Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation December 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's regulations on Benefits Payable in Terminated Single-Employer Plans and Allocation of Assets in Single-Employer Plans prescribe interest assumptions for valuing and paying benefits under terminating single-employer plans. This final rule amends the regulations to adopt interest assumptions for plans with valuation dates in January 2007. Interest assumptions are also published on the PBGC's Web site (https://www.pbgc.gov).

This document makes changes to the mortality assumptions under parts 4050 (Missing Participants) and 4281 (Duties of Plan Sponsor Following Mass Withdrawal) of PBGC's regulations. In a final rule published in the Federal Register on December 2, 2005, PBGC amended part 4044 (Allocation of Assets in Single-employer Plans) of its regulations to update mortality tables used for certain valuations for single-employer plans. Because of the dependence of certain valuations under part 4050 on part 4044, amendments updating the mortality assumptions under part 4050 are needed. This rule also makes a minor conforming amendment to the mortality assumptions in part 4281.

This document contains a proposal to make changes required by the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA) to the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report filed for employee benefit plans under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code (Code). The proposed changes supplement proposed revisions to the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report published, prior to the enactment of the PPA, by the Department of Labor, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (Agencies) in the Federal Register on July 21, 2006, at 71 FR 41616 (July 2006 Proposal). This supplemental proposal replaces the Schedule B, ``Actuarial Information,'' with separate actuarial schedules for single-employer plans (Schedule SB) and multiemployer plans (Schedule MB) to reflect PPA changes in funding and annual reporting requirements; adds new questions to the Schedule R, ``Retirement Plan Information,'' to collect additional information regarding single and multiemployer defined benefit pension plans required by the PPA; and proposes having the Form 5500-SF Annual Return/Report (Short Form 5500) included in the July 2006 Proposal serve as the simplified report required by the PPA for plans with fewer than 25 participants. The revisions are being proposed for 2008 plan year filings and would affect employee pension and welfare benefit plans, plan sponsors, administrators, and service providers to plans subject to annual reporting requirements under ERISA and the Code.

This rule amends Appendix D to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's regulation on Benefits Payable in Terminated Single- Employer Plans by adding the maximum guaranteeable pension benefit that may be paid by the PBGC with respect to a plan participant in a single- employer pension plan that terminates in 2007. The amendment is necessary because the maximum guarantee amount changes each year, based on changes in the contribution and benefit base under section 230 of the Social Security Act. The effect of the amendment is to advise plan administrators, participants and beneficiaries of the increased maximum guarantee amount for 2007.

This notice informs the public of the PBGC flat premium rates for premium payment years beginning in 2007. These rates can be derived from information published elsewhere but are published in this notice for the convenience of the public.