PBGC Proposes Form 5500 Modifications

PBGC is proposing a few modifications to the Schedule MB (Multiemployer Defined Benefit Plan Actuarial Information) and the Schedule SB (Single Employer Defined Benefit Plan Actuarial Information) and related instructions. The proposed modifications to the Schedule MB would require plan administrators of multiemployer defined benefit plans to specify the documentation required regarding progress under the applicable funding improvement or rehabilitation plan. Plan administrators of multiemployer plans in critical status would be required to provide information about the plan year in which the plan is projected to emerge from critical status and, if the rehabilitation plan is based on forestalling possible insolvency, the plan year in which insolvency is expected.

The proposed modifications to the Schedule SB would require plan administrators of single-employer defined benefit plans to report the funding target (vested and total) for each type of participant (active, retired, terminated vested).

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) contains three separate sets of provisions—in Title I (Labor provisions), Title II (Internal Revenue Code provisions), and Title IV (PBGC provisions)—requiring administrators of employee benefit plans to file returns or reports annually with the federal government. PBGC, the Department of Labor (DOL), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) work together to produce the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report for Employee Benefit Plan and Form 5500-SF Short Form Annual Return/Report for Small Employee Benefit Plan, through which the regulated public can satisfy the combined reporting/filing requirements applicable to employee benefit plans.

The proposal is expected to be published in the February 21 issue of Federal Register at https://www.federalregister.gov/.

Text of the proposal, including information for submitting comments, is here.