Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 99 / Monday, May 23, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 31133 

1Sections 101 and 104 of Title I and section 4065 

of Title IV of ERISA and sections 6057(b), 6058(a), 

and 6059(a) of the Code, and related regulations, 

impose annual reporting and filing obligations on 

pension and welfare benefit plans, as well as on 

certain other entities. Plan administrators, 

employers, and others generally satisfy these annual 

reporting obligations by filing the Form 5500 or 

Form 5500–SF. 

2References to the ‘‘Form 5500 Annual Return/ 

Report’’ may include, depending on the context, the 

Form 5500, the Form 5500–SF, and the Form 5500– 

EZ, Annual Return of One Participant (Owners/ 

Partners and Their Spouses) Retirement Plan or a 

Foreign Plan (Form 5500–EZ). The Form 5500–EZ 

is a return that is required to satisfy section 6058(a) 

of the Code only. Form 5500–EZ filers are not 

subject to Title I of ERISA. 

3Estimates are based on 2019 Form 5500 filings. 

DOL notes that single employer welfare plans with 

under 100 participants that are unfunded or insured 

(generally don’t hold assets in trust) are exempt 

from filing a Form 5500 under 29 CFR 2520.104– 

29. Therefore, while DOL estimates there are 2.0 

million health plans and 662,000 non-health 

welfare plans, respectively, only 69,000 and 91,000 

of these plans filed a 2019 Form 5500. 

4Source: DOL/EBSA calculations using the 

Auxiliary Data for the March 2020 Annual Social 

and Economic Supplement to the Current 

Population Survey. 

5EBSA based these estimates on the 2019 Form 

5500 Annual Return/Report filings, reported 

SIMPLE assets from the Investment Company 

Institute (ICI) Report: The U.S. Retirement Market, 

First Quarter 2021, and the Federal Reserve Board’s 

Financial Accounts of the United States Z.1 

December 9, 2021. 

Issued in Fort Worth, Texas, on May 16, 

2022. 

Martin Skinner, 

Manager, Operations Support Group, ATO 

Central Service Center. 

[FR Doc. 2022–10940 Filed 5–20–22; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–13–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY 

Internal Revenue Service 

26 CFR Part 301 

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 

Employee Benefits Security 

Administration 

29 CFR Part 2520 

PENSION BENEFIT GUARANTY 

CORPORATION 

29 CFR Part 4065 

RIN 1210–AB97 

Annual Information Return/Reports 

AGENCY: Internal Revenue Service, 

Treasury; Employee Benefits Security 

Administration, Labor; Pension Benefit 

Guaranty Corporation. 

ACTION: Final forms revisions. 

SUMMARY: This document contains final 

forms and instructions revisions for the 

Form 5500 Annual Return/Report of 

Employee Benefit Plan and Form 5500– 

SF Short Form Annual Return/Report of 

Small Employee Benefit Plan, effective 

for plan years beginning on or after 

January 1, 2022. The changes to the 

forms and instructions in this document 

primarily implement annual reporting 

changes for defined benefit plans 

included in that proposal. A limited 

number of instruction changes focus on 

reporting for multiple-employer pension 

plans (including pooled employer 

plans). The remaining changes are 

technical changes that are part of the 

annual rollover of the Form 5500 and 

Form 5500–SF forms and instructions. 

DATES: The final forms and instructions 

revisions in this document are effective 

for plan years beginning on or after 

January 1, 2022. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Janet Song, Florence Novellino, or 

Colleen Brisport Sequeda, Office of 

Regulations and Interpretations, 

Employee Benefits Security 

Administration, U.S. Department of 

Labor (DOL), (202) 693–8500 for 

questions related to reporting 

requirements under Title I of ERISA. For 

information related to the IRS reporting 

requirements under the Internal 

Revenue Code, contact Cathy 

Greenwood, Employee Plans Program 

Management Office, Tax Exempt and 

Government Entities, (470) 639–2503. 

For information related to PBGC 

reporting and changes in this document, 

including proposed changes to the 

actuarial schedules, contact Karen 

Levin, Regulatory Affairs Division, 

Office of the General Counsel, Pension 

Benefit Guaranty Corporation, (202) 

229–3559. 

Customer service information: 

Individuals interested in obtaining 

general information from the DOL 

concerning Title I of ERISA may call the 

EBSA Toll-Free Hotline at 1–866–444– 

EBSA (3272) or visit the DOL’s website 

(www.dol.gov/agencies/ebsa). 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background 

Titles I and IV of the Employee 

Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 

(ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code 

(Code), generally require pension and 

other employee benefit plans to file 

annual returns/reports concerning, 

among other things, the financial 

condition and operations of the plans.1

Filing a Form 5500 Annual Return/ 

Report of Employee Benefit Plan (Form 

5500) or, if eligible, a Form 5500–SF 

Short Form Annual Return/Report of 

Small Employee Benefit Plan (Form 

5500–SF), together with any required 

schedules and attachments (together 

‘‘the Form 5500 Annual Return/ 

Report’’),2 in accordance with related 

instructions, generally satisfies these 

annual reporting requirements. ERISA 

section 103 broadly sets out annual 

financial reporting requirements for 

employee benefit plans under Title I of 

ERISA. The Form 5500 Annual Return/ 

Report, and related instructions and 

regulations, are also promulgated under 

the DOL’s general regulatory authority 

in ERISA sections 109 and 505. 

The Form 5500 Annual Return/Report 

serves as the principal source of 

information and data available to the 

Department of Labor (DOL or the 

Department), the Internal Revenue 

Service (IRS), and the Pension Benefit 

Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) 

(collectively the ‘‘Agencies’’) concerning 

the operations, funding, and 

investments of approximately 844,000 

pension and welfare benefit plans that 

file.3 ERISA plans cover roughly 158 

million workers, retirees, and 

dependents of private sector pension 

and welfare plans 4 with estimated 

assets of $12.9 trillion.5 Accordingly, 

the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report is 

essential to each Agency’s enforcement, 

research, and policy formulation 

programs, as well as for the regulated 

community, which makes increasing 

use of the information as more 

capabilities develop to interact with the 

data electronically. The data is also an 

important source of information for use 

by other Federal agencies, Congress, and 

the private sector in assessing employee 

benefits, tax, and economic trends and 

policies. The Form 5500 Annual Return/ 

Report also serves as a primary means 

by which the operations of plans can be 

monitored by participating employers in 

multiple-employer plans and other 

group arrangements, by plan 

participants and beneficiaries, and by 

the general public. 

On September 15, 2021, the Agencies 

published a notice of proposed forms 

revisions (NPFR) to amend the Form 

5500 Annual Return/Report primarily to 

implement annual reporting changes 

related to legislative provisions in the 

Setting Every Community Up for 

Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 

(SECURE Act) focused on multipleemployer pension plans (MEPs) and 

defined contribution reporting groups 

(DCGs). The NPFR also set forth 

additional proposed changes intended 

to improve reporting on multiemployer 

and single-employer defined benefit 

pension plans, updated reporting on 

Form 5500 Annual Return/Report to 


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31134 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 99 / Monday, May 23, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 

6The SECURE Act was enacted on December 20, 

2019, as Division O of the Further Consolidated 

Appropriations Act, 2020 (Pub. L. 116–94). 

7Specifically, the 2021 Final Forms Revisions 

adopted revisions to the instructions for the 2021 

Form 5500 Annual Return/Report that: (1) Note that 

a pooled employer plan operated by a pooled plan 

provider that meets the definition under ERISA 

section 3(43) is a multiple-employer plan that files 

a single Form 5500 Annual Return/Report; (2) 

require defined contribution multiple-employer 

pension plans, including pooled employer plans, to 

report aggregate account balance information by 

employer in addition to existing ERISA section 

103(g) reporting requirements on participating 

employer information; and (3) require ‘‘pooled 

employer plans’’ to indicate whether they are in 

compliance with the Form PR registration 

requirements and provide the AckID number for 

their latest Form PR filing. 

8A Form 5500 Annual Return/Report for the 2022 

plan year generally is not required to be filed until 

seven months after the end of the 2022 plan year, 

e.g., July 31, 2023, for calendar year plans, and a 

21⁄2-month extension is available by filing IRS Form 

5558, Application for Extension of Time to File 

Certain Employee Plan Returns, on or before the 

normal due date. 

9The SECURE Act directed DOL and Treasury to 

develop a consolidated reporting option for certain 

groups of defined contribution or individual 

account plans. Section 202 of the SECURE Act 

provides that the Secretaries, shall, in cooperation, 

modify annual return/report so that all members of 

a group of defined contribution or individual 

account plans described in section 202(c) may file 

a single aggregated annual return/report satisfying 

the requirements of both section 6058 of the Code 

and section 104 of ERISA. The SECURE Act further 

provides that, in developing the consolidated 

return/report, the Secretaries may require any 

information regarding each plan in the group as 

such Secretaries determine is necessary or 

appropriate for the enforcement and administration 

of the Code and ERISA. The SECURE Act also 

requires that the consolidated return/report include 

such information as will enable participants in any 

make the financial information collected 

on the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report 

more useful and usable, enhanced the 

reporting of certain tax qualification and 

other compliance information by 

retirement plans, and transferred to the 

DOL Form M–1 (Report for Multiple 

Employer Welfare Arrangements 

(MEWAs) and Certain Entities Claiming 

Exception (ECEs)) (Form M–1) 

participating employer information for 

multiple-employer welfare 

arrangements that are required to file 

the Form M–1.6 86 FR 51488 (Sept. 15, 

2021). The DOL simultaneously 

published a proposed rulemaking 

(NPRM) required to implement the 

proposed forms revisions. 86 FR 51284 

(Sept. 15, 2021). The NPFR and the 

NPRM are collectively referred to as the 

September 2021 proposal. 

The Agencies received 114 comments 

on the September 2021 proposal. The 

comments, which were all posted on the 

Department’s website, generally focused 

on the proposed changes for the 2022 

plan year forms and on future 

rulemakings. In December 2021, the 

Department published a final forms 

revisions rulemaking (2021 Final Forms 

Revisions) that set forth a narrow set of 

changes to the instructions for the Form 

5500 and Form 5500–SF, effective for 

plan years beginning on or after January 

1, 2021. 86 FR 73976 (Dec. 29, 2021). 

Those instruction changes generally 

implemented annual reporting changes 

for MEPs, including pooled employer 

plans (PEPs).7 The Department noted in 

that publication that other changes to 

the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report 

would be the subject of one or more 

separate and later final notices to 

address other elements of the September 

2021 proposal. 

This document sets forth a limited 

number of annual reporting changes that 

would apply beginning with the 2022 

plan year Form 5500 Annual Return/ 

Report. These changes focus mainly on 

finalizing the improvements in annual 

reporting for defined benefit pension 

plans that were included in the 

September 2021 proposal, but also 

include some further annual reporting 

changes for MEPs.8 Specifically, the 

annual reporting changes for 2022 being 

adopted in this document are revisions 

to Schedules MB, SB, and R and their 

respective instructions to improve 

reporting by defined benefit plans 

subject to Title IV of ERISA and 

additions to the plan characteristics 

codes reportable on line 8 of Form 5500 

and line 9 of Form 5500–SF that require 

defined contribution MEPs (including 

PEPs) to be identified as such. No 

changes to the DOL’s implementing 

regulations are required for these forms 

and instructions changes. 

In this document, the Agencies are 

not adopting final annual reporting 

changes based on other proposals 

included in the September 2021 

proposal because of the need to 

coordinate the careful consideration of 

public comments and other regulatory 

processes for adopting final changes to 

the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report 

with a separate contractual development 

schedule for integrating forms and 

instructions changes into the whollyelectronic EFAST2 filing system that 

receives and displays Form 5500 

Annual Return/Report filings. 

ERISA section 103 broadly sets out 

annual reporting requirements for 

employee benefit plans. The Form 5500 

Annual Return/Report and the DOL’s 

implementing regulations are 

promulgated through notice and 

comment rulemaking under general 

ERISA regulatory authority and specific 

ERISA provisions authorizing limited 

exemptions to these requirements and 

simplified reporting and disclosure for 

welfare plans under ERISA section 

104(a)(3), simplified annual reports 

under ERISA section 104(a)(2)(A) for 

pension plans that cover fewer than 100 

participants, and alternative methods of 

compliance for all pension plans under 

ERISA section 110. The Form 5500 

Annual Return/Report filings are also 

information collections for the 

Agencies, subject to a separate clearance 

process under the Paperwork Reduction 

Act (PRA). EFAST2, on the other hand, 

is operated by a private sector 

government contractor on behalf of the 

Agencies. Each year the EFAST2 system 

is rolled over for the coming year’s 

annual return/report filings; for 

example, the system must be updated to 

reflect changes from the 2021 plan year 

return/report filings to the 2022 plan 

year return/report filings. That rollover 

process is governed by a contractual 

development schedule that sets 

deadlines designed to ensure that forms 

and instructions changes are smoothly 

integrated into the EFAST2 system and 

the products developed by private 

software developers to provide filing 

services to employee benefit plans. 

Integration of the regulatory and 

EFAST2 processes is less complicated 

in years that do not involve material 

changes to the forms or instructions. 

These processes, however, are 

considerably more challenging when the 

Agencies propose substantial changes to 

the forms and instructions. 

As noted above, the Agencies received 

114 public comments on the September 

2021 proposal. The comments were 

from a wide range of stakeholders. Some 

commenters were generally supportive 

of the proposed changes while others 

objected to some aspects of the 

proposal. Objections include those 

based on an alleged lack of legal 

authority or conflicts with legislative 

intent, challenges to the value of some 

of the proposed information collections, 

and concerns about administrative costs 

and burdens of some of the proposed 

annual reporting requirements that 

would purportedly create disincentives 

for employers to establish or continue to 

offer employee benefit plans to their 

employees. Some public commenters 

also suggested alternative approaches 

for some of the proposed annual 

reporting changes, and a range of 

commenters argued for delayed 

applicability dates for some proposed 

changes if they were adopted as final 

revisions to the forms and instructions. 

The Agencies are still evaluating 

public comments on elements of the 

September 2021 proposal not included 

in these final forms revisions, including 

DCG reporting and related audit issues,9


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Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 99 / Monday, May 23, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 31135 

plan using a consolidated return/report to identify 

the consolidated return/report filed with respect to 

their plan. 

10Consistent with the Agencies’ annual updates 

to the Form 5500 Annual Return/Report, the final 

versions of the 2022 plan year forms and 

instructions may include minor technical edits or 

corrections that do not require notice and comment 

under the PRA, or the APA, or review under any 

relevant Executive Order. 

