Section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act") establishes a periodic reporting obligation for every issuer of a class of securities registered under the Securities Act of 1933 (the "Securities Act"). Form 11-K is the annual report form designed for use by employee stock purchase, savings and similar plans to facilitate their compliance with that reporting requirement.
The decrease of $940,625 in cost burden is due to the decrease in the average number of Form 11-K filings made annually with the Commission (calculated for the period 2021 through 2023) from 1,066 to 941 (representing a 125 decrease in the number of responses).
The decrease of 19,056 in burden hours also is due, in part, to the decrease in the average number of Form 11-K filings made annually with the Commission. It also is due to our correction of an error in the calculation of the previous burden hour total for Form 11-K. The previous burden hour total (109,213 hours) reflected the sum of (A) the burden hours required to comply with the Form 11-K collection of information requirements, other than the requirement to submit the financial statements in Form 11-K in Inline XBRL, for 1,302 responses (30 hours per response x 1,302 responses = 39,060) plus (B) the burden hours required to comply with the requirement to submit the financial statements in Form 11-K in Inline XBRL for 1,066 responses (65.81 hours per response x 1,066 responses = 70,153 hours). However, the number of responses used to calculate the burden hours required to comply with the Form 11-K collection of information requirements, other than the requirement to submit the financial statements in Form 11-K in Inline XBRL, should have been 1,066 responses rather than 1,302 responses. Correcting for this error results in an additional decrease of 7,080 hours. This 7,080 decrease in burden hours combined with the 11,976 decrease in burden hours due to the decrease in the average number of Form 11-K filings made annually with the Commission leads to the total burden hours adjustment decrease of 19,056.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that the collection of information encompassed by this request complies with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR 1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding the proposed collection of information, that the certification covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.