This part prescribes the requirements for notifying PBGC of a reportable event under section 4043 of ERISA or of a failure to make certain required contributions under section 303(k)(4) of ERISA or section 430(k)(4) of the Code. Subpart A contains definitions and general rules. Subpart B contains rules for post-event notice of a reportable event. Subpart C contains rules for advance notice of a reportable event. Subpart D contains rules for notifying PBGC of a failure to make certain required contributions.

The following terms are defined in § 4001.2 of this chapter: benefit liabilities, Code, contributing sponsor, controlled group, ERISA, fair market value, irrevocable commitment, multiemployer plan, PBGC, person, plan, plan administrator, plan year, single-employer plan, ultimate parent, and U.S. entity.

In addition, for purposes of this part:

De minimis 10-percent segment means, in connection with a plan's controlled group, one or more entities that in the aggregate have for a fiscal year—

(1) Revenue not exceeding 10 percent of the controlled group's revenue;

(2) Annual operating income not exceeding the greater of—

(i) 10 percent of the controlled group's annual operating income; or

(ii) $5 million; and

(3) Net tangible assets at the end of the fiscal year(s) not exceeding the greater of—

(i) 10 percent of the controlled group's net tangible assets at the end of the fiscal year(s); or

(ii) $5 million.

De minimis 5-percent segment has the same meaning as de minimis 10-percent segment, except that “5 percent” is substituted for “10 percent” each time it appears.

Event year means the plan year in which a reportable event occurs.

Foreign entity means a member of a controlled group that—

(1) Is not a contributing sponsor of a plan;

(2) Is not organized under the laws of (or, if an individual, is not a domiciliary of) any state (as defined in section 3(10) of ERISA); and

(3) For the fiscal year that includes the date the reportable event occurs, meets one of the following tests—

(i) Is not required to file any United States federal income tax form;

(ii) Has no income reportable on any United States federal income tax form other than passive income not exceeding $1,000; or

(iii) Does not own substantial assets in the United States (disregarding stock of a member of the plan's controlled group) and is not required to file any quarterly United States tax returns for employee withholding.

Foreign parent means a foreign entity that is a direct or indirect parent of a person that is a contributing sponsor of a plan.

Low-default-risk has the meaning described in § 4043.9.

Notice due date means the deadline (including extensions) for filing notice of a reportable event with PBGC.

Participant means a participant as defined in § 4006.2 of this chapter.

Public company means a person subject to the reporting requirements of section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 or a subsidiary (as defined for purposes of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) of a person subject to such reporting requirements.

Substantial owner means a substantial owner as defined in section 4021(d) of ERISA.

Well-funded plan safe harbor has the meaning described in § 4043.10.

(a) Obligation to file—(1) In general. Each person that is required to file a notice under this part, or a duly authorized representative, must submit the information required under this part by the time specified in § 4043.20 (for post-event notices), § 4043.61 (for advance notices), or § 4043.81 (for Form 200 filings). Any information filed with PBGC in connection with another matter may be incorporated by reference. If an event is subject to both post-event and advance notice requirements, the notice filed first satisfies both filing requirements.

(2) Multiple plans. If a reportable event occurs for more than one plan, the filing obligation with respect to each plan is independent of the filing obligation with respect to any other plan.

(3) Optional consolidated filing. A filing of a notice with respect to a reportable event by any person required to file will be deemed to be a filing by all persons required to give PBGC notice of the event under this part. If notices are required for two or more events, the notices may be combined in one filing.

(b) Contents of reportable event notice. A person required to file a reportable event notice under subpart B or C of this part must file, by the notice date, the form specified by PBGC for that purpose, with the information specified in PBGC's reportable events instructions.

(c) Reportable event forms and instructions. PBGC will issue reportable events forms and instructions and make them available on its website (http://www.pbgc.gov).

(d) Requests for additional information. PBGC may, in any case, require the submission of additional relevant information not specified in its forms and instructions. Any such information must be submitted for subpart B of this part within 30 days, and for subpart C or D of this part within 7 days, after the date of a written request by PBGC, or within a different time period specified therein. PBGC may in its discretion shorten the time period where it determines that the interests of PBGC or participants may be prejudiced by a delay in receipt of the information.

(e) Effect of failure to file. If a notice (or any other information required under this part) is not provided within the specified time limit, PBGC may pursue any equitable or legal remedies available to it under the law, including assessing against each person required to provide the notice a separate penalty under section 4071 of ERISA.

(a) Waivers and extensions—in general. PBGC may extend any deadline or waive any other requirement under this part where it finds convincing evidence that the waiver or extension is appropriate under the circumstances. Any waiver or extension may be subject to conditions. A request for a waiver or extension must be filed with PBGC in writing (which may be in electronic form) and must state the facts and circumstances on which the request is based.

(b) Waivers and extensions—specific events. For some reportable events, automatic waivers from reporting and extensions of time are provided in subparts B and C of this part. If an occurrence constitutes two or more reportable events, reporting requirements for each event are determined independently. For example, reporting is automatically waived for an occurrence that constitutes a reportable event under more than one section only if the requirements for an automatic waiver under each section are satisfied.

(c) Multiemployer plans. The requirements of section 4043 of ERISA are waived with respect to multiemployer plans.

(d) Terminating plans. No notice is required from the plan administrator or contributing sponsor of a plan if the notice date is on or after the date on which—

(1) All of the plan's assets (other than any excess assets) are distributed pursuant to a termination under part 4041 of this chapter; or

(2) A trustee is appointed for the plan under section 4042 of ERISA.