Schedule MEP and related reporting 

requirements regarding MEPs, financial 

statement improvements to the 

Schedule H and Schedules of Assets, 

changes in participant counting 

methodology for Independent Qualified 

Public Accountant (IQPA) purposes, 

changes regarding reporting on 

participating employers for MEWAs that 

file the Form M–1, and additional 

questions on pension plan compliance 

with certain Code requirements. These 

were areas in which a number of 

commenters suggested a delay in 

implementation, substantial revisions, 

or re-proposals. The Agencies agree that 

sufficient lead time for programming 

and systems changes, as well as time to 

develop contracts and other 

communications among plans and 

service providers is needed to properly 

implement these significant changes to 

annual reporting requirements. The 

Agencies also believe that, in light of the 

public comments on these aspects of the 

September 2021 proposal, employee 

benefit plan stakeholders are best served 

by the Agencies taking additional time 

to consider the range of public 

comments on these proposals and 

develop final rules that are cost-effective 

and improve the annual report data in 

a way that is protective of the retirement 

security interests of participants and 

beneficiaries. Accordingly, rather than 

rush consideration of issues and 

decision-making on these important 

annual reporting issues, the Agencies 

have decided that any changes to the 

Form 5500 Annual Return/Report in 

connection with the above listed 

elements of the September 2021 

proposal will be addressed either in a 

further final forms revisions notice 

based on the September 2021 proposal, 

or re-proposed with modifications in a 

separate proposal that would focus on a 

broader range of improvements to the 

annual reporting requirements. As the 

Department noted in the September 

2021 proposal, the Department added an 

additional regulatory project to its semiannual agenda as part of a separate 

project with the IRS and PBGC to: (i) 

Modernize the financial and other 

annual reporting requirements on the 

Form 5500 Annual Return/Report; (ii) 

continue an ongoing effort to make 

investment and other information on the 

Form 5500 Annual Return/Report more 

data mineable; and (iii) consider 

potential changes to group health plan 

annual reporting requirements, among 

other improvements that would enhance 

the Agencies’ ability to collect employee 

benefit plan data in a way that best 

meets the needs of compliance projects, 

programs, and activities. See 

www.reginfo.gov for more information. 

In the Agencies’ view, this approach is 

the best way to allow for appropriate 

consideration of relevant public 

comments and facilitate a smooth and 

efficient process for integrating any new 

schedules or other annual reporting 

changes into the EFAST2 annual 

rollover process for Form 5500 Annual 

Return/Report filings. 

Discussed below are final forms 

revisions on specific elements of the 

September 2021 proposal with respect 

to which the Agencies completed 

review of the public comments and 

reached conclusions on final forms and 

instructions changes in time to 

coordinate those changes into the 

EFAST2 development cycle for the 2022 

plan year Form 5500 Annual Return/ 

Report.10

II. 2022 Form 5500 Annual Return/ 

Report Changes 

A. Schedules MB, SB, and R— 

Modifications and Additions to 

Information Reported 

As described more fully below, the 

Agencies are adding new questions and 

revising existing questions to the Form 

5500 Annual Return/Report Schedule 

MB (Multiemployer Defined Benefit 

Plan and Certain Money Purchase Plan 

Actuarial Information), Schedule SB 

(Single-Employer Defined Benefit Plan 

Actuarial Information), and Schedule R 

(Retirement Plan Information), and 

modifying the contribution and benefit 

attachment requirements to enable the 

Agencies to more easily access defined 

benefit pension plans’ information and 

project more precisely insurance 

programs’ liabilities. For both singleemployer and multiemployer defined 

benefit pension plans, the Agencies are 

providing plans with the option to 

provide certain required attachments in 

a spreadsheet file (CSV format). 

1. Schedule MB Modifications 

In summary, and as described in more 

detail below, the changes to Schedule 

MB and its instructions include the 

following: (1) Modify Schedule MB, line 

3 instructions to require that additional 

information be included in the currently 

required attachment that shows the date 

and amount of each withdrawal liability 

amount paid to the plan (i.e., a 

breakdown between lump sum amounts 

and amounts that are part of a schedule 

of periodic payments); (2) modify 

Schedule MB by clarifying the line 4f 

instructions and Schedule MB language 

concerning when or if plans in critical 

status or critical and declining status are 

projected to either emerge or become 

insolvent; (3) modify Schedule MB by 

adding a new requirement in a new line 

6f to report information about the 

interest assumption used to determine 

the present value of vested benefits for 

withdrawal liability determinations; (4) 

modify Schedule MB for the questions 

related to the line 6 ‘‘expense load’’ to 

better align with the various ways 

multiemployer plans incorporate 

expense loads into their calculations; (5) 

modify Schedule MB, line 8 by 

requiring additional information about 

benefits and contributions for plans 

with 1,000 or more total participants at 

the beginning of the plan year; and (6) 

modify Schedule MB by changing the 

benefit information required to be 

included in the ‘‘age/service’’ scatter 

attachment (required for PBGC-insured 

multiemployer plans with active 

participants). 

a. Line 3—Contributions Made to the 

Plan for the Plan Year 

Currently, line 3 of Schedule MB 

requires that if any of the employer 

contributions reported in line 3 include 

amounts owed for withdrawal liability, 

an attachment must be provided listing 

the total withdrawal liability amounts 

and the dates such amounts were 

contributed. In the NPFR, the Agencies 

proposed to modify the instructions to 

line 3 to require that the total 

withdrawal liability amounts reported 

on the attachment be broken down 

between periodic withdrawal liability 

amounts and lump sum withdrawal 

liability amounts. The Agencies 

received several comments on proposed 

changes to the withdrawal liability 

attachment. Two commenters expressed 

opposite views about whether the 

additional information should be 

reported. One expressed support 

because the additional detail will result 

in more transparency. The other 

expressed concern because, in the 

commenter’s opinion, that additional 

level of details could be misinterpreted 

by bankers and creditors. Because the 

only additional detail being added to 

the attachment relates to type of 

payment (i.e., whether a payment is part 

of a series of periodic payments or a 

lump sum), the Agencies do not share 

that concern and are therefore requiring 

the breakdown, as proposed. Two 

commenters asked the Agencies to 

clarify when a withdrawal liability 


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31136 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 99 / Monday, May 23, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 

11The current instructions provide that the line 

8b(1) attachment is required for plans with 500 or 

more participants as of the valuation date, not as 

of the beginning of the plan year. The Agencies 

proposed changing that to ‘‘the beginning of the 

plan year’’ because the only participant count 

reported on Schedule MB is the count at the 

beginning of the plan year (i.e., line 2b(3)(c), 

column 1) and because doing so is consistent with 

another Schedule MB requirement, See instructions 

for line 8b(2). 

payment should be considered a 

periodic payment and when it should be 

considered a lump sum payment in 

situations where it is not clear which 

payment type applies (e.g., where an 

employer making annual periodic 

payments settles the remaining 

obligation with a lump sum payment or 

makes a lump sum payment to cover 

delinquent periodic payments). The 

Agencies agree that clarification for 

such situations would be helpful and 

are revising the instructions to line 3 

accordingly. One commenter noted that 

information about withdrawal liability 

payments is not maintained by a plan’s 

actuary and requested that, rather than 

expanding the information that is 

reported on the Schedule MB 

attachment, all of the detailed 

information about withdrawal liability 

payments (i.e., date, amount and type of 

payment) be reported as an attachment 

to a part of the Form 5500 Annual 

Return/Report that someone other than 

the actuary (e.g., the plan sponsor or 

auditor) is responsible for completing 

(e.g., Schedule R). The Agencies 

acknowledge that the plan’s actuary 

does not have direct access to 

information about withdrawal liability 

payments but the same is true of the 

other information that is reported on 

Schedule MB (e.g., date and amount of 

contributions) and, to date, this does not 

appear to have posed a problem. The 

Agencies continue to believe that the 

withdrawal liability information should 

be provided on an attachment to 

Schedule MB because Schedule MB is 

where information about contributions 

to the plan, including withdrawal 

liability payments, is reported. 

Accordingly, no changes are being made 

in response to this comment. 

b. Line 4f—Rehabilitation Plan 

Projected To Emerge From Critical or 

Critical and Declining Status 

Currently, line 4f of Schedule MB 

requires completion by a plan that is in 

critical or critical and declining status. 

The year the plan is projected to emerge 

from critical status or become insolvent 

is reported on Schedule MB, and an 

illustration of year-by-year cash flow 

projections is provided in a required 

attachment to line 4f. The Agencies’ 

review of filers’ previous responses to 

line 4f suggested that the instructions on 

how to fill out this line correctly might 

have been unclear to filers. In the NPFR, 

the Agencies proposed to modify the 

instructions to line 4f and to clarify the 

time period for the year-by-year cash 

flow projection and the basis for the 

projections. Two commenters wrote that 

the instructions needed further 

clarification, especially with respect to 

how the instructions describe the first 

and last year to be included in the 

projection. One of those commenters 

questioned whether the required 

projection period would necessitate 

doing additional projections (as 

opposed to reporting projections that 

had to be done to determine the year of 

emergence/insolvency). In response, the 

Agencies are clarifying in the final 

forms revisions both the time period 

and basis for projection in line 4f. The 

Agencies believe the revised 

instructions will make clear that the 

projections to be reported in the 

attachments are projections that have 

already been done. 

c. Line 6—Checklist for Actuarial 

Assumptions 

Currently, line 6 of Schedule MB is 

where filers provide information about 

the actuarial assumptions used to 

determine plan liabilities. The Agencies 

proposed in the NPFR to add a new item 

to line 6 (line 6f) regarding the interest 

rate used to determine the present value 

of vested benefits for withdrawal 

liability determinations. With respect to 

plans that do not use a single interest 

rate for this purpose, the proposed 

instructions required the reporting of 

the single equivalent interest rate that 

produces the same present value of 

vested benefits. Two commenters 

expressed concerns about the extra work 

it would take to determine the single 

equivalent interest rate noted above. 

The same commenters also requested 

clarification as to which withdrawal 

liability calculations should be 

considered when determining the 

equivalent single interest rate that 

produced the same result (i.e., is it 

based on when the withdrawal liability 

amount is assessed or when the 

employer withdrew). In response, the 

Agencies are revising this question and 

instructions in these final forms 

revisions. As revised, the instructions 

provide that the filer will check a box 

in a new line, 6f(1), to report whether 

the interest assumption for this purpose 

is a single interest rate, ERISA section 

4044 interest rates, or something else 

(i.e., ‘‘Other’’). If the ‘‘single rate’’ box is 

checked, the single interest rate is 

reported in a new line, 6f(2). If the 

‘‘Other’’ box is checked, the filer must 

provide an attachment describing the 

interest rate assumption. Lastly, if this 

question doesn’t apply (i.e., if no 

employers withdrew and were assessed 

withdrawal liability during the plan 

year), the filer will check an ‘‘N/A’’ box. 

One of the commenters asked whether 

the definition of ‘‘withdrawal’’ is 

limited to complete withdrawals (i.e., 

whether amounts assessed with respect 

to partial withdrawals are included 

when determining the single rate that 

produced the same result). That 

commenter noted that in Schedule R the 

definition of withdrawal is limited to 

complete withdrawals, but that it is not 

clear that that this definition carries 

over to Schedule MB. In response, PBGC 

has clarified the instructions 

accordingly. 

In addition, the Agencies proposed to 

modify the questions related to the line 

6 ‘‘expense load’’ to better align with the 

various ways multiemployer plans 

incorporate expense loads into their 

calculations. Filers would be required to 

indicate if an expense load is included 

in normal cost and, if so, whether it is 

determined as a percentage of normal 

cost, a dollar amount that varies from 

year to year, or something else. In 

addition, the Agencies proposed moving 

the expense load item from line 6e to a 

new line 6i and the salary scale item 

from 6f to 6e and revising the 

instructions accordingly so that the 

expense load assumptions that may 

differ between pre-retirement and postretirement are grouped together. No 

revisions are being made to these 

proposed changes. 

d. Line 8—Miscellaneous Information 

Currently, line 8 of Schedule MB 

requires filers to report miscellaneous 

information about demographics, 

benefits, and contributions. The 

Agencies proposed in the NPFR to 

modify line 8 by requiring additional 

information about demographics, 

benefits, and contributions, as described 

below. After considering the public 

comments, the Agencies have decided 

to adopt the changes to line 8 described 

below. As is currently required under 

line 8, the additional requirements 

would apply only to PBGC-insured 

multiemployer plans with 500 or more 

total participants as of the beginning of 

the plan year. 

• Benefit Projections—Currently, 

plans are required to attach a projection 

of benefits expected to be paid in each 

of the next ten years (see line 8b(1)).11

The Agencies proposed in the NPFR to 

modify the format of the attachment to 

show the benefit projection broken 

down into three categories based on the 

participant’s or beneficiary’s status on 


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Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 99 / Monday, May 23, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 31137 

12 In addition, the Agencies added the 50-year 

benefit projection attachment to Schedule SB (for 

single-employer plans). 

the valuation date (i.e., active, 

terminated vested, or in pay status). In 

addition, the projection period was 

extended from 10 to 50 years. Three 

commenters stated that the line 8b(1) 

proposal would be costly and 

burdensome. These commenters also 

stated that the projection would 

unlikely produce meaningful, reliable, 

and useful information because future 

benefit accruals are not reflected. The 

Agencies are not persuaded that this 

change to line 8 would be unduly costly 

or burdensome. Rather, as noted in the 

NPFR, based on the Agencies’ 

experience with the valuation software 

generally in use by affected DB pension 

plans, the incremental cost of expanding 

a projection from 10 to 50 years is 

nominal. In addition, the Agencies 

paired these line 8 changes with a 

provision that allows filers to attach a 

spreadsheet file (CSV format) instead of 

a PDF file. The ability to use generally 

available spreadsheet software to 

produce the required data will allow the 

Agencies to more easily access defined 

benefit plans’ information and to project 

more precisely insurance programs’ 

liabilities. However, after considering 

the comments received, the Agencies 

decided to reduce the number of plans 

required to provide the benefit 

projection attachment (from plans with 

500 or more participants to plans with 

1,000 or more participants).12 Also, 

although a projection may provide more 

meaningful results if additional accruals 

were reflected and/or if the projection 

were done stochastically, the Agencies 

did not add such a requirement or 

requirements as part of these final forms 

revisions because of the potentially 

more significant compliance costs 

involved. The Agencies believe that by 

increasing the projection period from 10 

to 50 years, this will provide valuable 

information and enable the Agencies to 

better estimate anticipated future benefit 

payments from pension plans. 

• Contribution Projections—The 

Agencies also proposed in the NPFR to 

add a new requirement that plans 

provide, as an attachment, a 10-year 

projection of employer contributions 

and withdrawal liability payments. A 

new line, line 8b(3), would be added to 

Schedule MB where the filer would 

report whether the projection is 

required. As is the case with the benefit 

projection attachments, the instructions 

would provide the required format for 

the attachment. In addition, although 

the Agencies did not receive any 

substantive comments concerning this 

new requirement, to be consistent with 

the modification to line 8b(1) noted 

above, the final forms revisions provides 

that this 10-year projection of employer 

contributions and withdrawal liability 

payments is required only for plans 

with 1,000 or more participants as of the 

beginning of the plan year. 

• Average age/benefit—The Agencies 

additionally proposed in the NPFR to 

require plans to report the average age 

and average monthly benefit separately 

for (1) terminated vested participants 

and (2) retired participants and 

beneficiaries receiving payments. Under 

the proposal, this information would be 

provided directly on Schedule MB, in 

new line 8b(4). Two commenters 

provided comments on the new line 

8b(4) requirement. Although one 

supported the proposal, the other 

commented that the additional data was 

both unnecessary and costly. In an effort 

to minimize the burden on plans, the 

Agencies have decided not to move 

forward with this part of the proposal. 

Accordingly, this final forms revision 

does not include a new line 8b(4). 

