[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 180 (Tuesday, September 19, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43798-43800]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2017-19884]


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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 intent 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 under OMB control number 
1212-0057,

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which expires on August 31, 2020. This notice informs the public of 
PBGC's intent and solicits public comment on the collection of 
information.

DATES: Comments must be submitted by November 20, 2017.

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].
     Mail or Hand Delivery: Regulatory Affairs Division, 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, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, 
1200 K Street NW., Washington, DC 20005-4026, or by 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: Jo Amato Burns 
([email protected]), Attorney, Regulatory Affairs Division, 
Office of the General Counsel, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, 
1200 K Street NW., Washington, DC 20005-4026, 202-326-4400, extension 
3072. (TTY and TDD users may call the Federal relay service toll-free 
at 800-877-8339 and ask to be connected to 202-326-4400, extension 
3072.)

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Annual reporting to the Internal Revenue 
Service (IRS), the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), 
and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) is required by law 
for most employee benefit plans. For example, section 4065 of the 
Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 requires annual 
reporting to PBGC for pension plans covered by title IV of ERISA. To 
accommodate these filing requirements, PBGC, IRS, and EBSA have jointly 
promulgated the Form 5500 Series, which includes the Form 5500 Annual 
Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan and the Form 5500-SF Short Form 
Annual Return/Report of Small Employee Benefit Plan.
    The collection of information has been approved by OMB under 
control number 1212-0057 through August 31, 2020. PBGC intends to 
request that OMB extend its approval, with modifications, for three 
years. 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 two modifications to the 2017 Schedule MB 
(Multiemployer Defined Benefit Plan Actuarial Information) instructions 
and one modification to the Schedule SB (Single Employer Defined 
Benefit Plan Actuarial Information) instructions. These modifications 
affect multiemployer defined benefit plans and single-employer defined 
benefit plans covered by Title IV of ERISA.
    With regard to the Schedule MB instructions, PBGC is proposing to 
change the instructions to require new attachments in two situations as 
explained below:
     If any of the contributions reported in Line 3 
(Contributions Made to Plan) include amounts owed for withdrawal 
liability, PBGC is proposing to require plan administrators to report 
for each reported contribution (on an attachment to Line 3), the 
aggregate amount of withdrawal liability payments included in such 
contribution. This will enable PBGC to allocate the reported 
contributions between regular contributions and withdrawal liability 
payments and is consistent with intent of Line 3 to provide 
contribution information for projection purposes.
    Ongoing contributions are expected annually from ongoing employers. 
Withdrawal liability payments are contributions paid by employers who 
have withdrawn from the plan and thus, at some point, will stop 
contributing. Separating withdrawal payments from contributions will 
assist in projections of future ongoing contributions and also will 
provide information regarding withdrawing employers.
     For multiemployer plans in Critical or Critical and 
Declining status (i.e., where Code C (Critical Status) or Code D 
(Critical and Declining Status) is entered on Line 4b), the current 
Schedule MB instructions require that plans report the year a troubled 
multiemployer plan is projected to become insolvent or emerge from 
troubled status on Line 4f. However, there is no requirement to provide 
supporting documentation for these projections. PBGC is proposing that 
basic supporting documentation be included as an attachment to Line 4f. 
Such plans would be required to report in the attachment:
    [cir] Year-by-year cash flow projections for the period ending with 
whichever is applicable: The year the plan is projected to emerge from 
Critical or Critical and Declining Status or the year the plan is 
projected to become insolvent, and
    [cir] A summary of the assumptions underlying these projections.
    PBGC is proposing the addition of this information to enable PBGC 
to better project the impact on participants and PBGC's insurance 
system.
    With regard to the Schedule SB instructions, PBGC is proposing to 
change the instructions related to an attachment that is currently 
required of plans for which the IRS has granted permission to use a 
substitute mortality table. The current instructions for Schedule SB, 
item 23, describe the information that is to be included in the 
attachment. Those instructions reflect the current IRS regulation on 
the use of substitute mortality tables, 26 CFR 1.430(h)(3)-2. The 
proposed changes to the Schedule SB are based on amendments to the IRS 
mortality table regulations that are proposed to become effective on 1/
1/2018. If the regulations are not effective on 1/1/2018, then the 
proposed changes to the Schedule SB will be deleted from the final Form 
5500 instructions. PBGC is proposing to require plans to report 
additional information (consistent with the amended regulation) as part 
of the item 23 attachment. The addition of information will allow PBGC 
to reconstruct the substitute table for which the plan has sought IRS 
approval. This will enable PBGC to better predict future funding 
requirements and the impact on participants and the insurance system.
    It is anticipated that the information requested by the proposed 
changes described above will be available to the plan and will merely 
require that the plan insert information it already has into the 
attachments described.
    PBGC estimates that it will receive approximately 23,700 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 1,300 hours and $1,613,000.
    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, including the 
validity of the methodologies and assumptions used;

[[Page 43800]]

     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.
Daniel Liebman,
Acting Assistant General Counsel for Regulatory Affairs, Pension 
Benefit Guaranty Corporation.
[FR Doc. 2017-19884 Filed 9-18-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 7709-02-P