Title 29LaborRelease 119-73

§1453 Election of plan status

Title 29 › Chapter CHAPTER 18— - EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT INCOME SECURITY PROGRAM › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER III— - PLAN TERMINATION INSURANCE › Subtitle Subtitle E— - Special Provisions for Multiemployer Plans › Part part 6— - enforcement › § 1453

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

A multiemployer plan can, within one year after September 26, 1980, make a permanent choice under the corporation’s procedures to stop being treated as a multiemployer plan under this law and the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. To qualify, for each of the three plan years ending before the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act of 1980 took effect, the plan must not have met the pre‑September 26, 1980 multiemployer test and must have reported that status in most filings with the corporation, the Secretary of Labor, and the Secretary of the Treasury. The choice only counts if the plan is changed to say it is not a multiemployer plan for all purposes and a written notice of that amendment is given to the corporation within 60 days after the amendment. If valid, the choice is treated as effective on September 26, 1980.

Full Legal Text

Title 29, §1453

Labor — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Within one year after September 26, 1980, a multiemployer plan may irrevocably elect, pursuant to procedures established by the corporation, that the plan shall not be treated as a multiemployer plan for any purpose under this chapter or the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, if for each of the last 3 plan years ending prior to the effective date of the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act of 1980—
(1)the plan was not a multiemployer plan because the plan was not a plan described in section 1002(37)(A)(iii) of this title and section 414(f)(1)(C) of title 26 (as such provisions were in effect on the day before September 26, 1980); and
(2)the plan had been identified as a plan that was not a multiemployer plan in substantially all its filings with the corporation, the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of the Treasury.
(b)An election described in subsection (a) shall be effective only if—
(1)the plan is amended to provide that it shall not be treated as a multiemployer plan for all purposes under this chapter and the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, and
(2)written notice of the amendment is provided to the corporation within 60 days after the amendment is adopted.
(c)An election described in subsection (a) shall be treated as being effective as of September 26, 1980.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

This chapter, referred to in subsecs. (a) and (b)(1), was in the original “this Act”, meaning Pub. L. 93–406, known as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. Titles I, III, and IV of such Act are classified principally to this chapter. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see

Short Title

note set out under section 1001 of this title and Tables. The Internal Revenue Code of 1954, referred to in subsecs. (a) and (b)(1), was redesignated the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 by Pub. L. 99–514, § 2, Oct. 22, 1986, 100 Stat. 2095, and is classified to Title 26, Internal Revenue Code. For the

Effective Date

of the Multiemployer Pension Plan

Amendments

Act of 1980, referred to in subsec. (a), see section 1461(e) of this title.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

29 U.S.C. § 1453

Title 29Labor

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73