• Age/service scatter—The Agencies 

proposed in the NPFR a change to the 

existing ‘‘age/service’’ attachment for 

line 8b(2), which is required for PBGCinsured multiemployer plans with 

active participants, regardless of the 

number of participants. Currently, the 

scatter shows, for each ‘‘attained age’’ 

and ‘‘years of credited service’’ grouping 

of active participants, the number of 

active participants, and, if the total 

number of active participants at the 

beginning of the plan year is 1,000 or 

more, (1) for plans that use 

compensation to determine benefits, the 

average compensation, and (2) for cash 

balance plans, the average cash balance 

account (see line 8b(2)). These latter two 

requirements do not apply for any age/ 

service grouping of fewer than 20 

participants. Because there are few, if 

any, multiemployer cash balance plans, 

the Agencies proposed modifying the 

additional reporting requirement for 

multiemployer plans with 1,000 or more 

active participants by replacing the 

required information related to cash 

balance plans with a requirement to 

report average accrued monthly benefits 

as of the valuation date for each 

grouping. Two commenters provided 

comments on the proposed change to 

the age/service scatter. One suggested 

that the Schedule MB instructions be 

modified to specify that plans that do 

not use compensation to determine 

benefits should enter ‘‘N/A’’ in each 

age/service grouping. The Agencies do 

not believe such modification is needed 

because the existing instructions for line 

8b(2) state that only plans ‘‘using 

compensation to determine benefits’’ 

need to provide average compensation 

data. There is no need to enter ‘‘N/A’’ 

because it is implied. The other 

commenter asked whether the cash 

balance information will also be 

removed from the Schedule SB (for 

single-employer plans). The Agencies 

believe that it was clear from the NPFR 

that no changes were proposed with 

respect to the age/service scatter on 

Schedule SB (for single-employer 

plans). 

2. Modifications to Schedule SB 

In the NPFR, the Agencies proposed 

adding two new reporting requirements 

for PBGC-insured single-employer plans 

with 500 or more total participants to 

better align requirements for singleemployer defined benefit plans with the 

more detailed requirements for PBGCinsured multiemployer plans. The new 

reporting requirements proposed in the 

NPFR were: 

• A 50-year benefit payment 

projection broken down into three 

categories based on the participant’s or 

beneficiary’s status on the valuation 

date (i.e., active, terminated vested, in 

pay status), and 

• The average age and average 

monthly benefit separately for (1) 

terminated vested participants and (2) 

retired participants and beneficiaries 

receiving payments (similar to the 

information required to be reported in 

line 8b(4) of Schedule MB). 

For the most part, the Agencies 

proposed that these two new reporting 

requirements would be similar to the 

Schedule MB requirements for 

multiemployer plans (lines 8b(1) and 

8b(4), respectively). However, because 

the only participant count information 

for single-employer plans on Schedule 

SB is as of the valuation date, to 

determine whether a plan has 500 or 

more participants (and is thus required 

to provide information for these two 

new reporting requirements) the 

Agencies proposed that participants be 

counted as of the valuation date instead 

of as of the beginning of the plan year 

(the ‘‘count’’ date for multiemployer 

plans). To facilitate these changes, the 

Agencies proposed rearranging 

Schedule SB line 26. Currently, line 26 

relates only to the ‘‘age/service’’ scatter 

of active participant data required to be 

attached to Schedule SB for singleemployer plans covered by Title IV of 

ERISA with active participants. The 

Agencies proposed changing line 26 

into a three-part question (26a, 26b, and 

26c). Current line 26 would become new 

line 26a. The benefit projection question 

would become new line 26b, and the 


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31138 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 99 / Monday, May 23, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 

average age/benefit question would 

become new line 26c. 

The Agencies received several 

comments about the benefit projection 

attachment. One commenter supported 

the change. Two commenters expressed 

concern that the benefit projection 

attachment would impose substantial 

additional costs and burdens on plans 

without any apparent benefit. As 

discussed above in the Agencies’ 

responses to comments received on 

Schedule MB and in the NPFR, it is the 

Agencies’ understanding that these 

projections are done as part of the 

valuation, so the only additional work 

would be to capture those projected 

amounts in an accessible or 

downloadable file. Accordingly, we are 

not convinced that the additional 

burden is significant. However, after 

considering the comments received, the 

Agencies have decided to reduce the 

number of plans required to provide the 

benefit projection attachment from 

plans with 500 or more participants to 

plans with 1,000 or more participants. 

In addition, and consistent with the 

Schedule MB change from the proposal 

with respect to multiemployer plans, 

the Agencies are not moving forward 

with the proposal to require reporting 

average age and benefit information for 

retirees and terminated vested 

participants (i.e., there will not be a new 

line 26c(2)). 

One commenter expressed concern 

about the application of line 26b to 

MEPs because they believe attaching a 

benefit projection would impose 

substantial additional costs and burden 

without any apparent benefit. The same 

commenter requested that, at a 

minimum, cooperative and small 

employer charity (CSEC) pension plans 

(almost all of which are MEPs) be 

exempt from this requirement. The 

Agencies see no compelling reason to 

treat PBGC-insured MEPs differently 

from other single-employer plans with 

respect to this requirement. However, it 

should be noted that it was never the 

intent to have CSEC plans provide this 

information. The current instructions 

state that CSEC plans are not required 

to complete Part VI—Miscellaneous 

Items (the section which includes line 

26). As noted above, the proposal called 

for breaking down line 26 into new lines 

26a, 26b, and 26c. Since all three of 

those lines are part of line 26 (and in 

Part VI), the proposal exempted CSEC 

plans from the proposed new reporting 

requirements. 

The Agencies received one comment 

on line 26c(2) to clarify what should be 

shown as the average benefit for 

terminated vested participants in cash 

balance plans. As noted above, the 

Agencies have decided not to move 

forward with that part of the proposal 

(i.e., line 26c(2) will not be added to the 

Schedule SB). Accordingly, the question 

asked by the commenter is moot. 

Finally, the Agencies proposed 

modifying Part IX of Schedule SB, and 

its instructions, so that it relates to 

elective amortization funding relief 

provided under the American Rescue 

Plan (ARP) Act of 2021 instead of 

elective funding relief provided under 

the Pension Relief Act of 2010 (PRA 

2010). The NPFR explained that the 

PRA 2010 information is no longer 

needed because ARP reduces to zero all 

shortfall amortization bases, including 

amortization bases established pursuant 

to the PRA 2010 elective funding relief. 

As modified, plan sponsors of singleemployer defined benefit plans that 

elect to have the ARP extended 

amortization rule apply before the 2022 

plan year would be required to report 

the first plan year to which the extended 

amortization rule applies. The proposal 

would require such a plan to check a 

box to indicate the first plan year for 

which the plan elected to have ARP 

amortization funding relief. One 

commenter opposed the change as 

unnecessary because Schedule SB 

attachments would indicate when an 

election was made. The Agencies agree 

that they could obtain this information 

from attachments, but information 

reported on attachments cannot be 

accessed electronically. In addition, 

because this is only a check box for 

which the answer will not change from 

year-to-year, there is virtually no burden 

associated with it. Accordingly, the 

Agencies are adopting this requirement 

as part of the final forms revisions. 

3. Modification to Schedule R Reporting 

Requirement 

Currently, Schedule R’s Part V, line 

13 requirement requires multiemployer 

defined benefit pension plans subject to 

minimum funding standards to report 

identifying information about any 

participating employer whose 

contributions to the plan account for 

more than five percent of the total 

contributions for the year. The NPFR 

proposed to change this requirement to 

require plans to report identifying 

information about any participating 

employer that either (1) contributed 

more than five percent of the plan’s total 

contributions or (2) was one of the top 

ten highest contributors. The Agencies 

received no comments on this proposal 

and have incorporated this modification 

in the final forms revisions. 

4. Change in Format for Certain 

Schedule MB and SB Attachments 

EFAST2 filers currently file Form 

5500 Annual Return/Report attachments 

as PDF and plain text (TXT) files. A PDF 

file is required only if the attachment 

must be signed. TXT attachments are 

rarely provided. Many attachments 

include a lot of numbers (e.g., benefit 

projections, age/service scatters) that are 

reported in tables. These numbers have 

to be extracted out of PDF tables and 

entered into databases or spreadsheets 

before the Agencies can use the 

information for various projects, studies, 

etc. This is costly and inefficient. In the 

NPFR, the Agencies proposed to modify 

the instructions to allow and suggest 

(but not require) that certain 

attachments be provided in a 

spreadsheet file (such as CSV format), 

rather than PDF or TXT formats. The 

Agencies did not receive any comments 

on this proposed modification of the 

instructions and have incorporated this 

change in the final forms revisions. 

Thus, the instructions for the 

Schedules MB and SB are being 

modified to permit (but not require) 

certain attachments to Schedule MB and 

SB to be provided in a spreadsheet file 

(CSV format) rather than PDF or TXT 

formats. The following chart lists the 

Schedule MB and Schedule SB 

attachments that are affected by the 

formatting change: 

Attachment Schedule MB Schedule SB 

Schedule of Projection of Expected Benefit Payments ......................................... Line 8b(1) .............................................. Line 26b. 

Schedule of Active Participant Data (i.e., Age/service scatter) ............................. Line 8b(2) .............................................. Line 26a. 

Withdrawal Liability Amounts ................................................................................. Line 3 .................................................... N/A. 

Schedule of Projection of Employer Contributions and Withdrawal Liability ......... Line 8b(3) .............................................. N/A. 


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Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 99 / Monday, May 23, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 31139 

13 29 U.S.C. 1002(43). The term pooled employer 

plan does not include a multiemployer plan as 

defined in ERISA section 3(37) and also does not 

include a plan established before the date the 

SECURE Act was enacted unless the plan 

administrator elects to have the plan treated as a 

pooled employer plan and the plan meets the 

ERISA requirements applicable to a pooled 

employer plan established on or after such date. It 

also does not include a plan maintained by 

employers that have a common interest other than 

having adopted the plan. 

14Section 1 of ERISA states the ‘‘Congressional 

findings and declaration of policy.’’ Of relevance to 

our consideration of these alternatives, section (b) 

states, in relevant part: ‘‘It is hereby declared to be 

the policy of this chapter to protect interstate 

commerce and the interests of participants in 

employee benefit plans and their beneficiaries, by 

requiring the disclosure and reporting to 

participants and beneficiaries of financial and other 

information with respect thereto . . . .’’ 29 U.S.C. 

1001(b). 

B. Reporting Changes for MultipleEmployer Plans 

The final forms revisions include a 

limited number of changes to the 

instructions for the Form 5500 Annual 

Return/Report that are intended to 

clarify and improve annual reporting for 

ERISA-covered defined contribution 

MEPs, including those that meet the 

definition of ‘‘pooled employer plan.’’ 

New plan characteristics codes are being 

added to the Form 5500 and Form 

5500–SF instructions for filers to use to 

identify different types of defined 

contribution MEPs on Form 5500 and 

Form 5500–SF, Part II, lines 8 and 9, 

respectively. The Form 5500 and Form 

5500–SF instructions are also being 

updated to clarify which entities should 

report as plan sponsors on line 2a and 

as plan administrators on line 3a, with 

respect to certain types of defined 

contribution MEPs. For 2022 filings, 

these revisions include other minor 

amplifying and clarifying changes to 

instructions for 2022 forms. 

With respect to the new plan 

characteristics codes, the final forms 

revisions add new defined contribution 

MEP characteristics codes for the List of 

Plan Characteristics Codes for Form 

5500 and Form 5500–SF, Part II, lines 8 

and 9, respectively. The addition of 

identifying codes will help the 

Agencies, participants and beneficiaries, 

and the public identify and distinguish 

between different types of defined 

contribution MEPs, including new plan 

types like PEPs and existing plan types 

like association retirement plans and 

professional employer organization 

MEPs. The new defined contribution 

pension feature codes are: 

• For both Form 5500 and Form 

5500–SF—Code 2U—Multiple-employer 

pension plan sponsored by a bona fide 

group or association of employers that is 

an Association Retirement Plan that 

meets all the conditions under 29 CFR 

2510.3–55(b). 

• For both Form 5500 and Form 

5500–SF—Code 2V—Multiple-employer 

pension plan that is a Professional 

Employer Organization Plan (PEO Plan) 

that meets all the conditions under 29 

CFR 2510.3–55(c). 

• For Form 5500 Only—Code 2W— 

Multiple-employer pension plan that is 

a pooled employer plan that meets the 

definition under ERISA section 3(43).13

• For both Form 5500 and Form 

5500–SF—Code 2X—Multiple-employer 

defined contribution pension plan that 

does not fall under characteristics code 

2U, 2V or 2W (Form 5500) or, for Form 

5500–SF, is eligible to file the Form 

5500–SF and does not fall under 

characteristics code 2U or 2V (Form 

5500–SF). 

Thus, for both Form 5500 and Form 

5500–SF, a filer would enter Code 2U 

for a defined contribution MEP that is 

an Association Retirement Plan under 

applicable conditions in 29 CFR 2510.3– 

55(b). For both Form 5500 and Form 

5500–SF, a filer would enter Code 2V 

for a defined contribution MEP that is 

a PEO Plan under applicable conditions 

in 29 CFR 29 CFR 2510.3–55(c). For the 

Form 5500, a filer would enter Code 2W 

for a defined contribution MEP that is 

a pooled employer plan as defined in 

ERISA section 3(43). All other defined 

contribution MEPs would enter Code 2X 

on their Form 5500 and Form 5500–SF 

filing as applicable. Note that Code 2W 

is being added to the Form 5500 

instructions but was intentionally 

skipped in the Form 5500–SF 

instructions because PEPs are not 

eligible to file the Form 5500–SF and, 

therefore, Code 2W is not an eligible 

code for Form 5500–SF filers. 

One of the several commenters 

expressing broad support for the part of 

the Agencies’ proposal dealing 

specifically with MEP reporting 

provided a number of more specific 

comments. First, the commenter 

observed that while the pooling of 

employers and capital in the provision 

of retirement benefits has the potential 

to improve access to workplace 

retirement plans in the United States, 

multiple-employer plans raise novel 

governance and oversight challenges. 

The commenter specifically noted that 

the lack of an identifier for particular 

kinds of multiple-employer plans 

hampers comparisons across plan types, 

especially those relating to fees. That 

commenter also pointed out that the 

Agencies’ September 2021 proposal 

would have filers specifically identify 

different types of MEPs: Association 

retirement plans within the meaning of 

29 CFR 2510.3–55(b); PEO Plans within 

the meaning of 29 CFR 2510.3–55(c); 

PEPs within the meaning of ERISA 

Section 3(43); and other MEPs covering 

the employees of two or more employers 

that are not single or multiemployer 

plans for annual reporting purposes. In 

that regard, the commenter cited as a 

key benefit of the proposal an ability to 

systematically track and evaluate the 

new plan types that have been 

established in recent years. As noted 

above, however, there were a range of 

other commenters who objected to parts 

of proposed Schedule MEP or otherwise 

raised concerns with the proposal’s new 

requirements for MEP reporting. These 

commenters generally focused their 

concerns on Parts II and III of the 

proposed Schedule MEP, and their 

comments largely related to requesting 

delay, removal, and reconsideration, 

rather than opposing providing 

identifying information proposed on 

Part I. 

