Employee Benefits Security Administration November 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Notice is hereby given that the Department of Labor (the Department) will hold a hearing on January 15, 2015, relating to a proposed individual exemption from certain prohibited transaction restrictions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA), and the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the Code) that, if granted, would affect the ability of certain entities related to Credit Suisse AG to continue to rely upon the relief provided by Prohibited Transaction Class Exemption (PTE) 84-14. A notice of pendency of the proposed exemption was published in the Federal Register at 79 FR 52365 (September 3, 2014).

This document contains a notice of temporary exemption from certain prohibited transaction restrictions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA or the Act), and the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the Code). The exemption would affect the ability of certain entities with specified relationships to CSAG to continue to rely upon the relief provided by Prohibited Transaction Class Exemption 84-14 for a period of one year from the date of publication of this notice.

This interim final rule describes revisions to the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan and Form 5500-SF Annual Return/Report of Small Employee Benefit Plan (together ``Form 5500 Annual Return/Report'') to implement annual reporting changes for multiple-employer plans required by The Cooperative and Small Employer Charity Pension Flexibility Act (CSEC Act), enacted on April 7, 2014. The Form 5500 annual return/report is filed by employee benefit plans under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and sections 6047(e), 6057(b), 6058(a), and 6059 of the Internal Revenue Code (Code). The CSEC Act established additional annual reporting requirements for multiple-employer plans for plan years beginning after December 31, 2013, by adding new section 103(g) to Title I of ERISA. Specifically, the annual return/report of a multiple-employer plan must include a list of participating employers and a good faith estimate of the percentage of total contributions made by each participating employer during the plan year. This interim final rule also includes findings by the Department of Labor (Department) under the Administrative Procedure Act that good cause exists to adopt these revisions on an interim final basis without prior notice and public comments.