Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Date: 2008-12-10 00:00:00

Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 - Title I: Technical Corrections Related to the Pension Protection Act of 2006 - Subtitle A: Technical Corrections Related to the Pension Protection Act of 2006 - (Sec. 101) Makes technical corrections to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code to conform to the Pension Protection Act of 2006 regarding various specified items, including: (1) the target normal cost of benefits; (2) specified implementation and effective dates for certain requirements; (3) one-participant retirement plans; (4) special age-related rules in accrued benefit requirements for applicable defined benefit plans; (5) inapplicability in certain cases of the limitation on income deductions (for tax purposes) for employer contributions to one or more defined contribution plans; and (6) adjustments to averaging in the determination of the value of the assets of single-employer defined benefit pension plans for minimum funding purposes.(Sec. 110) Makes technical corrections to the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974 with respect to railroad retirement payments to persons not entitled to an annuity.Subtitle B: Other Provisions - (Sec. 121) Requires that the value of assets for any ERISA plan under the averaging method be adjusted for expected earnings (in addition to contributions and distributions, as under current law).(Sec. 122) Modifies the interest rate assumption required with respect to certain small employer plans.(Sec. 123) Makes technical corrections to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 to require treatment of a rate of return or a method of crediting interest as a market rate of return and a permissible method of crediting interest in special age-related rules for governmental defined benefit plans.(Sec. 124) Prescribes a special rule for exclusion from gross income of certain reimbursements from governmental plans for health care expenses of a deceased accident or health care plan participant's beneficiary.(Sec. 125) Requires treatment as a qualified rollover contribution of any airline payment amount received by a qualified airline employee in an airline carrier bankruptcy which is transferred to a Roth IRA within 180 days of receipt.(Sec. 126) Revises asset valuation rules for certain commercial airline benefit plans.(Sec. 127) Increases by $4 the penalties for failure to file partnership returns and S corporation returns.Title II: Pension Provisions Relating to Economic Crisis - (Sec. 201) Provides a waiver of minimum distribution requirements for certain retirement plans and accounts for 2009.(Sec. 202) Revises requirements for determining the shortfall amortization base for a single-employer defined benefit pension plan the value of whose plan assets exceeds the plan funding target for any plan year beginning after 2007 and before 2011.(Sec. 203) Modifies for FY2009 application of the limitation on benefit accruals for single-employer plans with severe funding shortfalls. Requires substituting the plan's adjusted funding target attainment percentage for the preceding plan year for the adjusted funding target attainment percentage for the new plan year, but only if the percentage for the preceding plan year is greater.(Sec. 204) Provides for delay of the designation of multiemployer benefit plans as endangered or critical during FY2009.(Sec. 205) Extends the funding improvement and rehabilitation periods for multiemployer benefit plans in endangered or critical status for FY2008 or FY2009.