Although finalizing proposed 

Schedule MEP would provide more 

public information and provide more 

information in a more usable data 

capturable form and serve the interests 

of users of Form 5500 Annual Return/ 

Report data, including the DOL, IRS, 

PBGC, other Federal agencies, Congress, 

and the private sector that use the Form 

5500 Annual Return/Report as an 

important source of information and 

data in assessing employee benefit, tax, 

and economic trends and policies,14 as 

discussed above, the Agencies have 

concluded that more time should be 

spent considering issues and 

alternatives presented by the public 

comments before deciding whether and, 

if so, how to finalize the proposed 

Schedule MEP as a vehicle for annual 

reporting of information on MEPs. The 

Agencies believe, nonetheless, that 

MEPs, especially defined contribution 

MEPs such as PEPs and PEOs, can 

present added complexity and related 

challenges to the Agencies when 

performing oversight and enforcement 

functions, and that participants and 

beneficiaries of such plans should be 

able to easily find and identify Form 

5500 Annual Return/Report information 

for MEPs providing them with employee 

benefits, including those that may be 

sponsored by PEOs. The Agencies also 

believe that the information proposed 

for Part I of Schedule MEP is important 

for tracking and evaluating new MEP 

types, and for providing needed 

transparency for participants and 

beneficiaries of MEPs, and that such 

disclosures should be made for existing 

MEPs and newly established type of 

plans like PEPs. The Agencies also 


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31140 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 99 / Monday, May 23, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 

15See footnote 7, supra, for a description of those 

changes. 

16ERISA Section 3(16)(B) provides that the term 

‘‘plan sponsor’’ means—(i) the employer in the case 

of an employee benefit plan established or 

maintained by a single employer, (ii) the employee 

organization in the case of an employee benefit plan 

established or maintained by an employee 

organization, or (ii) in the case of a plan established 

or maintained by two or more employers or jointly 

by one or more employers and one or more 

employee organizations, the association, committee, 

joint board of trustees, or similar group of 

representatives of the parties who establish or 

maintain the plan. 

17ERISA Section 3(16)(A) provides that the term 

‘‘plan administrator’’ means—(i) the person 

specifically so designated by the terms of the 

instrument under which the plan is operated; (ii) if 

an administrator is not so designated, the plan 

sponsor; or (iii) in the case of a plan for which an 

administrator is not designated and a plan sponsor 

cannot be identified, such other person as the 

Secretary may be regulation prescribe. 

18Regulatory Planning and Review, 58 FR 51735 

(Oct. 4, 1993). 

19 Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review, 

76 FR 3821 (Jan. 18, 2011). 

20 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A) (1995). 

21 5 U.S.C. 601 et seq. (1980). 

22 2 U.S.C. 1501 et seq. (1995). 

23Federalism, 64 FR. 153 (Aug. 4, 1999). 

24 5 U.S.C. 804(2) (1996). 

25The regulatory impact analysis in various 

places refers to ‘‘Agencies’’ because the underlying 

decisions regarding the form and instructions 

generally are collective decisions of the DOL, IRS, 

and PBGC, but they should not be read as 

indications that the IRS and PBGC changes are 

subject to rulemaking processes, including 

Executive Orders 12866 and 13563. 

26Regulatory Planning and Review, 58 FR 51735 

(Oct. 4, 1993). 

concluded that much of the information 

proposed for Part I of the proposed 

Schedule MEP could be added with 

very limited changes to the forms or 

instructions. Accordingly, in light of the 

importance of MEP identifying 

information, the limited changes to the 

instructions involved for EFAST2 

development purposes, and the 

relatively small burden of the additional 

information collection, the Agencies 

decided to make the above-described 

changes to the Form 5500 Annual 

Return/Report so that better and more 

useable identifying information on 

MEPs is collected beginning with the 

2022 plan year forms. These changes 

also will help supplement the MEP 

reporting changes adopted beginning 

with the 2021 plan year forms.15

In addition to adding plan 

characteristics codes that identify MEP 

types, to address commenter concerns 

regarding how PEO plans should file, 

the instructions also contain clarifying 

additions to Part II of Form 5500 and 

Form 5500–SF that collect plan sponsor 

and plan administrator information. 

First, for Form 5500, the instructions for 

line 2a are revised so that the 

instructions for identifying the ‘‘plan 

sponsor’’ include instructions 

specifically for PEPs and PEO plans.16

The instructions for Form 5500, line 3a 

are similarly revised so that the term 

‘‘plan administrator’’ includes the above 

two additional types of plans, and 

references to the above definitions.17

For Form 5500–SF, a parallel 

corresponding change has been made to 

instructions on identifying the ‘‘plan 

sponsor’’ and ‘‘plan administrator’’ for 

lines 2a and 3a, respectively, for PEO 

MEPs. Since PEPs are not permitted to 

file Form 5500–SF, no corresponding 

change to the instructions is made for 

PEPs. Other minor clarifying and 

conforming edits are made to 

instructions for lines 2a and 3a of both 

forms. 

III. Regulatory Impact Analysis 

The following is a discussion of the 

examination of the effects of this rule as 

required by Executive Order 12866,18

Executive Order 13563,19 the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995,20 the Regulatory 

Flexibility Act,21 section 202 of the 

Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 

1995,22 Executive Order 13132,23 and 

the Congressional Review Act.24 For the 

Department of Labor, the annual report 

form is a creature of rulemaking under 

ERISA sections 104 and 110. As such, 

form and instruction changes can 

involve both rulemaking under the 

Administrative Procedure Act and other 

rulemaking standards as well as 

approval under the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of changes to the form 

and instructions as an information 

collection. This tri-agency document is 

intended to constitute the regulatory 

impact analysis and Paperwork 

Reduction Act statement for DOL and a 

Paperwork Reduction Act statement for 

IRS and PBGC.25

A. Executive Orders 12866 and 13563 

Executive Orders 12866 and 13563 

direct agencies to assess all costs and 

benefits of available regulatory 

alternatives and, if regulation is 

necessary, select regulatory approaches 

that maximize net benefits (including 

potential economic, environmental, 

public health and safety effects; 

distributive impacts; and equity). 

Executive Order 13563 emphasizes the 

importance of quantifying costs and 

benefits, reducing costs, harmonizing 

rules, and promoting flexibility. 

Under Executive Order 12866, 

‘‘significant’’ regulatory actions are 

subject to review by the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB).26

Section 3(f) of the Executive Order 

defines a ‘‘significant regulatory action’’ 

as an action that is likely to result in a 

rule: (1) Having an annual effect on the 

economy of $100 million or more, or 

adversely and materially affecting a 

sector of the economy, productivity, 

competition, jobs, the environment, 

public health or safety, or State, local, 

or tribal governments or communities 

(also referred to as ‘‘economically 

significant’’); (2) creating a serious 

inconsistency or otherwise interfering 

with an action taken or planned by 

another agency; (3) materially altering 

the budgetary impacts of entitlement 

grants, user fees, or loan programs or the 

rights and obligations of recipients 

thereof; or (4) raising novel legal or 

policy issues arising out of legal 

mandates, the President’s priorities, or 

the principles set forth in the Executive 

Order. 

A full regulatory impact analysis must 

be prepared for major rules with 

economically significant effects (for 

example, $100 million or more in any 1 

year), and the Office of Management and 

Budget (OMB) reviews ‘‘significant’’ 

regulatory actions. It has been 

determined that this rule is not 

economically significant within the 

meaning of section 3(f)(1) of the 

Executive Order. Pursuant to the terms 

of the Executive Order, OMB has 

determined, however, that this action is 

‘‘significant’’ within the meaning of 

section 3(f)(4) of the Executive Order. 

Therefore, the Agencies have provided 

an assessment of the potential costs, 

benefits, and transfers associated with 

the final forms revisions. In accordance 

with the provisions of Executive Order 

12866, the final forms revisions were 

reviewed by OMB. Pursuant to the 

Congressional Review Act, OMB has 

designated the final forms revisions as 

not a ‘‘major rule,’’ as defined by 5 

U.S.C. 804(2). 

1. Introduction and Need for Regulation 

The Form 5500 Annual Return/Report 

is the principal source of information 

and data available to the Agencies 

concerning the operations, funding, and 

investments of pension and welfare 

benefit plans covered by ERISA and the 

Code. Accordingly, the Form 5500 

Annual Return/Report is essential to 

each Agency’s enforcement, research, 

and policy formulation programs and is 

a source of information and data for use 

by other Federal agencies, Congress, and 

the private sector in assessing employee 

benefit, tax, and economic trends and 

policies. The Form 5500 Annual Return/ 

Report also serves as the primary means 

by which the operations of plans can be 

monitored by plan participants and 

beneficiaries and the general public. 

As discussed earlier in this document, 

these final forms revisions are making 

limited changes that would apply 


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Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 99 / Monday, May 23, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 31141 

27 Due to differing methodologies between 

Agencies such as weightings factors for delinquent 

filers and how plans currently receiving financial 

assistance are counted, the EBSA and PBGC 

estimates for the ME universe differ slightly. For 

purposes of this analysis EBSA is using their 

estimate of 1,366. PGBC 2019 Pension Insurance 

Data Tables. https://www.pbgc.gov/sites/default/ 

files/2019_pension_data_tables.pdf. 

28Employee Benefits Security Administration. 

‘‘Private Pension Plan Bulletin, Abstract of 2019 

Form 5500 Annual Report.’’ (2021). The 2019 Form 

5500 data set is the most recent available because 

Form 5500 filings for the 2019 reporting year 

generally are not required to be filed for calendar 

year plans until July through October of 2020, and 

the deadline for fiscal year plans may extend well 

into 2021. The User Guide for the 2019 Form 5500 

Private Pension Plan Research File includes a 

discussion of the creation of the annual data set and 

timing of data extraction. See www.dol.gov/sites/ 

dolgov/files/EBSA/researchers/data/retirement/ 

pension-user-guide-2019.pdf (Accessed February 9, 

2022). 

29 Id. 

30See, e.g., 2020 Form 5500 instructions at 14. 

31Employee Benefits Security Administration. 

‘‘Private Pension Plan Bulletin, Abstract of 2018 

Form 5500 Annual Reports.’’ (June 2020). 

32National Association of Professional Employee 

Organizations, Industry Statistics (Accessed 6/28/ 

2021), https://www.napeo.org/what-is-a-peo/aboutthe-peo-industry/industry-statistics. NAPEO had 

previously reported 904 PEOs but revised its 

methodology. An explanation of the revision is 

included on the NAPEO website. See The PEO 

Industry Footprint 2021, Laurie Bassi and Dan 

McMurrer, McBassi & Company at page 4 (May 

2021) (available at www.napeo.org/docs/defaultsource/white-papers/2021-white-paperfinal.pdf?sfvrsn=6dde35d4_2.) 

33 85 FR 72934, 72949 (Nov. 16, 2016). 

34 Department of Labor. Form PR. https://

www.dol.gov/agencies/ebsa/employers-andadvisers/plan-administration-and-compliance/ 

reporting-and-filing/form-pr. 

35The estimated total number of pooled employer 

plans is calculated as follows: 2.85 pooled employer 

plans (average per provider) * 71 registered pooled 

plan providers = 202 pooled employer plans in total 

(rounded). 

beginning with the 2022 Form 5500 

Annual Report/Return with most 

changes focused on defined benefit 

plans and some improvements to MEP 

reporting. The annual reporting changes 

are revisions to Schedules MB, SB, and 

R, and to the respective instructions, 

that are designed to improve reporting 

by defined benefit plans subject to Title 

IV of ERISA, and to the Form 5500 and 

Form 5500–SF instructions that further 

implement section 101 of the SECURE 

Act in ways that expand and improve 

transparency of MEP reporting, 

including for pooled employer plans. 

Defined Benefit Pension Plan/ERISA 

Title IV Additions: The Form 5500 

collects information from defined 

benefit pension plans in Schedules MB, 

SB, and R. The PBGC has determined 

that it needs more detail in these 

schedules to accurately project defined 

benefit pension plan and PBGC 

insurance program liabilities. The 

PBGC’s changes to the information 

required to be reported by PBGCinsured defined benefit plans would 

remedy the deficiencies of the current 

Form 5500 filings and better protect 

participants. In 2019 PBGC estimated 

there were 23,694 single employer 

defined benefit plans and 1,375 

multiemployer defined benefit plans 

that are covered by the PBGC and would 

be impacted by these changes.27

MEP Reporting Improvements 

Additions: The final forms revisions 

include new plan characteristics codes 

to identify pooled employer plans, 

association retirement plans, and PEO 

plans, along with a residual category 

code for all other defined contribution 

MEPs. These changes are designed to 

continue SECURE Act section 101 

implementation by clarifying and 

further improving previous MEP 

reporting changes. 

2. Affected Entities 

The Agencies use historical filings of 

the Form 5500 to estimate affected 

entities. As discussed below, there have 

been several changes by statute and 

regulation that have created new types 

of MEPs. This analysis uses as its base 

the 2019 Form 5500 filings then 

estimates potential changes to the 

number of filers due to SECURE Act 

amendments creating pooled employer 

plans. As a result, there is uncertainty 

regarding the Agencies’ ability to 

measure costs and benefits that may 

result from the final forms revisions. 

The Agencies nonetheless are 

presenting below an overview of 

potentially affected entities and an 

approach to evaluating the possible 

impact of the final forms revisions. 

Defined Contribution Pension Plans: 

In 2019, there were 686,809 defined 

contribution plans with 109.1 million 

total participants and 85.5 million 

active participants. Plans with fewer 

than 100 total participants (small plans) 

account for 87.4 percent of plans.28

Defined Benefit Pension Plans: In 

2019, there were 46,870 defined benefit 

plans with 32.8 million total 

participants and 12.6 million active 

participants. There were 45,302 singleemployer defined benefit plans and 

1,366 multiemployer defined benefit 

plans.29

Multiple-Employer Pension Plans 

(MEP): A MEP, for Form 5500 reporting 

purposes, generally is a retirement plan 

maintained by two or more employers 

that are not members of the same 

controlled group or affiliated service 

group under Code section 414(b), (c), or 

(m), and which is not a multiemployer 

plan.30 In 2019, there were 4,741 MEPs 

filing a Form 5500, 202 of which were 

defined benefit pension plans and 4,538 

were defined contribution pension 

plans. There were 7.5 million 

participants reported as covered by 

these plans.31

Association Retirement Plan: An 

association retirement plan is a defined 

contribution MEP sponsored by a bona 

fide group or association of employers 

that meets the conditions in 29 CFR 

2510.3–55(b). The Agencies do not have 

information on how many reporting 

MEPs are association retirement plans 

or otherwise to estimate the number of 

association retirement plans (a sub-class 

of MEPs) that currently exist. These 

final regulations add a new code to 

identify association retirement plans. 

Professional Employer Organizations 

(PEOs) Plan: A PEO MEP is a defined 

contribution MEP sponsored by a bona 

fide PEO that meets the conditions 

under 29 CFR 2510.3–55(c). According 

to the National Association of 

Professional Employer Organizations, 

there are 487 PEOs in the United 

States.32 The Agencies do not have 

information on how many PEOs 

currently meet the conditions under 29 

CFR 2510.3–55(c) to sponsor defined 

contribution MEPs for their clients, but 

instead assume a substantial percentage 

of PEOs do sponsor MEPs, including 

defined contribution MEPs. These final 

regulations add a new code to identify 

PEO MEPs. 

Pooled Employer Plans: The SECURE 

Act amended section 3(2) of ERISA and 

added section 3(43) to ERISA to 

authorize a new type of ERISA-covered 

defined contribution MEP referred to as 

a ‘‘pooled employer plan’’ sponsored by 

a ‘‘pooled plan provider.’’ In its 2020 

final rule on Registration Requirements 

for Pooled Plan Providers, the Agencies 

noted the uncertainty surrounding the 

number of pooled employer plans that 

could be created based on the final rule, 

the number of employers that would 

participate in such plans, and the 

number of participants and beneficiaries 

that would be covered by them.33

Approximately 71 pooled plan 

providers have filed with the DOL an 

initial Form PR Pooled Plan Provider 

Registration (Form PR) and reported to 

service at least one pooled employer 

plan.34 With these records the Agencies 

have estimated there will be, on average, 

approximately 2.85 pooled employer 

plans per registered pooled plan 

provider. Therefore, the Agencies 

estimate a total 202 pooled employer 

plans will file the Form 5500 in 2022 for 

their 2021 reporting year.35 The final 

forms revisions add a new code to 

identify pooled employer plans. 


