Employee Benefits Security Administration July 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This document contains a final rule establishing an electronic filing requirement for certain annual reports required to be filed with the Department of Labor by plan administrators and other entities. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA), the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (Code), and the regulations issued thereunder impose certain annual reporting obligations on pension and welfare benefit plans, as well as on certain other entities. These annual reporting obligations generally are satisfied by filing the Form 5500 ``Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan,'' including any required schedules and attachments (Form 5500). Currently, the Department of Labor (Department), the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, and the Internal Revenue Service (Agencies) use an automated document processing systemthe ERISA Filing Acceptance System (EFAST)to process the Form 5500 filings. As part of the Department's efforts to update and streamline the current processing system, the regulation contained in this document requires electronic filing of all annual reports filed with the Secretary of Labor (Secretary) for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2008, to satisfy annual reporting obligations under Part 1 of Title I of ERISA. This regulation affects employee pension and welfare benefit plans, plan sponsors, administrators, and service providers to plans subject to Title I of ERISA.

This document contains proposed revisions to the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report forms, including a proposed new Short Form 5500, filed for employee pension and welfare benefit plans under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code (Code). The Form 5500 Annual Return/Report, including its schedules and attachments (Form 5500 Annual Return/Report), is an important source of financial, funding, and other information about employee benefit plans for the Department of Labor, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, and the Internal Revenue Service (the Agencies), as well as for plan sponsors, participants and beneficiaries, and the general public. The proposed revisions to the Form 5500 Annual Return/ Report, contained in this document, including a new Form 5500-SF short form annual return/report for certain types of small pension plans, are intended to reduce and streamline annual reporting burdens, especially for small businesses, update the annual reporting forms to reflect current issues and agency priorities, and facilitate the establishment of a wholly electronic filing system for receipt of the Form 5500 Annual Returns/Reports. The form revisions thus would, upon adoption, apply for the reporting year for which the electronic filing requirement is implemented. The proposed revisions 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.

The Department of Labor (Department), as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, conducts a preclearance consultation program to provide the general public and Federal agencies with an opportunity to comment on proposed and continuing collections of information in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA) (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)((A)). This program helps to ensure that the data the Department gathers can be provided in the desired format, that the reporting burden on the public (time and financial resources) is minimized, that the public understands the Department's collection instruments, and that the Department can accurately assess the impact of collection requirements on respondents. Currently, the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) is soliciting comments concerning the extension of a currently approved collection of information arising from the Department's regulation at 29 CFR 2590.701-5, which requires group health plans and health insurance issuers to furnish a written certificate suitable for establishing prior creditable coverage to participants and dependents who are or were covered under the group health plan upon the occurrence of specified events. A copy of the information collection request (ICR) can be obtained by contacting the office shown in the ADDRESSES section of this notice.