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Title 29 — LaborRelease 119-73not60

§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 Subtitle A— Jurisdiction, Administration, and Enforcement › § 1202a

Last updated Apr 5, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary of the Treasury may create and run the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS) and other programs to fix employee plan mistakes. The Secretary can waive income, excise, or other taxes so any tax, penalty, or sanction is not excessive and bears a reasonable relationship to the nature, extent, and severity of the failure. The Secretary must keep improving EPCRS, focusing on helping small employers, extending the self‑correction period for major failures, and allowing minor failures to be fixed during audits.

Full Legal Text

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.

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

Apr 5, 2026

Release point: 119-73not60