(e) Events not described in this part. Notice of a reportable event described in section 4043(c) of ERISA is waived except to the extent that reporting is required under this part.

Reportable event notices required under this part must be filed electronically in accordance with the instructions posted on PBGC's Web site, http://www.pbgc.gov. Filing guidance is provided by the instructions and by subpart A of part 4000 of this chapter.

(a) Post-event notice filings. PBGC applies the rules in subpart C of part 4000 of this chapter to determine the date that a submission under subpart B of this part was filed with PBGC.

(b) Advance notice and Form 200 filings. Information filed under subpart C or D of this part is treated as filed on the date it is received by PBGC. Subpart C of part 4000 of this chapter provides rules for determining when PBGC receives a submission.

PBGC applies the rules in subpart D of part 4000 of this chapter to compute any time period under this part.

In accordance with section 4043(f) of ERISA and § 4901.21(a) of this chapter, any information or documentary material that is not publicly available and is submitted to PBGC pursuant to subpart B or C of this part will not be made public, except as may be relevant to any administrative or judicial action or proceeding or for disclosures to either body of Congress or to any duly authorized committee or subcommittee of the Congress. This provision does not apply to information or material submitted to PBGC pursuant to subpart D of this part, even where the submission serves as an alternative method of compliance with § 4043.25.

(a) Low-default-risk. An entity (a “company”) that is a contributing sponsor of a plan or the highest level U.S. parent of a contributing sponsor is “low-default-risk” on the date of an event if that date falls within a safe harbor period of the company as described in paragraph (b) of this section.

(b) Safe harbor period. A safe harbor period for a company means a period that—

(1) Begins on a financial information date (as described in paragraph (c) of this section) on which the company satisfies the low-default-risk standard in paragraph (e) of this section, and

(2) Ends 13 months later or (if earlier) on the company's next financial information date.

(c) Financial information date. A financial information date for a company means—

(1) A date on which the company files on Form 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) audited annual financial statements (including balance sheets, income statements, cash flow statements, and notes to the financial statements) for the company's most recent completed fiscal year preceding the date of such filing;

(2) The date (the “closing date”) on which the company closes the annual accounting period that results in the production of audited or unaudited annual financial statements for the company's most recent completed fiscal year preceding the closing date, if audited annual financial statements are not required to be filed with the SEC; or

(3) A date on which the company files with IRS an annual federal income tax return or IRS Form 990 (in either case, a “return”) for the company's most recent completed fiscal year preceding the date of such filing, if at the time the return is filed there are no annual financial statements for the year of the return.

(d) Supporting financial information. For purposes of this section, the “supporting financial information” is the annual financial statements or return associated with the establishment of the financial information date.

(e) Low-default-risk standard—(1) Adequate capacity. For purposes of this part, except as provided in paragraph (e)(4) of this section, a company meets the low-default-risk standard as of a financial information date (the “qualifying date”) if the company has adequate capacity to meet its obligations in full and on time on the qualifying date as evidenced by satisfying either:

(i) Both of the criteria described in paragraphs (e)(2)(i) and (ii) of this section, or

(ii) Any four of the seven criteria described in paragraphs (e)(2)(i) through (vii) of this section.

(2) Criteria evidencing adequate capacity. The criteria referred to in paragraph (e)(1) of this section are:

(i) The probability that the company will default on its financial obligations is not more than four percent over the next five years or not more than 0.4 percent over the next year, in either case determined on the basis of widely available third-party financial information on the company's credit quality.

(ii) The company's secured debt (disregarding leases and debt incurred to acquire or improve property and secured only by that property) does not exceed 10 percent of the company's total assets.

(iii) The company has a ratio of retained-earnings-to-total-assets of 0.25 or more.

(iv) The company has a ratio of total-debt-to-EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) of 3.0 or less.

(v) The company has positive net income for the two most recently completed fiscal years preceding the qualifying date.

(vi) During the two-year period ending on the qualifying date, the company has not experienced an event described in § 4043.34(a)(1) or (2) (dealing with a default on a loan with an outstanding balance of $10 million or more) with respect to any loan with an outstanding balance of $10 million or more to the company regardless of whether reporting was waived under § 4043.34(b).

(vii) During the two-year period ending on the qualifying date, there has not been any failure to make when due any contribution described in § 4043.25(a)(1) or (2) (dealing with failure to make required minimum funding payments), unless reporting was waived under § 4043.25(c).

(3) Using financial information to evaluate criteria. (i) Subject to paragraph (e)(3)(ii) of this section with respect to evaluating the criterion described in paragraph (e)(2)(v) of this section, to evaluate whether criteria described in paragraphs (e)(2)(ii) through (v) of this section are met, a company must use the supporting financial information described in paragraph (d) of this section associated with the qualifying date.

(ii) In addition to the use of the supporting financial information to evaluate criteria as described in paragraph (e)(3)(i) of this section, to evaluate whether the criterion described in paragraph (e)(2)(v) of this section is met, the company must also use the supporting financial information as described in paragraph (d) of this section associated with the financial information date for the fiscal year preceding the fiscal year covered by the supporting financial information associated with the qualifying date.

(iii) For purposes of paragraph (e)(2)(v) of this section, the excess of total revenue over total expenses as reported on the IRS Form 990 is considered to be net income.

(4) Exception. If a company receives an audit or review report for supporting financial information described in paragraph (d) of this section associated with the qualifying date that expresses a material adverse view or qualification, the company does not satisfy the low-default-risk standard.

For purposes of this part, a plan is in the well-funded plan safe harbor for an event year if no variable-rate premium was required to be paid for the plan under parts 4006 and 4007 of this chapter for the plan year preceding the event year.