Employee Benefits Security Administration January 29, 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This Notice describes changes to the Department of Labor's (Department) Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program (DFVC Program or Program). Administrators of employee benefit plans subject to Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) who fail to file annual reports on a timely basis can be subject to civil penalties under section 502(c)(2) of ERISA. The DFVC Program is intended to encourage delinquent plan administrators to comply with their annual reporting obligations under ERISA through the assessment of reduced civil penalties. The DFVC Program was initially adopted in 1995 and was last updated in a published Federal Register Notice on March 28, 2002 (2002 Notice). The Department's DFVC Program Web site has been updated periodically since 2002 to reflect the adoption of technical changes to the Program. Most recently, the DFVC Program Web site was updated to reflect the Department's final regulation mandating electronic filing of annual reports as part of the implementation of a wholly electronic ERISA Filing Acceptance System (EFAST2) for those reports. (See www.dol.gov/ebsa.) This Notice also describes an existing online penalty calculator and Internet-based payment system for the DFVC Program. (See https://www.dol.gov/ebsa/ calculator/dfvcpmain.html). This Notice is intended to be a comprehensive update and restatement of the DFVC Program that incorporates the changes that have been made in the DFVC Program since the 2002 Notice.