Form 200_Sup Stmt_to OMB

I:¥regulatory¥RM¥Paperwork¥1212-0041 Form 200¥rollover.1108¥Form 200_Sup Stmt_to OMB.doc

SUPPORTING STATEMENT FOR REQUEST FOR OMB APPROVAL
UNDER THE PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT AND 5 CFR PART 1320

AGENCY:

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

TITLE:

PBGC Form 200, Notice of Failure to Make Required Contributions
(29 CFR 4043.81)

STATUS:

Request for renewal of a currently approved collection (with modifications) of
information (OMB control no. 1212-0041; expires February 28, 2009)

CONTACT: James Bloch (202-326-4000, ext. 3530) or Catherine Klion (202-326-4000,
ext. 3041)
A.

Justification.
1.

Need for collection. Section 303(k) of the Employee Retirement Income Security

Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) and section 430(k) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (“Code”)
impose a lien in favor of an underfunded single-employer plan that is covered by the termination
insurance program if (1) any person fails to make a required payment when due, and (2) the
unpaid balance of that payment (including interest), when added to the aggregate unpaid balance
of all preceding payments for which payment was not made when due (including interest),
exceeds $1 million.

(For this purpose, a plan is underfunded if its funding target attainment

percentage is less than 100 percent.)

The lien is upon all property and rights to property

belonging to the person or persons who are liable for required contributions (i.e., a contributing
sponsor and each member of the controlled group of which that contributing sponsor is a
member).
Only PBGC (or, at its direction, the plan's contributing sponsor or a member of the same
controlled group) may perfect and enforce this lien.

ERISA and the Code require persons

committing payment failures to notify PBGC within 10 days of the due date whenever there is a
failure to make a required payment and the total of the unpaid balances (including interest)
exceeds $1 million.
PBGC Form 200, Notice of Failure to Make Required Contributions, and related filing
instructions, implement the statutory notification requirement.
required by 29 CFR § 4043.81.

Submission of Form 200 is

The form and instructions have been revised to remove

information that is no longer applicable in light of changes made by the Pension Protection Act
of 2006.
2.

Use of information.

PBGC uses the information it obtains to make decisions

regarding enforcement of liens created under ERISA section 303(k)(1) and Code section
430(k)(1).

This information enables PBGC staff to determine the amount of the statutory lien

and to evaluate the funding status of the plan and the financial condition of the person(s)
responsible for its funding.

Without this information, PBGC could not efficiently and

effectively use the statutory lien provisions in carrying out its responsibilities to protect plan
benefits and control insurance program costs.
3.

Use of technological collection techniques.

PBGC permits Form 200 filings to be

made by electronic transmission to the address specified in the instructions to the form on
PBGC’s Web site.
4.

Duplication and similar information.

PBGC avoids potential duplication by

permitting a filer to respond to an item that calls for documentation or other information
previously submitted to PBGC (in an earlier Form 200 or another context) by identifying the
previous submission in which the response was provided.

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In addition, to the extent that PBGC staff can use information from documents prepared
for other purposes (including reports and other filings with Federal agencies and in judicial
proceedings) in lien-enforcement decision making, Form 200 calls for the submission of copies
of those documents.

Other items also call for information that already is available to

respondents.
A failure that triggers this notification requirement also may be a reportable event (see
section 4043(c)(5) of ERISA and 29 CFR § 4043.25).

The reportable event notice requirement

is satisfied if a timely and complete Form 200 is submitted with respect to the same failure (see
29 CFR § 4043.25(d)).
PBGC believes that there is no information similar to that required under the regulation
that could be used instead of the required information for the purposes served by the regulation.
5.

Small businesses.

6.

Consequences of no or less frequent collection.

Not applicable.
ERISA establishes when PBGC

collects information by requiring that PBGC be notified of each failure to make a required
funding payment by the due date.

If PBGC were notified less frequently, or not at all, it would

not have the information that it needs to make timely lien-enforcement decisions.
7.

Special Circumstances.

The statutory notification requirement is tied to the

minimum funding standards, which may require payments more often than quarterly.
Consequently, failure to make a required payment may trigger the statutory notification
requirement more often than quarterly.
Although Form 200 is not prepared in response to a PBGC solicitation of information, the
statutory requirement does provide that PBGC must be notified within 10 days of a payment due

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date.

