[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 202 (Monday, October 20, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 62681-62682]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-24925]


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PENSION BENEFIT GUARANTY CORPORATION


Proposed Submission of Information Collection for OMB Review; 
Comment Request; Annual Reporting (Form 5500 Series)

AGENCY: Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

ACTION: Notice of intention to request extension of OMB approval, with 
modifications.

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SUMMARY: The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) intends to 
request that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) extend approval 
(with modifications), under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, of its 
collection of information for Annual Reporting (OMB control number 
1212-0057, expires June 30, 2017). This notice informs the public of 
PBGC's intent and solicits public comment on the collection of 
information.

DATES: Comments must be submitted by December 19, 2014.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted by any of the following methods:
     Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Follow the Web site instructions for submitting comments.
     Email: [email protected].
     Fax: 202-326-4224.
     Mail or Hand Delivery: Regulatory Affairs Group, Office of 
the General Counsel, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, 1200 K 
Street NW., Washington, DC 20005-4026.

PBGC will make all comments available on its Web site at http://www.pbgc.gov.
    Copies of the collection of information and comments may be 
obtained without charge by writing to the Disclosure Division of the 
Office of the General Counsel of PBGC, at the above address or by 
visiting the Disclosure Division or calling 202-326-4040 during normal 
business hours. (TTY and TDD users may call the Federal relay service 
toll-free at 1-800-877-8339 and ask to be connected to 202-326-4040.)

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Grace Kraemer, Attorney, or Catherine 
B. Klion, Assistant General Counsel, Office of the General Counsel, 
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, 1200 K Street NW., Washington, DC 
20005-4026; 202-326-4024. (TTY and TDD users may call the Federal relay 
service toll-free at 1-800-877-8339 and ask to be connected to 202-326-
4024.)

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Employee Retirement Income Security Act 
of 1974 (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 pension and welfare plans (collectively referred to as 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 (Form 5500 Series), 
through which the regulated public can satisfy the combined reporting/
filing requirements applicable to employee benefit plans.
    The collection of information has been approved by OMB under 
control number 1212-0057 through June 30, 2017. PBGC intends to request 
that OMB extend its approval for three years, with modifications. An 
agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to 
respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently 
valid OMB control number.
    PBGC is proposing several modifications to the 2015 Schedule MB 
(Multiemployer Defined Benefit Plan Actuarial Information) and 
instructions and the Schedule SB (Single Employer Defined Benefit Plan 
Actuarial Information) instructions. These modifications affect 
multiemployer defined benefit plans covered by Title IV of ERISA.
    Based on a recommendation made by practitioners, PBGC is proposing 
to modify the Schedule MB to require plan administrators of all 
multiemployer plans to report on line 4 the funded percentage for 
monitoring the plan's status. Currently, only plan administrators of 
multiemployer plans in critical or endangered status are required to 
report this information on line 4. (Plan administrators of all 
multiemployer plans are currently required to report information that 
can be used to calculate this funded percentage on line 1 of the 
Schedule MB.)
    PBGC is also proposing to modify the Schedule MB instructions to 
add RP-2000 and RP-2000 (with Blue Collar Adjustment) to the list of 
mortality tables for non-disabled lives that plans may report in line 
6c. (Plans that use these mortality tables currently report under the 
category ``Other''.)
    The Schedule MB and instructions would also be modified to add a 
new question in line 8b that would require large multiemployer plans 
(500 or more total participants as of the valuation date) to provide in 
an attachment a projection of expected benefit payments to be paid for 
the entire plan (not including expected expenses) for each of the next 
ten plan years starting with the plan year to which the filing relates. 
For this purpose plans would assume no additional accruals, experience 
(e.g., termination, mortality, and retirement) is consistent with the 
plan's valuation assumptions, and no new entrants would be covered by 
the plan.
    PBGC is proposing to modify the Schedule SB instructions to 
simplify the alternative age/service scatters that cash balance plans 
with 1,000 or more active participants have an option to report on an 
attachment to line 26.
    PBGC estimates that it will receive approximately 25,000 Form 5500 
and Form 5500-SF filings per year under this collection of information. 
PBGC further estimates that the total annual burden of this collection 
of information will be 1,200 hours and $1,357,000.
    PBGC is soliciting public comments to--
     Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, 
including whether the information will have practical utility;
     Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the 
burden of the proposed collection of information,

[[Page 62682]]

including the validity of the methodologies and assumptions used;
     Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected; and
     Minimize the burden of the collection of information on 
those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate 
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting 
electronic submission of responses.

    Issued in Washington, DC, this 14th day of October 2014.
Judith Starr,
General Counsel, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.
[FR Doc. 2014-24925 Filed 10-17-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7709-02-P