§1343 Reportable events

Summary

Plan administrators and certain employers must tell the corporation within 30 days after they know or should know that one of several serious plan events happened. The corporation can forgive that 30‑day rule or let the notice be put into the plan’s annual report instead. If an employer group has more than $50,000,000 in unfunded vested benefits and a funded vested benefit rate under 90% at the end of the last plan year, extra notice rules apply to that employer. Those extra rules do not apply to companies that must file reports under sections 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act or to their subsidiaries. For some events (like a controlled‑group change, bankruptcy, big dividends or stock redemptions, or transfers of benefit liabilities), the covered employer must warn the corporation at least 30 days before the event takes effect. A “reportable event” includes things like official notices that the plan lost qualified status, plan changes that can cut benefits, big drops in active workers (below 80% of this year’s start or below 75% of last year’s start), tax‑code terminations, failure to meet minimum funding, inability to pay benefits, certain large distributions to owners ($10,000 or more) that leave unfunded nonforfeitable benefits, mergers or transfers, controlled‑group changes, bankruptcy, large dividends or redemptions (10% or more), transfers of 3% or more of plan liabilities outside the group, and any other events the corporation sets by rule. The Treasury and Labor Departments must also tell the corporation when they see some of these events or signs the plan may be in trouble. Information sent under these rules is generally kept confidential and not released to the public, though it can be used in legal actions or given to Congress.