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36For the calculation of the total number of 

participating employers in pooled employer plans, 

it is first assumed that 80 percent of all the 

employers who would participate in a pooled 

employer plan are currently providing benefits 

through small plans, and that the remaining 20 

percent through large plans. This distribution 

would apply to the registrant that has already 

exceptionally listed 2000 employers (which would 

then be divided in 1600 small participating plans 

and 400 large participating plans) and to the other 

201 pooled employer plans assumed to be created. 

It is also assumed that each one of these other 201 

pooled plan providers would be servicing in total 

11 employers. Therefore, the total number of small 

participating plans in a pooled employer plan is 

calculated as: 1,600 + (201*11*0.8) = 3,369 

(rounded). Similarly, the total number of large 

participating plans is calculated as 400 + 

(201*11*0.2) =842 (rounded). 

The Agencies do not have 

comprehensive data on how many 

employers are participating in pooled 

employer plans or the number of 

participants covered by the plans until 

the pooled employer plans file their first 

Forms 5500 in 2022 for their 2021 

reporting year. While pooled plan 

providers are required to update the 

Form PR to advise the DOL and the IRS 

about the establishment and offering of 

new pooled employer plans, the Form 

PR does not collect information on the 

number of employers participating in 

their pooled employer plans or the 

number of employees covered by each 

plan. The Agencies attempted to review 

available public information on pooled 

employer plans by looking at 

information included in the filed Forms 

PR, and by examining news articles and 

statements on the pooled plan 

provider’s websites. That review 

indicated that that there are a variety of 

approaches in how pooled employer 

plans are offered, and a variation in the 

number of employers that have joined a 

pooled employer plan. 

Although the Agencies do not know 

for certain how many plans would 

decide to offer benefits through a pooled 

employer plan, the Agencies believe the 

current average number of participating 

employers in a MEP is indicative of the 

average number of employers that 

would eventually be in any particular 

pooled employer plan that may be 

established in the future. The Agencies 

estimates that MEPs, on average, have 

nine employers participating in a MEP 

with fewer than 100 participants and 

two employers with 100 or more 

participants. The Agencies use these 

averages to inform the estimate of the 

average number of participating plans in 

a pooled employer plan. The final 

estimate does take into account one 

pooled plan provider registrant that has 

already listed 2,000 participating 

employers. It is estimated that a total of 

3,369 small employers (i.e., under 100 

plan participants) and 842 large 

employers would seek to provide 

benefits as participating employers in 

pooled employer plans.36 The Agencies 

assume this would result in a direct 

decrease of defined contribution Form 

5500–SF filers and a decrease of defined 

contribution Form 5500 filers, and a 

total reduction of filers from 843,662 to 

839,728 filers. Such a reduction in filers 

would be partially offset by an increase 

in pooled employer plan filings. In the 

proposed rule, the Agencies requested 

comments regarding the number of 

employers that have already joined a 

pooled employer plan; however, no 

comments were received that helped the 

Agencies revise the estimates of the 

number of filers. 

3. Benefits 

Defined Benefit Plan/Title IV 

Questions for the 2022 Form 5500s: The 

changes to the Form 5500 Schedules 

MB, SB, and R would help remedy data 

and information inadequacies, 

increasing plans’ transparency, enable 

Agencies to project more precisely 

defined benefit pension plans’ and 

insurance programs’ liabilities, and help 

the PBGC more effectively conduct 

research and better protect plan 

participants and beneficiaries. 

Schedule MB collects actuarial 

information on multiemployer defined 

benefit plans and certain money 

purchase plans. Based on reviewing 

previously filed Schedules MB 

responses to line 4f, it appears to the 

Agencies that the instructions may be 

unclear as to how to fill out line 4f of 

Schedule MB correctly. Clarification of 

the line 4f instructions and line 

language is intended to provide more 

consistent and correct responses. 

Revisions to line 6 and clarification of 

the expense load percentage calculation 

is intended to allow the Agencies to 

easily identify the expense load and 

more accurately project plan liabilities. 

The changes to line 6 will provide 

greater transparency in the actuarial 

status and the actuarial assumptions of 

the plans. The expansion of line 8b to 

require additional projected benefit 

payment and employer contribution 

information will allow the Agencies to 

collect more information to more 

precisely project defined benefit 

pension plans’ and insurance programs’ 

liabilities. 

Schedule SB collects actuarial 

information on single-employer defined 

benefit plans. The expansion of line 26 

to require additional projected benefit 

payment information and the change to 

Part IX will allow the Agencies to 

collect more information to more 

precisely project defined benefit 

pension plans’ and insurance programs’ 

liabilities. It also aligns the filing 

requirements for single-employer 

defined benefit plans with the more 

detailed requirements for PBGC-insured 

multiemployer plans resulting from the 

modification of line 8 on the schedule 

MB. 

Schedule R collects information on 

retirement plans. Previously, 

multiemployer defined benefit pension 

plans were required to report 

identifying information for each 

employer that contributed more than 

five percent of total contributions to the 

plan during the plan year. The final 

forms revisions, instead, requires plans 

to report identifying information on any 

employer who (1) contributed more than 

five percent of the plan’s total 

contributions or (2) was one of the top 

ten highest contributors. This will 

provide greater transparency as related 

to concentrations of potential risk 

within participating employers. 

The final forms revisions also make 

changes in format for certain 

attachments. EFAST2 filers currently 

file some Form 5500 attachments as PDF 

and plain text files. Due to the nature of 

the attachments, they often include 

many numbers that are difficult to 

extract from these file types. There is 

consideration being given to steps that 

could be taken to allow more integration 

of common spreadsheet files (such as 

CSV formats). As this is not being 

considered as a requirement at this 

point, plans would not incur an 

additional cost if such functionality 

were made available. The Agencies 

expect this option may simplify the 

process for preparing and filing 

attachments. 

Multiple-Employer Pension Plan 

Reporting Improvements: The final 

forms revisions add new plan 

characteristics codes to identify pooled 

employer plans, association retirement 

plans, and PEO plans, along with a 

residual category for all other defined 

contribution MEPs. This information 

would help protect plan participants 

and beneficiaries by allowing for 

improved analysis for oversight and 

research purposes by the government, 

the regulated community, and other 

interested stakeholders. 

Benefits of Changes for Pooled 

Employer Plans. The SECURE Act 

established a new type of ERISAcovered defined contribution pension 

plan, the pooled employer plan, that is 

established and maintained by a pooled 

plan provider that meets the conditions 

of the statute. By creating the pooled 

employer plan structure, the SECURE 

Act permitted multiple unrelated 


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37 85 FR at 72949–72950. 

38Szapiro, Aron, ‘‘Pooled Employer Plans: 

Paperwork or Panacea.’’ Accessible at https://

www.morningstar.com/lp/paperwork_or_panacea. 

39 VanDerhei, Jack. ‘‘How Much More Secure 

Does the SECURE Act Make American Workers: 

Evidence from EBRI’s Retirement Security 

Projection Mode.’’ EBRI Issue Brief. No 501 (2020). 

VanDerhei refers to MEPs in which the members do 

not need to share a common interest as ‘‘Open 

MEPs.’’ (Available at https://www.ebri.org/docs/ 

default-source/ebri-issue-brief/ebri_ib_501_secure20feb20.pdf?sfvrsn=db6f3d2f_4. (Accessed July 21, 

2021.)) 

40The Agencies believe that the annual cost 

burden on filers would be higher still in the absence 

of the regulations enabling use of the Form 5500 

Annual Return/Report in lieu of the statutory 

requirements. Without the Form 5500 Annual 

Return/Report, filers would not have the benefits of 

any regulatory exceptions, simplified reporting, or 

alternative methods of compliance, and 

standardized and electronic filing methods. 

41Using data from the 2019 PBGC Data Tables 

table S–31 and M–6, EBSA calculates that the 

change in size threshold will half the number of 

PBGC insured Single-employer (SE) plans required 

to provide information (where applicable) from 19.2 

percent (4,511 plans) to 10 percent (2,343 plans) of 

the plan universe (23,477 plans) in plan year 2020. 

The PBGC insured multiemployer universe 

reporting falls as well, from 79.7 percent (1,091 

plans) to 62.1 percent (850 plans) of the plan 

universe (1,369 plans). https://www.pbgc.gov/sites/ 

default/files/2019-pension-data-tables.xlsx. 

employers to participate without the 

need for any common interest among 

the employers (other than having 

adopted the plan). As discussed above, 

pooled employer plans need to provide 

ERISA section 103(g) participating 

employer information, as well as certain 

basic information regarding the pooled 

plan provider. Potentially increased 

reporting costs for those employers 

choosing to offer retirement benefits to 

their employees through participating in 

a pooled employer plan would be offset 

by other cost reductions or business 

benefits relative to not having to 

administer an individual plan as further 

discussed below. 

By participating in a pooled employer 

plan, employers could minimize their 

fiduciary responsibilities for ongoing 

administration and operation of the 

plan. Employers could benefit from 

reduced risk and liability because the 

pooled plan provider would bear most 

of the administrative and fiduciary 

responsibility for operating the pooled 

employer plan, including hiring and 

monitoring the 3(38) investment 

manager. Similarly, because the pooled 

plan provider handles the 

administrative tasks such as participant 

communications, plan recordkeeping, 

submitting the Form 5500 and 

complying with plan audits, this could 

increase the operating efficiency for 

participating employers. Also, as they 

are expected to be professional plan 

providers, it is anticipated that a pooled 

plan provider, relative to a small 

employer, would ensure that more 

accurate and complete data is reported 

to the Agencies on the Form 5500. 

Further, as discussed in the regulatory 

impact analysis to the regulation 

establishing the Form PR, pooled 

employer plans generally would benefit 

from scale advantages, including the 

ability to obtain lower fees for 

investment options.37 The marginal 

costs for pooled employer plans would 

diminish and pooled plan providers 

would spread fixed costs over a larger 

pool of member employers and 

employee participants, creating direct 

economic efficiencies. Szapiro’s 

research finds that the per-employer 

cost of a large MEP can be lower than 

the cost of a small single employer 

plan.38 Specifically, the study finds that 

a MEP with $125 million and 80 

participating companies cost 78 basis 

points, whereas 80 single-employer plan 

each with $1.5 million in assets would 

have an estimated cost of 111 basis 

points per plan. Thus, compared to 

single-employer plans, MEPs can be a 

more cost-efficient option for small 

employers. The increased economic 

efficiency may result in small 

businesses being able to compete more 

easily with larger companies in 

recruiting and retaining workers due to 

a competitive employee benefit package. 

Finally, pooled employer plans may 

enable participants to achieve better 

retirement outcomes. VanDerhei’s 

research finds that the adoption of a 

MEP in which the members do not need 

to share a common interest, other than 

participating in the same plan, with a 25 

percent opt-out rate among employees, 

results in an overall 1.4 percent 

reduction in the retirement savings 

deficit, compared to when a MEP is not 

adopted.39 The study also finds a 3.1 

percent reduction in the retirement 

savings deficit for individuals working 

for employers with fewer than 100 

employees and 3.3 percent reduction in 

the retirement savings deficit for 

individuals working for employers with 

100 to 500 employees. 

4. Costs 

The Agencies anticipate that the costs 

for plans to satisfy their annual 

reporting obligations would on average 

stay the same for most plans and 

increase slightly for some under the 

final forms revisions relative to the 

current regime.40 The Agencies estimate 

that the final forms revisions would 

impose an additional annual burden of 

$5.0 million with most costs falling on 

25,069 defined benefit plan filers. 

Defined Benefit Plan/Title IV 

Questions for the 2022 Form 5500s: The 

final forms revisions include changes 

related to reporting requirements for 

defined benefit pensions subject to 

filing Schedules MB, SB, and R. The 

Agencies believe the changes and 

additional questions reflect information 

plans should know and expect that 

reporting this information would result 

in a de minimis increase in burden. 

Based on the changes that will be 

effective beginning with the 2022 

Schedules SB, MB and R, and the 

relevant comments for each, the 

Agencies believes that the 

implementation of the changes by plans 

will be the only measurable change and 

the aggregate change is de minimis. The 

opinion is founded on the idea that the 

changes can be described by one or 

more of the following; (1) The change 

replaces an existing data element for a 

new element or set of elements that are 

assumed to be at hand for plans, (2) 

changes to reporting thresholds based 

on plan size reduce the number of plans 

required to respond and this change 

offsets any potential additional burden 

incurred by plans still required to 

report 41 and (3) the changes are benign 

and meant to clarify or simplify 

reporting. Therefore, the Agencies 

include 2 hours for plan administrators 

to prepare for the reporting changes in 

plan year 2022 and assume there to be 

no ongoing additional burden from the 

changes in subsequent years. This 

results in a one-time cost of $5.0 million 

for the 25,069 defined benefit plan 

filers. 

Multiple-Employer Pension Plan 

(MEP) Reporting Improvements: New to 

the 2022 plan year forms are four new 

plan characteristics codes to identify 

different types of defined contribution 

MEPs: (a) Pooled employer plans, (b) 

association retirement plans, and (c) 

PEO plans, along with a residual 

category (d) for all other defined 

contribution MEPs. Plans already report 

characteristics codes and the inclusion 

of these additional codes for these 

recently added plan types does not 

increase the estimated plan reporting 

burden for these plans. 

5. Uncertainty 

The SECURE Act created pooled 

employer plans. Due to these final rules 

designed to implement the SECURE Act, 

as well as the DOL’s final rules with 

respect to association retirement plans 

and PEO-sponsored plans, the Agencies 

assume that these types of entities will 

file a Form 5500 and report the number 

of participating employers, numbers of 

covered participants, and amount of 

assets in the future. However, until they 


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file and there is a way to identify them, 

the Agencies face significant uncertainty 

about the number of each type of entity 

and whether they are providing 

coverage in a different manner than was 

already provided by employers to their 

employees through single employer 

plans or already existing MEPs 

(including association retirement plans 

and PEOs) or whether with the 

availability of additional commercial 

arrangements and plans, more 

employers will establish plans for their 

employees. 

The Agencies requested information 

during the proposed rule stage that 

would help improve its estimates of the 

numbers of affected entities, employers 

and the burdens they would experience, 

but did not receive comments that 

would help improve its estimates. 

6. Alternatives 

As discussed earlier in the preamble, 

the Agencies considered alternative 

approaches for some of the information 

required to be reported in order to 

reduce possible burden, including: 

In the NPFR, line 8b(3) of Schedule 

MB and line 26b of Schedule SB were 

proposed to be applicable to plans with 

500 or more participants. After receiving 

comments on the proposed changes, the 

Agencies decided to revise this 

requirement for these lines and also for 

line 8b(1) of Schedule MB so the 

requirement would only be applicable 

to plans with 1,000 or more 

participants, hence reducing the number 

of plans required to provide 

attachments. In the NPFR, line 8b(4) of 

Schedule MB and line 26(c) of Schedule 

SB were proposed to require plans to 

provide the average age and average 

benefit for terminated vested 

participants and participants in paystatus. After receiving comments on the 

proposed changes, the Agencies decided 

to not include these provisions in the 

final rule. 