However, persons who may be required to notify PBGC can familiarize themselves with

Form 200, and even begin preparing responses, before a payment failure that triggers the
statutory notification requirement.
additional information.

In some cases, PBGC may require the submission of

In general, the submission of additional information is required within

7 days after PBGC makes a written request.

The 7-day period is necessary to ensure that PBGC

has sufficient time to act to enforce the statutory liens.
PBGC (see Item 2).

Any delay may result in financial loss to

In addition, PBGC may shorten the time period for responding to a written

request for additional information, but only where it determines that the interests of PBGC or
participants may be prejudiced by a delay in the receipt of the information.
In all other respects, this collection of information is not conducted in any manner
described in item 7 of the general instructions for the supporting statement.
8.

Outside input.

On November 21, 2008 (73 FR 70681), PBGC published a notice

soliciting public comment on this collection of information pursuant to 5 CFR § 1320.8(d).

No

public comments were received in response to the notice.
9.

Payments and Gifts.

PBGC provides no payments or gifts to respondents in

connection with this collection of information.
10.

Confidentiality.

In accordance with section 4043(f) of ERISA and 29 CFR

§ 4901.21(a)(3), any information or documentary material that is not publicly available and is
submitted to PBGC pursuant to section 4043 is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of
Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552) (“FOIA”) and may not be made public, except as may be
relevant to an administrative or judicial action or proceeding.

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(ERISA section 4043(f), like

FOIA section 552(d), does not prevent disclosure to Congress, or to an authorized congressional
committee or subcommittee.)
11.

Sensitive questions.

This collection of information involves no questions of a

sensitive nature.
12.

Burden on the public.

PBGC anticipates that this collection of information

requirement will apply, annually, with respect to up to 185 single-employer plans.

When a

payment failure first results in a total of unpaid balances (including interest) that exceeds $1
million, PBGC estimates that the average response time for the initial filing will be 2.9 hours.
When there is a subsequent payment failure and the total of unpaid balances (including interest)
continues to exceed $1 million, PBGC estimates that the average response time for the
subsequent filing will be 1.4 hours.

These times are averages that will vary depending on the

nature and organizational structure of persons liable for plan contributions (in particular, whether
the plan’s contributing sponsor is a member of a controlled group and, if so, the size of that
group) and on the funding history of the plan.
PBGC's estimates assume an average of one initial and 1.3 subsequent filings annually
with respect to each of the 185 plans.

Based on these assumptions, PBGC estimates that the

total annual burden on the public will be 873 hours ((2.9)(1)(185) + (1.4)(1.3)(185)), or a total
annual cost of $305,550 ((873)($350)).
At a rate of $350 per hour, PBGC estimates the per plan costs of responding at $1,015
((2.9)($350)) and $637 ((1.4)(1.3)($350)) for initial and subsequent filings, respectively, for a
total annual cost of $1,652 per respondent.

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13.

Costs.

PBGC estimates that an additional 873 hours will be contracted out.

Assuming the same average rate of $350, PBGC estimates that the annual cost under the Form
200 for purchase of services will be $305,550.

Because failures to make required contributions

occur infrequently and on a nonrecurring basis, there are no capital and start-up costs.
14.

Costs to the Federal government.

PBGC estimates the cost of processing filings

based on 671 hours of PBGC employees' time annually: 2 hours for each of 185 initial filings
(0.5 and 1.5 hours of clerical and professional staff time, respectively) and 1.25 hours for each of
241 subsequent filings (0.5 and 0.75 hours of clerical and professional staff time, respectively).
At a cost of $23 and $70 per hour for clerical and professional time, respectively, PBGC's
estimated annual cost is $36,976.50 (($11.50 + $105)(185) + ($11.50 + $52.50)((185)(1.3))).
15.

Change in burden.

The adjustment in burden is the result of an increase in the

number of expected filings based upon PBGC’s experience in the last three years, and an
increase in the hourly contracting rate from $275 to $350.
16.

Publication plans.

PBGC does not plan to publish the results of this collection of

information.
17.

Approval for omitting expiration date.

Not applicable.

PBGC is not seeking

OMB approval to omit the expiration date.
18.

Exceptions to certification statement.

statement for this submission.

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There are no exceptions to the certification