-CIO v. Chao, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia vacated the September 29, 2006 Final Rule implementing Form T-1, Trust Annual Report. As a result of this ruling, no Form T-1 is now required to be filed. The Office of Labor-Management Standards on March 4, 2008 published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to establish a Form T-1. Click here for information on this proposal.

Obsolete Information

For fiscal years beginning on or after January 1, 2007, every union subject to the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA), the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA), or the Foreign Service Act (FSA), with total annual receipts of $250,000 or more, must file Form T-1 for each trust in which it is interested if the union's financial contribution to the trust, a contribution made as a result of a collective bargaining agreement to which the union is a party, or a contribution otherwise made on the union's behalf, was $10,000 or more during the trust's fiscal year and the trust had $250,000 or more in annual receipts; and either the union, acting alone or with other unions, selects a majority of the members of the trust's governing board or the union's contribution to the trust, made independently or in combination with other unions, represents greater than 50% of the trust's revenue in the one-year reporting period.

A trust in which a labor organization is interested is defined in Section 3(l) of the LMRDA (29 U.S.C. 402(l)) as

...a trust or other fund or organization (1) which was created or established by a labor organization, or one or more of the trustees or one or more members of the governing body of which is selected or appointed by a labor organization, and (2) a primary purpose of which is to provide benefits for the members of such labor organization or their beneficiaries.

The definition of a trust in which a labor organization is interested may include, but is not limited to, joint funds administered by a union and an employer pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement, educational or training institutions, banks or credit unions created for the benefit of union members, and redevelopment or investment groups established by the union for the benefit of its members. The determination of whether a particular entity is a trust in which a labor organization is interested must be based on the facts in each case.

History of Form T-1

Form T-1 was first issued on October 9, 2003 in a Final Rule with the revised Form LM-2 (68 FR 58374). On May 31, 2005, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated the rule relating to the Form T-1 (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations v. Chao, 409 F.3d 377). To conform to that decision, the Department on September 29, 2006 published a Final Rule which revised the requirements of which unions must file Form T-1 to add the requirement that either the union, acting alone or with other unions, selects a majority of the members of the trust's governing board or the union's contribution to the trust, made independently or in combination with other unions, represents greater than 50% of the trust's revenue in the one-year reporting period. This is in addition to the requirements that the union and the trust have $250,000 or more in total annual receipts and that the union's contribution to the trust was $10,000 or more during the reporting period.

The Form T-1 is unchanged from its publication in 2003; however the instructions have changed to reflect the new filing requirements.

Exceptions

A Form T-1 does not have to be filed for Political Action Committee (PAC) funds if publicly available reports on the PAC funds are filed with a Federal or state agency, or for a political organization for which reports are filed with the Internal Revenue Service pursuant to 26 U.S.C. 527. A Form T-1 also does not have to be filed for an employee benefit plan that filed a complete and timely annual report pursuant to the requirements of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. 1023, 1024(a), and 1030, and 29 C.F.R. 2520.103-1, for a plan year ending during the reporting period of the union. In limited circumstances, a labor organization will be able to complete only Items 1 through 15 and Items 26-27 (Signatures) of Form T-1 if an audit prepared according to standards set forth in the instructions for Form T-1 is submitted with the form.

Effective Date of Form T-1

On July 16, 2007, in AFL-CIO v. Chao, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia vacated the September 29, 2006 Final Rule implementing Form T-1, Trust Annual Report. As a result of this ruling, no Form T-1 is now required to be filed. If any further developments result in a change to the Form T-1 reporting requirement, OLMS will inform the public through the OLMS Mailing List and other means.

Final Rule (HTML) (PDF)

Instructions for Paper Format Form T-1 (PDF)

Facsimile of Form T-1 (PDF)

Form LM-2 & Form T-1 PowerPoint Presentations

Labor organizations may choose to complete the Form T-1 by two methods. Unions may complete the form manually by typing financial data directly into the form. In addition, the filing software will also permit unions that keep records electronically to transfer financial data from their accounting programs to the Form T-1. For electronic transfer, the Department has provided technical specifications to assist unions in converting their financial data into a format supported by the software.

The Data Specifications Document (DSD) provides the specifications and guidance for developing formatted import files that can be imported or attached to the form.

The DSD will be used only by those unions that choose to create these import files. These data files may be imported directly into the form or imported into the form as attachments. Unions with large data files should import these files as attachments, rather then importing the data into the form. The attachment method significantly decreases the size, and enhances the manageability, of the form.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is prepared to offer compliance assistance to help filers create the file formats described in this document.

Questions about the Form T-1?

Call the Department of Labor's toll-free number at: 1-866-4-USA-DOL (1-866-487-2365) or email to olms-public@dol.gov

Frequently Asked Questions about Form T-1

Fact Sheet on Form T-1 (HTML) (PDF)

Sign Up for the OLMS Mailing List

If you would like to receive via email periodic updates from the Office of Labor-Management Standards, including information about the revised Form LM-2 and the Form T-1, enforcement results, and compliance assistance programs, you may subscribe to the OLMS Mailing List here.

Last Updated: 07/27/07