The Agencies also considered 

finalizing the Schedule MEP but as 

discussed above, the Agencies decided 

not to finalize the Schedule MEP in the 

final forms revisions because of the 

need to carefully consider the public 

comments, allow sufficient lead time for 

programming and systems changes, as 

well as time to develop contracts and 

other communications among the plans 

and their service providers, done in 

conjunction with a separate contractual 

development schedule for integrating 

form and instruction changes into the 

EFAST2 wholly-electronic filing system 

that receives and displays Forms 5500 

series annual returns/reports. 

B. Paperwork Reduction Act Statement 

In accordance with the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA 95) (44 

U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)), the Agencies 

solicited comments concerning the 

information collection request (ICR) 

included in the revision of the Form 

5500 Annual Return/Report. At the 

same time, the Agencies also submitted 

an information collection request (ICR) 

to the Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB), in accordance with 44 U.S.C. 

3507(d). 

The Agencies did not receive 

comments that specifically addressed 

the paperwork burden analysis of the 

information collection requirement 

contained in the proposed rule. 

In connection with publication of the 

final forms revision, the Agencies are 

submitting an ICR to OMB requesting a 

revision of the collection of information 

under OMB Control Number 1210–0110 

reflecting the instruction changes being 

finalized in this document. The 

Agencies will notify the public when 

OMB approves the ICR. 

A copy of the ICR may be obtained by 

contacting the PRA addressee shown 

below or at www.RegInfo.gov. PRA 

ADDRESSEE: Address requests for 

copies of the ICRs to James Butikofer, 

Office of Research and Analysis, U.S. 

Department of Labor, Employee Benefits 

Security Administration, 200 

Constitution Avenue NW, Room N– 

5655, Washington, DC 20210 or email: 

ebsa.opr@dol.gov. ICRs submitted to 

OMB also are available at http://

www.RegInfo.gov. 

The burden analysis is based on data 

from the 2019 Form 5500 filings (the 

latest year for which complete data are 

available). The burden analysis includes 

the burden of the current information 

collection and adjusts it for changes 

made by the final forms revisions. 

Burden estimates take into account 

the change in plan counts due to the 

creation of pooled employer plans, with 

an increase in MEPs and a small 

decrease in single employer plans, 

reflecting some single employer plans 

moving to pooled employer plans. The 

Agencies estimated that there are 4,538 

defined contribution MEPs and that 202 

PEPs will be formed. The burden also 

includes the additional burden from the 

changes to the 2022 Form 5500 and 

related schedules. 

The Agencies’ burden estimation 

methodology excludes certain activities 

from the calculation of ‘‘burden.’’ If the 

activity is performed for any reason 

other than compliance with the 

applicable Federal tax administration 

system or the Title I annual reporting 

requirements, it was not counted as part 

of the paperwork burden. For example, 

most businesses or financial entities 

maintain, in the ordinary course of 

business, detailed accounts of assets and 

liabilities, and income and expenses for 

the purposes of operating the business 

or entity. These recordkeeping activities 

were not included in the calculation of 

burden because prudent business or 

financial entities normally have that 

information available for reasons other 

than Federal tax or Title I annual 

reporting. Only time for gathering and 

processing information associated with 

the tax return/annual reporting systems, 

and learning about the law, was 

included. In addition, an activity is 

counted as a burden only once if 

performed for both tax and Title I 

purposes. The Agencies also have 

designed the instruction package for the 

Form 5500 Annual Return/Report so 

that filers generally will be able to 

complete the Form 5500 Annual Return/ 

Report by reading the instructions 

without needing to refer to the statutes 

or regulations. The Agencies, therefore, 

have considered in their PRA 

calculations the burden of reading the 

instructions and find there is no 

recordkeeping burden attributable to the 

Form 5500 Annual Return/Report. 

Note that to reflect OMB’s preference 

that burden incurred by service 

providers be reported as hour burden 

instead of cost burden, burden that has 

historically been included as cost 

burden has been included here as hour 

burden. 

A summary of paperwork burden 

estimates follows. As noted above, these 

estimates include the burden of the 

overall Form 5500 information 

collection and makes adjustments for 

the final instructions revisions included 

in this document. 

Agency: Employee Benefits Security 

Administration, Department of Labor. 

Title: Annual Information Return/ 

Report of Employee Benefit Plan. 

Type of Review: Revision of existing 

collection. 

Affected Public: Individuals or 

households; Private Sector—Business or 

other for-profit; Not-for-profit 

institutions. 

OMB Number: 1210–0110. 

Total Respondents: 839,728. 

Total Responses: 839,728. 

Estimated Total Burden Hours: 

3,029,299. 

Estimated Total Annualized Costs: $0. 

Agency: Department of Treasury— 

IRS. 

Title: Annual Information Return/ 

Report of Employee Benefit Plan. 

Type of Review: Revision of existing 

collection. 


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Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 99 / Monday, May 23, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 31145 

Affected Public: Individuals or 

households; Private Sector—Business or 

other for-profit; Not-for-profit 

institutions. 

OMB Number: 1545–1610. 

Total Respondents: 984,354. 

Total Responses: 984,354. 

Estimated Total Burden Hours: 

1,970,038. 

Estimated Total Annualized Costs: $0. 

Agency: PBGC. 

Title: Annual Information Return/ 

Report of Employee Benefit Plan. 

Type of Review: Revision of existing 

collection. 

Affected Public: Individuals or 

households; Private Sector—Business or 

other for-profit; Not-for-profit 

institutions. 

OMB Number: 1212–0057. 

Total Respondents: 25,069. 

Total Responses: 25,069. 

Estimated Total Burden Hours: 

17,743. 

Estimated Total Annualized Costs: $0. 

Paperwork and Respondent Burden: 

Estimated time needed to complete the 

forms listed below reflects the combined 

requirements of the IRS, the DOL, and 

the PBGC. The times will vary 

depending on individual circumstances. 

The estimated average times are: 

TABLE 1—AVERAGE ESTIMATED TIME PER SCHEDULE, PER FILER TYPE

Pension plans 

Large Small, filing Form 5500 Small, filing 5500–SF 

Form 5500 ..................................... 1 hr, 50 min .................................. 1 hr, 19 min.

Sch A ............................................. 2 hr, 52 min .................................. 2 hr, 52 min.

Sch MB .......................................... 8 hr, 53 min .................................. 8 hr, 14 min .................................. 8 hr, 14 min. 

Sch SB ........................................... 6 hr, 38 min .................................. 6 hr, 49 min .................................. 6 hr, 49 min. 

Sch C ............................................. 2 hr, 49 min.

Sch D ............................................. 1 hr, 39 min .................................. 20 min.

Sch G ............................................. 14 hr, 14 min.

Sch H ............................................. 7 hr, 38 min.

Sch I ............................................... ....................................................... 2 hr, 6 min.

Sch R ............................................. 1 hr, 41 min. ................................. 1 hr, 7 min.

Form 5500–SF ............................... ....................................................... ....................................................... 2 hr, 35 min. 

Direct filing entities 

Master trusts CCTs PSAs 103–12 IEs GIAs 

Form 5500 .................................. 1 hr, 50 min ........... 1 hr, 29 min ........... 1 hr, 24 min ........... 1 hr, 33 min ........... 1 hr, 22 min. 

Sch A ......................................... 2 hr, 54 min ........... 2 hr, 48 min ........... 2 hr, 46 min ........... 2 hr, 52 min ........... 2 hr, 53 min. 

Sch C ......................................... 3 hr, 1 min ............. 1 hr, 1 min ............. 29 min .................... 1 hr, 22 min ........... 51 min. 

Sch D ......................................... 1 hr, 30 min ........... 47 min .................... 34 min .................... 49 min .................... 41 min 

Sch G ......................................... 12 hr, 32 min ......... ................................ ................................ 5 hr, 42 min.

Sch H ......................................... 8 hr, 7 min ............. 7 hr, 36 min ........... 7 hr, 33 min ........... 8 hr, 17 min ........... 7 hr, 38 min. 

Welfare plans that include health benefits 

Large Small, unfunded, combination unfunded/fully insured, or 

funded with a trust 5500–SF 

Form 5500 .............. 1 hr, 45 min ........................................................................... 1 hr, 14 min. 

Sch A ...................... 3 hr, 40 min ........................................................................... 2 hr, 43 min.

Sch C ...................... 3 hr, 38 min.

Sch D ...................... 1 hr, 52 min ........................................................................... 20 min 

Sch G ...................... 11 hr, 0 min.

Sch H ...................... 8 hr, 36 min.

Sch I ........................ ................................................................................................ 1 hr, 56 min. 

Form 5500–SF ........ ................................................................................................ 2 hr, 35 min. 

Welfare plans that do not include health benefits 

Large Small, filing Form 5500 Small, filing Form 5500–SF 

Form 5500 ..................................... 1 hr, 45 min .................................. 1 hr, 14 min.

Sch A ............................................. 3 hr, 40 min .................................. 2 hr, 43 min.

Sch C ............................................. 3 hr, 38 min.

Sch D ............................................. 1 hr, 52 min .................................. 20 min.

Sch G ............................................. 11 hr, 0 min.

Sch H ............................................. 8 hr, 36 min.

Sch I ............................................... ....................................................... 1 hr, 56 min.

Form 5500–SF ............................... ....................................................... 2 hr, 35 min.

The aggregate hour burden for the 

Form 5500 Annual Return/Report 

(including schedules and short form) is 

estimated to be 5 million hours annually 

shared between the DOL, IRS, and the 

PBGC. The hour burden reflects filing 

activities carried out directly by filers. 


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31146 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 99 / Monday, May 23, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 

42 5 U.S.C. 601 et seq. (1980). 

43 5 U.S.C. 551 et seq. (1946). 

44 5 U.S.C. 604 (1980). 

45 2 U.S.C. 1501 et seq. (1995). 

46Enhancing the Intergovernmental Partnership, 

58 FR 58093 (Oct. 28, 1993). 

47Federalism, supra note 6. 

48Consistent with prior year practice, 

‘‘information-only’’ copies of the forms, schedules, 

and instructions may be published earlier than 

January 1, 2023. 

49This approach of showing proposed changes 

will reduce costs associated with publication of the 

proposed form changes in the Federal Register and 

provide greater flexibility for the related EFAST2 

development processes. The Agencies intend to 

publish mock-ups of the forms on the DOL’s 

website as part of the EFAST2 third party software 

Presented below is a chart showing 

the total hour and cost burden of the 

revised Form 5500 Annual Return/ 

Report, including the changes due to the 

current and past revisions. The chart 

displays the total hour burden 

separately allocated across the DOL, the 

IRS, and the PBGC. 

TABLE 2—HOUR BURDEN DISTRIBUTION PER AGENCY

Hour burden 

DOL IRS PBGC 

Pension Large Plans ................................................................................................................... 893,879 409,717 2,513 

Pension Small Plans .................................................................................................................... 929,498 1,063,423 12,649 

Welfare Large Plans .................................................................................................................... 1,065,506 17,906 ........................

Welfare Small Plans .................................................................................................................... 64,616 22,140 ........................

DFEs ............................................................................................................................................ 70,103 34,404 75 

EZ Filers ...................................................................................................................................... ........................ 374,340 ........................

January 2013 Revision ................................................................................................................ 630 ........................ ........................

2014 CSEC Revision ................................................................................................................... 2,728 ........................ ........................

2021/2022 Revisions ................................................................................................................... 2,339 48,108 2,507 

Total Agency Burden ............................................................................................................ 3,029,299 1,970,038 17,743 

C. Regulatory Flexibility Act 

The Regulatory Flexibility Act 

(RFA) 42 imposes certain requirements 

with respect to Federal rules that are 

subject to the notice and comment 

requirements of section 553(b) of the 

Administrative Procedure Act and are 

likely to have a significant economic 

impact on a substantial number of small 

entities.43 Unless the head of an agency 

certifies that a final rule is not likely to 

have a significant economic impact on 

a substantial number of small entities, 

section 604 of the RFA requires the 

agency to present a final regulatory 

flexibility analysis of the final rule.44

The Department prepared an Initial 

Regulatory Flexibility Analysis at the 

proposed rule stage. However, the final 

forms revisions are focused only on a 

subset of the requirements proposed. As 

discussed in the cost section above, 

most changes have negligible or no 

added burden. The Defined Benefit 

Plan/Title IV Revisions have added 

costs in the first year as plans make 

changes to what information is being 

reported. In 2019 there were 23,694 

single employer defined benefit plans 

and 1,375 multiemployer defined 

benefit plans that are covered by the 

PBGC and would be impacted by these 

changes. These plans are a nonsubstantial fraction (3.7 percent) of the 

686,809 pension plans filing in 2019. 

The Department certifies that the final 

forms revisions will not have a 

significant impact on a substantial 

number of small entities. Therefore, the 

Department has not prepared a Final 

Regulatory Flexibility Analysis. 

D. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act 

Title II of the Unfunded Mandates 

Reform Act of 1995 requires each 

Federal agency to prepare a written 

statement assessing the effects of any 

Federal mandate in a proposed or final 

agency rule that may result in an 

expenditure of $100 million or more 

(adjusted annually for inflation with the 

base year 1995) in any one year by State, 

local, and tribal governments, in the 

aggregate, or by the private sector.45 For 

purposes of the Unfunded Mandates 

Reform Act, as well as Executive Order 

12875, the final forms revisions does not 

include any Federal mandate that the 

Agencies expect would result in such 

expenditures by State, local, or tribal 

governments, or the private sector.46

E. Federalism Statement 

Executive Order 13132 outlines 

fundamental principles of federalism, 

and requires the adherence to specific 

criteria by Federal agencies in the 

process of their formulation and 

implementation of policies that have 

‘‘substantial direct effects’’ on the 

States, the relationship between the 

national government and States, or on 

the distribution of power and 

responsibilities among the various 

levels of government.47 Federal agencies 

promulgating regulations that have 

federalism implications must consult 

with State and local officials and 

describe the extent of their consultation 

and the nature of the concerns of State 

and local officials in the preamble to the 

final rule. 

In the Agencies’ view, the final forms 

revisions would not have federalism 

implications because they would not 

have direct effects on the States, on the 

relationship between the national 

government and the States, or on the 

distribution of power and 

responsibilities among various levels of 

government. Section 514 of ERISA 

provides, with certain exceptions 

specifically enumerated, that the 

provisions of Titles I and IV of ERISA 

supersede any and all laws of the States 

as they relate to any employee benefit 

plan covered under ERISA. The 

requirements implemented in these 

rules do not alter the fundamental 

provisions of the statute with respect to 

employee benefit plans, and as such 

would have no implications for the 

States or the relationship or distribution 

of power between the national 

government and the States. 

IV. Appendices 

The Agencies have included 

Appendices A and B to provide more 

detailed illustrations and explanations 

of the changes, which will be 

implemented for the 2022 Form 5500 

series, expected to be available for filing 

on January 1, 2023: 48 Appendix A 

contains a detailed description of final 

changes to the 2022 Form 5500, 

Schedules MB, SB and R. Appendix B 

contains a detailed description of final 

changes to the 2022 Form 5500 and 

Form 5500–SF to implement Section 

101 of the SECURE Act.49


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Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 99 / Monday, May 23, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 31147 

developer certification process and in furtherance 

of public education efforts about the changes to be 

implemented. 

Consistent with the Agencies annual 

updates to the forms, the final versions 

may include minor technical corrections 

that do not require further notice and 

comment under the PRA, the APA, or 

any relevant Executive Order. 

