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Title 29, LaborRelease 119-110

§1202a Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System

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

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary of the Treasury must be able to set up and run the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (or a replacement) and other correction rules for employee benefit plans. The Secretary can reduce or cancel income, excise, or other taxes so that any tax, penalty, or sanction is not excessive and matches the nature, size, and seriousness of the mistake. The Secretary must keep improving the program, with special focus on helping small employers learn about and use it, considering small-employer problems, lengthening the Self-Correction Program for big mistakes, allowing more minor fixes during audits, and making sure penalties are fair.

Full Legal Text

Title 29, §1202a

Labor, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)In general
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)Improvements
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.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

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.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

29 U.S.C. § 1202a

Title 29, Labor

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110