§1202a — Title 29 Labor | U.S. Code

§1202a Employee plans compliance resolution system

Title 29 › Chapter CHAPTER 18— - EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT INCOME SECURITY PROGRAM › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER II— - JURISDICTION, ADMINISTRATION, ENFORCEMENT; JOINT PENSION TASK FORCE, ETC. › Subtitle Subtitle A— - Jurisdiction, Administration, and Enforcement › § 1202a

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary of the Treasury can create and run the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (or any successor) and other ways to fix retirement-plan mistakes. The Secretary may waive income, excise, or other taxes so any tax, penalty, or sanction is not excessive and fairly matches how serious the mistake was. The Secretary must keep improving the program and focus on five things: telling small employers about it, considering small employers’ special problems, lengthening the self-correction time for serious failures, allowing more fixes for minor failures during audits, and keeping penalties reasonable and related to the failure.

Title 29, §1202a

Labor — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Secretary of the Treasury shall have full authority to establish and implement the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (or any successor program) and any other employee plans correction policies, including the authority to waive income, excise, or other taxes to ensure that any tax, penalty, or sanction is not excessive and bears a reasonable relationship to the nature, extent, and severity of the failure.

(b)The Secretary of the Treasury shall continue to update and improve the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (or any successor program), giving special attention to—

(1)increasing the awareness and knowledge of small employers concerning the availability and use of the program;

(2)taking into account special concerns and circumstances that small employers face with respect to compliance and correction of compliance failures;

(3)extending the duration of the self-correction period under the Self-Correction Program for significant compliance failures;

(4)expanding the availability to correct insignificant compliance failures under the Self-Correction Program during audit; and

(5)assuring that any tax, penalty, or sanction that is imposed by reason of a compliance failure is not excessive and bears a reasonable relationship to the nature, extent, and severity of the failure.

Editorial Notes

Codification Section was enacted as part of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, and not as part of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 which comprises this chapter.

§1202a Employee plans compliance resolution system

Summary

Title 29, §1202a

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Citations & Metadata