BILLING CODE 4910–29–P 


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APPENDIX A - CHANGES TO 2022 SCHEDULE MB, SCHEDULE SB AND 

SCHEDULE R, AND THEIR INSTRUCTIONS 

1. Changes to 2022 Schedule MB and Instructions to Improve PBGC Reporting. 

• Instructions to 2022 Schedule MB. Line 3 of the 2022 Schedule MB instructions is 

modified to read as follows: 

Line 3. Contributions Made to Plan. Show all employer and employee contributions 

for the plan year. Include employer contributions made not later than 2 1⁄2 months ( or the later 

date allowed under Code section 43 l(c)(8) and ERISA section 304(c)(8)) after the end of the 

plan year. Show only contributions actually made to the plan by the date this Schedule MB is 

signed. 

Add the amounts in both columns (b) and ( c) and enter both results on the total line. All 

contributions must be credited toward a particular plan year. 

If any of the contributions reported in line 3 include amounts owed for withdrawal 

liability, report in line 3(d) the total withdrawal liability amounts included in line 3(b). 

Attach a list showing the date and amount of each withdrawal liability amount included, 

broken down between periodic amounts and lump sum amounts. For this purpose, include a 

withdrawal liability payment as a lump sum only if the entire liability is paid in one lump sum or 

if the payment from an employer that paid its assessed withdrawal liability in periodic 

installments (e.g., monthly or quarterly) in prior years settled the remaining liability via one 

lump sum payment during the plan year. Use the format shown below and label this attachment 

"Schedule MB, line 3(d)- Withdrawal Liability Amounts." The attachment may be provided in 

a spreadsheet file (CSV format). 
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Schedule MB line 3(d)- Withdrawal Liability Amounts 

Payment Date Periodic Amounts Lump Sum Amounts Total Amounts 

• 2022 Schedule MB. Line 4f of Schedule MB is modified to read as follows: 

*** 

f If the plan is in critical status or critical and declining status, and is: 

• Projected to emerge from critical status within 30 years, enter the plan year 

in which it is projected to emerge; 

• Projected to become insolvent within 30 years, enter the plan year in which 4f 

insolvency is expected and check here .......................................... D 

• Neither projected to emerge from critical status nor become insolvent within 

30 years, enter "9999." 

*** 

• Instructions to 2022 Schedule MB. Instructions for line 4 f of the 2022 Schedule 

MB are modified to read as follows: 

Line 4f. If Code C (Critical Status) or Code D (Critical and Declining Status) was entered 

on line 4b you must complete line 4f as follows: 

If the projections underlying the actuarial certification for the plan year indicate that the 

plan is: 

• Projected to emerge from critical status within 30 years, enter the plan year in which 

the plan is projected to emerge from critical status. 

• Projected to become insolvent within 30 years, check the box provided and enter the 

plan year in which the insolvency is expected. In addition, attach an illustration showing year-byyear cash flow projections for the period beginning with the plan year and ending with the year 

the plan is projected to become insolvent (or, if earlier, the 19th year after the plan year) and a 
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summary of the assumptions underlying the projections. Label this attachment "Schedule MB, 

line 4/ - Cash Flow Projections." 

• Neither projected to emerge from critical status nor become insolvent within 30 years, 

enter "9999." In addition, attach an illustration showing year-by-year cash flow projections for 

the 20-year period beginning with the plan year and a summary of the assumptions underlying 

the projections. Label this attachment "Schedule MB, line 4/ - Cash Flow Projections." 

• 2022 Schedule MB. Lines 6e and 6f are modified and line 6i is added to the 2022 

Schedule MB, to read as follows: 

*** 

6 Checklist of actuarial assumptions 

a Interest rate for 'RP A 94 current liability . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6a 

Pre-retirement Post-retirement 

b Rates specified in insurance or annuity contracts ............. . Yes 0No0N/A Yes 0No0N/A 

c Mortality table code for valuation purposes: 

(1) Males . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6c(l) 

(2) Females........................................................... 6c(2) 

d Valuation liability interest rate ............................ . 6d 

e Salary scale .......................................................... . 6e % 

f Withdrawal liability interest rate ......................... . 

(1) Type of interest rate...................................... 6f(l) D Single rate D ERISA 4044 D Other D N/A 

(2) If"Single rate" is checked in (1), enter applicable single rate............................................ 6f(2) % 

g Estimated investment return on actuarial value of assets for year ending on the valuation date 6g % 

h Estimated investment return on market value of assets for year ending on the valuation date .. ... 6h % 

i Expense load included in normal cost reported in line 9b 6i D N/ A 

( 1) If the expense load is described as a percentage of normal cost, enter the assumed 6i(l) % 

percentage ............................................................................................................................... . 

(2) If the expense load is a dollar amount that varies from year to year, enter dollar amount 6i(2) 

included in line 9b .................................................................................................................. . 

(3) If neither (1) nor (2) describes the expense load, check the box ............................................. 6i(3) D 

• Instructions to 2022 Schedule MB. Instructions for the salary scale assumption 

(line 6f on the 2021 Schedule MB) are renumbered to be line 6e. Instructions for the withdrawal 

liability interest rate assumption, a new item to be reported on line 6f, are added as shown below. 
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Instructions for the expense load assumption (line 6f for the 2021 Schedule MB) are renumbered 

to be line 6i and modified as shown below. 

Lines 6f(l) and 6(t)(2). Withdrawal Liability Interest Rate. In line 6f(l), check the 

box that describes the type of interest rate assumption used to determine the present value of 

vested benefits for withdrawal liability determinations for employers withdrawing during the 

plan year. If the present value of vested benefits noted above was not determined by the time the 

Form 5500 is filed, check "NIA". In addition: 

• If "Single rate" is checked, enter the single rate in line 6f(2). 

• If "Other" is checked, attach a description of the interest rate used for this purpose 

and label this attachment "Schedule MB, line 6/(1) - Description of Withdrawal 

Liability Interest Rate". 

Line 6i. Expense Load Included in Normal Cost. If the normal cost reported in line 

9b does not include a load for administrative or investment expenses, check the "NI A" box. 

Otherwise, provide information in lines 6i(l ), 6i(2), or 6i(3), whichever is applicable, about the 

expense load included in the normal cost. If the expense load is described as a percentage of 

normal cost, the reported percentage in line 6i(l) should be the expense load as a percent of the 

unloaded normal cost. For example, if the expense load is 5% of the normal cost, the unloaded 

normal cost is $100,000 and the reported normal cost is $105,000, enter 5%, not 4.8% (i.e., 

$5,0001$105,000). Enter rates to the nearest .1 percent. 

• 2022 Schedule MB. The title for line 8b is modified and a new line 8b(3) is added to 

the 2022 Schedule MB to read as follows: 

*** 
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8 Miscellaneous information 

a If a waiver of a funding deficiency has been approved for this plan year, enter the I 8a I 

date (MM-DD-YYYY) of the ruling letter granting the approval... ....................... . '---------'-------------l 

b Demographic, benefit, and contribution information 

(1) Is the plan required to provide a projection of expected benefit payments? □ Yes □ No 

(see instructions) If"Yes," attach a schedule ............................................................................. . 

(2) Is the plan required to provide a Schedule of Active Participant Data? □ Yes □ No 

(see instructions) If "Yes," attach a schedule ............................................................................. . 

(3) Is the plan required to provide a projection of employer contributions and withdrawal liability □ Yes □ No 

payments? (see instructions) If"Yes," attach a schedule .......................................................... . 

*** 

• Instructions to 2022 Schedule MB. Instructions for lines 8b(l) and 8b(2) are 

modified and instructions for line 8b(3) are added to the 2022 Schedule MB, to read as follows: 

Line 8b(l). Schedule of Projection of Expected Benefit Payments. Check "Yes" only 

if this is a multiemployer plan covered by Title IV ofERISA that has 1,000 or more total 

participants as of the beginning of the plan year (i.e., reported on line 2b(3)(c), column (1)). 

Ifline 8b(l) is "Yes," in an attachment, provide a projection of benefits expected to be 

paid separately for active participants, terminated vested participants, and retired participants and 

beneficiaries receiving payments, and for the entire plan (not to include expected expenses) in 

each of the next fifty years starting with the plan year and based on the participant's status as of 

the valuation date. For purposes of this projection, assume (1) no additional accruals, (2) 

experience (e.g., termination, mortality, and retirement) is in line with valuation assumptions, (3) 

no new entrants, and ( 4) benefits are paid in the form assumed for valuation purposes. 

Use the format shown below and label the schedule "Schedule MB, line 8b(l) -

Schedule of Projection of Expected Benefit Payments." The attachment may be provided in a 

spreadsheet file (CSV format). 
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Schedule MB, line 8(b)(l)- Schedule of Projection of Expected Benefit Payments 

Retired 

Participants and 

Terminated Beneficiaries 

Active Vested Receiving 

Plan Year Participants Participants Payments 

Current Plan Year 

Current Plan Year + 1 

Etc. 

Current plan year + 49 

Line 8b(2). Schedule of Active Participant Data. Check "Yes" only if this is a 

multiemployer plan covered by Title IV of BRISA that has active participants. 

Total 

If line 8b(2) is "Yes," attach a schedule of the active plan participant data used in the 

valuation for this plan year. Use the format shown below and label the attachment "Schedule 

MB, line 8b(2) - Schedule of Active Participant Data. " The attachment may be provided in a 

spreadsheet file (CSV format). 

Schedule MB, line 8b(2) - Schedule of Active Participant Data 

YEARS OF CREDITED SERVICE Ill 

Under1 1 to 4 5to 9 lit 40 & up 

Average Average Average fill} Average 

Attained 

Age No. Comp. I Accrued No. Comp. I Accrued No. Comp. I Accrued 

r

1

~f No. Comp. I Accrued 

Mon. Ben. Mon. Ben. Mon. Ben. Mon. Ben. 

Under 25 

~; 25 to 29 

30 to 34 

35 to 39 

40 to 44 

45 to 49 

50 to 54 iii 

55 to 59 ;:: 

60 to 64 j< 

65 to 69 :;;i': 

70 & up 1;'\; 

Expand this schedule by adding columns after the "5 to 9" column and before the "40 & 

up" column for active participants with total years of credited service in the following ranges: 10 

to 14; 15 to 19; 20 to 24; 25 to 29; 30 to 34; and 35 to 39. For each column, enter the number of 

active participants with the specified number of years of credited service divided according to 
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age group. For participants with partial years of credited service, truncate the total number of 

years of credited service. Years of credited service are the years credited under the plan's benefit 

formula. 

Plans reporting 1,000 or more active participants on line 2b(3)(c), column (1), and using 

compensation to determine benefits must also provide average compensation data. For each 

grouping, enter the average compensation of the active participants in that group. For this 

purpose, compensation is the compensation taken into account for each participant under the 

plan's benefit formula, limited to the amount defined under section 401(a)(l 7) of the Code. Do 

not enter the average compensation in any grouping that contains fewer than 20 participants. 

Plans reporting 1,000 or more active participants on line 2b(3)(c), column (1), must also 

provide average accrued monthly benefits, as of the valuation date, that are payable at normal 

retirement age. For each grouping, enter the average accrued monthly benefit that is payable at 

normal retirement age for the active participants in that group. Do not enter the average accrued 

monthly benefit in any grouping that contains fewer than 20 participants. 

General Rule. In general, data to be shown in each age/service bin includes: 

1. the number of active participants in the age/service bin, 

2. the average compensation of the active participants in the age/service bin, and 

3. the average accrued monthly benefit of the active participants in the age/service bin, 

using $0 for anyone who has no accrued monthly benefit. 

In general, information should be determined as of the valuation date. Average accrued 

monthly benefits may be determined as of either: 

1. the valuation date or 
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2. the day immediately preceding the valuation date. 

Line 8b(3). Schedule of Projection of Employer Contributions and Withdrawal 

Liability Payments. Check "Yes" only if this is a multiemployer plan covered by Title IV of 

ERISA that has 1,000 or more total participants as of the beginning of the plan year (i.e., 

reported on line 2b(3)(c), column (1)). Ifline 8b(3) is "Yes," in an attachment, separately 

provide a projection of employer contributions and withdrawal liability payments expected to be 

received for the entire plan in each of the next ten years starting with the plan year. For purposes 

of this projection, use the assumption used to determine the plan's status under line 4b. Use the 

format shown below and label the schedule "Schedule MB, line 8b(3) - Schedule of Projection 

of Employer Contributions and Withdrawal Liability Payments." The attachment may be 

provided in a spreadsheet file (CSV format). 

Schedule MB, line 8b(3) - Schedule of Projection of Employer Contributions 

and Withdrawal Liability Payments 

Withdrawal 

Employer Liability 

Plan Year Contributions Payments Total 

Current Plan 

Year 

Current Plan 

Year+ 1 

Etc. 

Current plan 

year+ 9 

2. Changes to 2022 Schedule SB and Instructions to Improve PBGC Reporting. 

• 2022 Schedule SB. Line 26 is modified in Part VI of the 2022 Schedule SB to read 

as follows: 
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26 Demographic and benefit information 

a Is the plan required to provide a Schedule of Active Participants? If "Yes," see instructions regarding required D Yes D No 

attachment. ............................................................................................................................................................................. . 

b Is the plan required to provide a projection of expected benefit payments? If "Yes," see instructions regarding required D Yes D No 

attachment .......................................................................................................................................................................... . 

• Instructions to 2022 Schedule SB. The first two paragraphs of the instructions for 

line 26 (now line 26a) are modified to reference line 26a instead ofline 26 as shown below. The 

remaining paragraphs of the instructions for line 26 (now line 26a) are not modified. In addition, 

instructions for line 26b are added as follows: 

Line 26a. Schedule of Active Participant Data. Check "Yes" only if (a) the plan is 

covered by Title IV ofERISA and (b) the plan has active participants. 

If line 26a is "Yes," attach a schedule of the active plan participant data used in the 

valuation for this plan year. Use the format shown and label the schedule "Schedule SB, line 26a 

- Schedule of Active Participant Data. " The attachment may be provided in a spreadsheet file 

(CSV format). 

Line 26b. Schedule of Projection of Expected Benefit Payments. Check "Yes" only if 

this plan is covered by Title IV of ERISA and has 1,000 or more total participants as of the 

valuation date. 

If line 26b is "Yes," in an attachment, provide a projection of benefits expected to be paid 

separately for active participants, terminated vested participants, and retired participants and 

beneficiaries receiving payments, and for the entire plan (not to include expected expenses) in 

each of the next fifty years starting with the plan year and based on the participant's status as of 

the valuation date. For purposes of this projection, assume (1) no additional accruals, (2) 

experience (e.g., termination, mortality, and retirement) is in line with valuation assumptions, (3) 

no new entrants, and ( 4) benefits are paid in the form assumed for valuation purposes. 
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Use the format shown below and label this attachment "Schedule SB, line 26b -

Schedule of Projection of Expected Benefit Payments." The attachment may be 

provided in a spreadsheet file (CSV format). 

Schedule SB, line 26b - Schedule of Projection of Expected Benefit Payments 

Retired 

Participants and 

Terminated Beneficiaries 

Active Vested Receiving 

Plan Year Participants Participants Payments Total 

Current Plan Year 

Current Plan Year + 1 

Etc. 

Current plan year + 49 

• 2022 Schedule SB. The title for Part IX of the 2022 Schedule SB and line 41 are 

replaced with the following: 

Pension Funding Relief under the American Rescue Plan Act of2021 (See instructions) 

41 If an election was made to use the extended amortization rule for a plan year beginning on or before 

December 31, 2021, check the box to indicate the first plan year for which the rule applies. 

