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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: (202) 219-8921.
The U. S. Labor Department's Pension and Welfare Benefits
Administration today announced a program that reduces the monetary penalties
for employee benefit plan administrators to encourage voluntary compliance with
federal pension law.
The program, known as the Delinquent Filer Voluntary
Compliance Program (DFVC), is targeted at plan administrators who are
delinquent in filing annual reports and must resolve late filing penalties with
the department.
Through the years, the department heard concerns by the
employee benefit community that correcting late filing deficiencies would
result in substantial penalties under the law. Under the Employee Retirement
Income Security Act (ERISA), the department may assess civil penalties of up to
$1,000 a day against plan administrators who fail to file complete and timely
annual reports.
"The department has instituted this program to encourage
plan administrators to bring their filings up to date without incurring heavy
penalties," said Olena Berg, assistant secretary of labor for the Pension and
Welfare Benefits Administration.
"The program can be enormously beneficial to workers and
the government because of access to better information on plan finances if the
plan community meets its filing obligations. We believe the reduced penalties
will be a powerful incentive for compliance with the law," Berg said.
The new program is part of a larger outreach effort to
help private sector plans and employers. In addition to its compliance program,
PWBA has initiated an outreach program which includes workshops that will
address such issues as filing Form 5500 series annual reports and ERISA
enforcement.
A 1992 grace period program resulted in the filing of over
40,000 delinquent reports.
Plan administrators who filed late or did not file at all
may be eligible to pay reduced civil penalties. The penalty amount will depend
on the lateness of the filing, ranging from a low of $50 per day for Form 5500
filings that are one year or less late up to $5,000 if the filing is later than
one year. Special penalties apply for Form 5500-C filers, apprenticeship and
training plans and plans maintained for certain management and highly
compensated employees.
Because the Internal Revenue Service shares jurisdiction
with PWBA over pension plans (but generally not over welfare plans), failure to
file timely reports for pension plans may also result in penalties by the
IRS.
A Federal Register notice on the delinquent filer program
is scheduled to be published on Thursday, April 27. It is intended that the
program will be permanent, subject to periodic review and adjustment. For more
information on the program, contact PWBA's hotline at (202) 219-8776.
Information on the forms and instructions may be obtained from the IRS at
1-800-829-3676.
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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