2020-28193. Submission of Information Collection for OMB Review; Comment Request; Payment of Premiums

AGENCY:

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

ACTION:

Notice of request for OMB approval of revised collection of information.

SUMMARY:

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is modifying the collection of information under its regulation on Payment of Premiums (OMB control number 1212-0009; expiring December 31, 2022) and requests that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approve the revised collection of information under the Paperwork Reduction Act for three years. This notice informs the public of PBGC's request and solicits public comment on the collection of information

DATES:

Comments must be submitted on or before January 21, 2021.

ADDRESSES:

Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice to https://www.reginfo.gov/​public/​do/​PRAMain. Find this particular information collection by selecting “Currently under 30-day Review—Open for Public Comments” or by using the search function.

A copy of the request will be posted on PBGC's website at https://www.pbgc.gov/​prac/​laws-and-regulation/​federal-register-notices-open-for-comment. It may also be obtained by writing to Disclosure Division, Office of the General Counsel, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, 1200 K Street NW, Washington, DC 20005-4026, or calling 202-326-4040 during normal business hours. TTY users may call the Federal Relay Service toll-free at 800-877-8339 and ask to be connected to 202-326-4040.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Melissa Rifkin ([e-mail]), Attorney, Regulatory Affairs Division, Office of the General Counsel, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, 1200 K Street NW, Washington, DC 20005-4026; 202-229-6563. (TTY users may call the Federal relay service toll-free at 800-877-8339 and ask to be connected to 202-229-6563.)

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Section 4007 of title IV of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) requires pension plans covered under title IV pension insurance programs to pay premiums to PBGC. All plans covered by title IV pay a flat-rate per-participant premium. An underfunded single-employer plan also pays a variable-rate premium based on the value of the plan's unfunded vested benefits.

Pursuant to section 4007, PBGC has issued its regulation on Payment of Premiums (29 CFR part 4007). Under § 4007.3 of the premium payment regulation, the plan administrator of each pension plan covered by title IV of ERISA is required to file a premium payment and information prescribed by PBGC for each premium payment year. Premium information is filed electronically using “My Plan Administration Account” (“My PAA”) through PBGC's website. Under § 4007.10 of the premium payment regulation, plan administrators are required to retain records about premiums and information submitted in premium filings.

Premium filings report (i) the flat-rate premium and related data (all plans), (ii) the variable-rate premium and related data (single-employer plans), and (iii) additional data such as identifying information and miscellaneous plan-related or filing-related data (all plans). PBGC needs this information to identify the plans for which premiums are paid, to verify whether the amounts paid are correct, to help PBGC determine the magnitude of its exposure in the event of plan termination, to help track the creation of new plans and transfer of participants and plan assets and liabilities among plans, and to keep PBGC's insured-plan inventory up to date. That information and the retained records are also needed for audit purposes.

PBGC intends to modify the 2021 premium filing to require certain plans that transferred assets to another plan (or received assets from another plan) at the beginning of the plan year to report additional information about the transfer. More specifically, such plans will be required to report whether the transfer was de minimis and, in the case of a de minimis merger, whether the transferee plan had fewer assets than the transferor plan. This information is necessary to verify that the date reported as the “participant count date” (i.e., the date as of which participants are counted for premium purposes) is correct.

PBGC also intends to update the premium rates and make conforming, clarifying, and editorial changes. One such change, to conform with the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act of 2019, is adding the option of “CSEC plan” (meaning cooperative and small-employer charity plan) as a response to the question of “Plan type.”

The collection of information under the regulation has been approved through December 21, 2022, by OMB under control number 1212-0009. On August 21, 2020, PBGC published in the Federal Register (at 85 FR 51759) a notice informing the public of its intent to request approval of the revised collection of information. PBGC did not receive any comments. 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 31,245 premium filings per year from 31,245 plan administrators under this collection of information. PBGC further estimates that the annual burden of this collection of information is 13,540 hours and $21,621,540.

Issued in Washington, DC, by.

Stephanie Cibinic,

Deputy Assistant General Counsel for Regulatory Affairs, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.