□ 2019 □ 2020 □ 2021 

• Instructions to 2022 Schedule SB. The instructions for Part IX are replaced with the 

following: 

Part IX - Pension Funding Relief under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 

Line 41. If an election was made under Code section 403(c)(8) or ERISA section 

303( c )(8) to apply the extended amortization rule for a plan year beginning on or before 

December 31, 2021, check the box to indicate the first plan year for which the rule applies (i.e., 

the box for the 2019, 2020, or 2021 plan year). 
31158 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 99 / Monday, May 23, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 


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3. Changes to 2022 Schedule R Instructions to Improve PBGC Reporting. 

• Instructions to 2022 Schedule R. Line 13 is modified in the instructions for Part V 

of the 2022 Schedule R to read as follows: 

Line 13. This line should be completed only by multiemployer defined benefit pension 

plans that are subject to the minimum funding standards (see Code section 412 and Part 3 of 

Title I ofERISA). Enter the information on lines 13a through 13e for any employer that, for the 

plan year, (1) contributed more than five (5) percent of the plan's total contributions or (2) was 

one of the top-ten highest contributors. List employers in descending order according to the 

dollar amount of their contributions to the plan. Complete as many entries as are necessary to list 

all employers required to be reported. 
Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 99 / Monday, May 23, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 31159 


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APPENDIX B - CHANGES TO FORM 5500 AND FORM 5500-SF INSTRUCTIONS 

1. Changes to 2022 Form 5500 Instructions. 

• Instructions to 2022 Form 5500, Section 4, What to File, Quick Reference Chart 

of Form 5500, Schedules, and Attachments. Footnote 2 for Small Pension Plan and Small 

Welfare Plan is modified to add a new clarifying text at the end to read as follows: 

2 Pension plans and welfare plans with fewer than 100 participants at the beginning of the 

plan year that are not exempt from filing an annual return/report may be eligible to file the Form 

5500-SF, a simplified report. In addition to the limitation on the number of participants, a Form 

5500-SF may only be filed for a plan that is exempt from the requirement that the plan's books 

and records be audited by an independent qualified public accountant (but not by reason of 

enhanced bonding), has 100 percent of its assets invested in certain secure investments with a 

readily determinable fair market value, holds no employer securities, is not a multiemployer 

plan, is not required to file a Form M-1 (Report for Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangements 

(MEWAs) and Certain Entities Claiming Exception (ECEs)) for the plan year, and is not a pooled 

employer plan. See the Form 5500-SF Instructions, Who May File Form 5500-SF. 

• Instructions to 2022 Form 5500, Section 5, Part II, line 2a. The instruction 

following paragraph 1 that includes the definition for the term "plan sponsor," is modified to add 

new fourth and fifth bulleted list text that read as follows: 

• The pooled plan provider that operates the plan, in the case of a pooled employer 

plan that meets the definition under ERISA section 3( 43); or 

• The professional employer organization (PEO), in the case of a PEO multipleemployer plan that meets the conditions under 29 CFR 2510.3-55( c ). 
31160 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 99 / Monday, May 23, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 


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• Instructions to Form 5500, Section 5, Part II, line 2a, "Note" Paragraph. The 

first sentence of the accompanying Note to line 2a, definition for the term "plan sponsor," is 

modified to read as follows: 

Note. In the case of a multiple-employer plan, file only one annual return/report for the 

plan. If an association, pooled plan provider, PEO or other entity is not the sponsor, enter 

the name of a participating employer as sponsor. *** 

• Instructions to 2022 Form 5500, Section 5, Part II, line 3a. The instruction 

following paragraph 1 that includes the definition for the term "plan administrator" is modified 

to add new second and third bulleted list text to read as follows: 

• The pooled plan provider that operates the plan, in the case of a pooled employer 

plan that meets the definition under ERISA section 3(43); 

• The professional employer organization (PEO), in the case of a PEO multipleemployer plan that meets the conditions under 29 CFR 2510.3-55(c); 

• Instructions to 2022 Form 5500, Section 5, Part II, line 3, New Caution 

paragraph. The following CAUTION paragraph in a caution box graphic is added after the 

Note section. 

m In the case of a pooled employer plan, information for the pooled employer plan and 

the pooled plan provider operating the plan reported on the Form 5500 must match the 

information reported on the Form PR. Failure to report the same information could result in 

correspondence from the Department of Labor or the Internal Revenue Service. 
Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 99 / Monday, May 23, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 31161 


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• Instructions to 2022 Form 5500, Section 5, List of Plan Characteristics Codes for 

line 8a, Pension Benefits Provided Under the Plan. The "Defined Contribution Pension 

Features" codes are modified to add, to the two-character plan characteristics codes from the List 

of Plan Characteristics Codes that describe the characteristics of the plan being reported, four 

new multiple-employer defined contribution pension features codes that, when applicable, must 

be reported on Part II, line 8a of the Form 5500, as follows: 

LIST OF PLAN CHARACTERISTICS CODES FOR LINES 8a AND 8b 

*** 

CODE Defined Contribution Pension Features 

*** 

2U 

2V 

2W 

2X 

*** 

Multiple-employer pension plan sponsored by a bona fide 

group or association of employers that is an Association 

Retirement Plan that meets all the conditions under 29 

CFR 2510.3-55/bl. 

Multiple-employer pension plan that is a Professional 

Employer Organization Plan (PEO Plan) that meets all 

the conditions under 29 CFR 2510.3-55(c). 

Multiple-employer pension plan that is a pooled employer 

plan that meets the definition under ERISA section 3(43). 

Multiple-employer defined contribution pension plan that 

does not fall under characteristics code 2U, 2V or 2W. 

2. Changes to 2022 Form 5500-SF Instructions. 

• Instructions to 2022 Form 5500-SF, Specific Line-by-Line Instructions, Part IAnnual Report Identification Information. The CAUTION note that appears after the 

"Multiple-Employer Plan Participating Employer Information" data element box is modified to 

m Multiemployer plans and pooled employer plans cannot use the Form 5500-SF to satisfy their 

annual reporting obligations. They must file the Form 5500. For these purposes, a plan is a pooled 

employer plan if it is a multiple-employer pension plan that meets the definition under ER/SA section 3(43), 

and*** 
31162 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 99 / Monday, May 23, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 


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add a reference to "pooled employer plans" in the first sentence and revise the third sentence to 

add a clause referring to such plans, so those sentences read or begin as follows: 

• Instructions to 2022 Form 5500-SF, Specific Line-by-Line Instructions, Part II, 

line 2a. The instruction for paragraph 1 is modified to strike existing text in paragraph 1, and in 

its place add a definition of the term "plan sponsor" to read as follows: 

1. Enter the plan sponsor's name. If the plan covers only the employees of one 

employer, enter the employer's name. 

The term "plan sponsor" means: 

• The employer, for an employee benefit plan that a single employer established or 

maintains; 

• The employee organization, in the case of a plan of an employee organization; 

• The association, committee, joint board of trustees, or other similar group of 

representatives of the parties who establish or maintain the plan, if the plan is 

established or maintained jointly by one or more employers and one or more 

employee organizations, or by two or more employers; or 

• The professional employer organization (PEO), in the case of a PEO multipleemployer plan that meets the conditions under 29 CFR 2510.3-55(c). 

*** 

• Instructions to 2022 Form 5500-SF, Specific Line-by-Line Instructions, Part II, 

Basic Plan Information, line 3a. Modify the instruction sentence that appears after the 
Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 99 / Monday, May 23, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 31163 


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numbered paragraph list and begins with "Plan administrator for this purpose means," to insert 

a new third bulleted list item to read as follows: 

• The professional employer organization (PEO), in the case of a PEO multipleemployer plan that meets the conditions under 29 CFR 2510.3-55(c); or 

• Instructions to 2022 Form 5500-SF, Part IV, Specific Line-by-Line Instructions, 

line 9, Benefits Provided Under the Plan. The "Defined Contribution Pension Features" codes 

are modified to add, to the two-character plan characteristics codes from the List of Plan 

Characteristics Codes that describe the characteristics of the plan being reported, three new 

multiple-employer defined contribution pension plan feature codes that, when applicable, must 

be reported on Part IV, line 9a of the Form 5500-SF as follows: 

LIST OF PLAN CHARACTERISTICS CODES FOR LINES 9a AND 9b 

*** 

CODE Defined Contribution Pension Features 

*** 

2U 

2V 

2X 

*** 

Multiple-employer pension plan sponsored by a bona fide 

group or association of employers that is an Association 

Retirement Plan that meets all the conditions under 29 

CFR 2510.3-55/b). 

Multiple-employer pension plan that is a Professional 

Employer Organization Plan (PEO Plan) that meets all 

the conditions under 29 CFR 2510.3-55(c). 

Multiple-employer defined contribution pension plan that 

does not fall under characteristics codes 2U or 2V and is 

not a pooled employer plan as defined in ERISA section 

3(43). 
31164 Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 99 / Monday, May 23, 2022 / Rules and Regulations 

Statutory Authority 

Accordingly, pursuant to the 

authority in sections 101, 103, 104, 109, 

110 and 4065 of ERISA and sections 

6058 and 6059 of the Code, the Form 

5500 Annual Return/Report and the 

instructions thereto are proposed to be 

amended as set forth herein. 

Signed at Washington, DC, this 9th day of 

May, 2022. 

Ali Khawar, 

Acting Assistant Secretary, Employee Benefits 

Security Administration, U.S. Department of 

Labor. 

Eric Slack, 

Director, Employee Plans, Tax Exempt and 

Government Entities Division, Internal 

Revenue Service. 

Gordon Hartogensis, 

Director, Pension Benefit Guaranty 

Corporation. 

[FR Doc. 2022–10658 Filed 5–20–22; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4510–29–C 

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY 

Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade 

Bureau 

27 CFR Part 9 

[Docket No. TTB–2018–0008; T.D. TTB–179; 

Ref: Notice No. 177] 

RIN: 1513–AC40 

Establishment of the West Sonoma 

Coast Viticultural Area 

AGENCY: Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and 

Trade Bureau, Treasury. 

ACTION: Final rule; Treasury decision. 

SUMMARY: The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax 

and Trade Bureau (TTB) establishes the 

approximately 141,846-acre ‘‘West 

Sonoma Coast’’ viticultural area in 

Sonoma County, California. The 

viticultural area lies entirely within the 

established Sonoma Coast and North 

Coast viticultural areas and contains the 

established Fort Ross–Seaview 

viticultural area. TTB designates 

viticultural areas to allow vintners to 

better describe the origin of their wines 

and to allow consumers to better 

identify wines they may purchase. 

DATES: This final rule is effective June 

22, 2022. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Karen A. Thornton, Regulations and 

Rulings Division, Alcohol and Tobacco 

Tax and Trade Bureau, 1310 G Street 

NW, Box 12, Washington, DC 20005; 

phone 202–453–1039, ext. 175. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Table of Contents 

I. Background on Viticultural Areas 

A. TTB Authority 

B. Definition 

C. Requirements 

II. West Sonoma Coast Petition 

A. General Characteristics 

B. Notice of Proposed Rulemaking 

III. Discussion of Comments Received and 

TTB Responses 

A. Comments on Establishment of 

Proposed West Sonoma Coast AVA 

B. Comments on Inclusion of Fort Ross– 

Seaview AVA 

IV. TTB Determination 

V. Boundary Description 

VI. Maps 

VII. Impact on Current Wine Labels 

VIII. Regulatory Analysis and Notices 

A. Regulatory Flexibility Act 

B. Executive Order 12866 

IX. Drafting Information 

I. Background on Viticultural Areas 

A. TTB Authority 

Section 105(e) of the Federal Alcohol 

Administration Act (FAA Act), 27 

U.S.C. 205(e), authorizes the Secretary 

of the Treasury to prescribe regulations 

for the labeling of wine, distilled spirits, 

and malt beverages. The FAA Act 

provides that these regulations should, 

among other things, prohibit consumer 

deception and the use of misleading 

statements on labels and ensure that 

labels provide the consumer with 

adequate information as to the identity 

and quality of the product. The Alcohol 

and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau 

(TTB) administers the FAA Act 

pursuant to section 1111(d) of the 

Homeland Security Act of 2002, 

codified at 6 U.S.C. 531(d). The 

Secretary has delegated the functions 

and duties in the administration and 

enforcement of these provisions to the 

TTB Administrator through Treasury 

Order 120–01. 

Part 4 of the TTB regulations (27 CFR 

part 4) authorizes TTB to establish 

definitive viticultural areas and regulate 

the use of their names as appellations of 

origin on wine labels and in wine 

advertisements. Part 9 of the TTB 

regulations (27 CFR part 9) sets forth 

standards for the preparation and 

submission to TTB of petitions for the 

establishment or modification of 

American viticultural areas (AVAs) and 

lists the approved AVAs. 

B. Definition 

Section 4.25(e)(1)(i) of the TTB 

regulations (27 CFR 4.25(e)(1)(i)) defines 

a viticultural area for American wine as 

a delimited grape-growing region having 

distinguishing features as described in 

part 9 of the regulations and, once 

approved, a name and a delineated 

boundary codified in part 9 of the 

regulations. These designations allow 

vintners and consumers to attribute a 

given quality, reputation, or other 

characteristic of a wine made from 

grapes grown in an area to the wine’s 

geographic origin. The establishment of 

AVAs allows vintners to describe more 

accurately the origin of their wines to 

consumers and helps consumers to 

identify wines they may purchase. 

Establishment of an AVA is neither an 

approval nor an endorsement by TTB of 

the wine produced in that area. 

C. Requirements 

Section 4.25(e)(2) of the TTB 

regulations (27 CFR 4.25(e)(2)) outlines 

the procedure for proposing an AVA 

and allows any interested party to 

petition TTB to establish a grapegrowing region as an AVA. Section 9.12 

of the TTB regulations (27 CFR 9.12) 

prescribes standards for petitions to 

establish or modify AVAs. Petitions to 

establish an AVA must include the 

following: 

• Evidence that the area within the 

proposed AVA boundary is nationally 

or locally known by the AVA name 

specified in the petition; 

• An explanation of the basis for 

defining the boundary of the proposed 

AVA; 

• A narrative description of the 

features of the proposed AVA affecting 

viticulture, such as climate, geology, 

soils, physical features, and elevation, 

that make the proposed AVA distinctive 

and distinguish it from adjacent areas 

outside the proposed AVA; 

• If the proposed AVA is to be 

established within, or overlapping, an 

existing AVA, an explanation that both 

identifies the attributes of the proposed 

AVA that are consistent with the 

existing AVA and explains how the 

proposed AVA is sufficiently distinct 

from the existing AVA and therefore 

appropriate for separate recognition; 

• The appropriate United States 

Geological Survey (USGS) map(s) 

showing the location of the proposed 

AVA, with the boundary of the 

proposed AVA clearly drawn thereon; 

and 

• A detailed narrative description of 

the proposed AVA boundary based on 

USGS map markings. 

II. West Sonoma Coast Petition 

A. General Characteristics 

TTB received a petition from Patrick 

Shabram, on behalf of the West Sonoma 

Coast Vintners, proposing the 

establishment of the ‘‘West Sonoma 

Coast’’ AVA. The proposed West 

Sonoma Coast AVA is located in 

Sonoma County, California, and is 

entirely within the established Sonoma 

Coast AVA (27 CFR 9.116) and North 


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