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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 247 / Wednesday, December 29, 2021 / Rules and Regulations
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the percentage of total contributions for the plan year made by each employer.8
Some commenters asked that the Department interpret the SECURE Acts requirement to report employer-level aggregate account balances as applying only to defined contribution MEPs. The commenters noted that neither the operative language of the SECURE ACT
nor its legislative history support applying this requirement to defined benefit pension plans that do not maintain account balances for each employee. Two of these commenters noted that this requirement is particularly inappropriate for defined benefit MEPs established before 1989
that determine their minimum funding requirements as if all participants were employed by a single employer and, therefore, did not elect employer-byemployer treatment under the Technical and Miscellaneous Revenue Act of 1988 TAMRA. One of the commenters also noted that participants already receive annual funding notices on their defined benefit pension plan, so reporting of an artificial account balance could give the false impression that, in these MEPs, specific assets are set aside to provide benefits for employees of each employer when, in fact, all of the assets of a defined benefit MEP like any other defined benefit pension plan are available to pay all of the benefits of all of the participants in that MEP, regardless of where the participants are employed.
The Department agrees that the SECURE Acts requirement to report employer-level aggregate account balances should not apply to defined benefit pension MEPs. The SECURE Act expressly states that the aggregate account balances attributable to each employer in the plan is to be determined as the sum of the account balances of the employees of such employer and the beneficiaries of such employees. Although the SECURE Act amended ERISA section 103g to provide that it applies to plans subject to ERISA section 210a, and there may be a relatively small number of defined benefit MEPs that are subject to ERISA
section 210a, in the Departments view, it would not be a reasonable reading of the statutory text to conclude that Congress intended by the reference to ERISA section 210a to mandate that aggregate account balance information 8 The instruction further provides that unfunded, fully insured, or combination unfunded/insured multiple employer welfare plans that are exempt under 29 CFR 2520.10444 from filing financial statements with their annual report must attach a list of participating employers, but do not have to include an estimated amount of contributions from each employer.

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be reported by defined benefit plans that do not maintain account balances for covered participants. Accordingly, the final instructions for the 2021 reporting year provide that only defined contribution MEPs must report the new SECURE Act required employer-level aggregate account balances.
One commenter requested clarification of the requirement to report the Percentage of Total Contributions for the Plan Year element 3 for the 2021 non-standard attachment.
Specifically, the commenter asked whether the total of all participating employers must equal 100 percent, and whether it will cause red flags with the DOL/IRS if it does not. They also asked whether filers should round the percentage entry for each employer to decimal places, and if so, how many.
The Department read these commenters questions as primarily directed at issues that may arise when in the context of a standardized Schedule MEP structure for reporting this information. The Agencies will take into account such questions in designing the form and developing appropriate instructions and edit tests. For the 2021 reporting year, as noted above, the instructions will continue to allow filers to use a nonstandard attachment to report the required information. The Department also notes that this is not a new reporting requirement. It has been part of the Form 5500 since it was added in 2014 in response to the CSEC Act addition of section 103g to Title I of ERISA. Nonetheless, for the 2021
reporting year, it would be acceptable for filers to round to the nearest whole number similar to rounding conventions that apply to the Form 5500 financial statements and schedules. To the extent the filers concern is whether rounding could result in the total reported percentage either slightly above or slightly below 100 percent, the filer can indicate that on the non-standard attachment as part of its filing.
A commenter asked for guidance on the asset values that should be used for the Aggregate Account Balances Attributable to Participating Employer element 4 for the 2021 non-standard attachment and, in particular, whether the end of year net value may be used based on the values reported on the Schedules H and I. The SECURE Act expressly states that the aggregate account balances information should be determined as the sum of the account balances of the employees of such employer and the beneficiaries of such employees. In the Departments view, an end of year valuation is an appropriate reporting requirement as it will provide the most up to date value for the plan
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year covered by the Form 5500 report.
The final instructions include directions to that effect. Further, rounding to the nearest dollar, as with the financial reporting on other parts of the Form 5500 and schedules, would be appropriate. The final instructions have been revised to provide this clarification as well.9
With respect to the additional ERISA
section 103g information regarding pooled employer plans that must be included for the 2021 reporting year, the Department had proposed that the substance of the proposed Schedule MEP changes would apply to the 2021
reporting year requirements except that the information could be filed as a nonstandard attachment. The Department received comments opposing or expressing concern about some elements of the proposed Schedule MEP. Since the Department intends to address those comments and resolve the Schedule MEP content requirement in a later final rule, the Department agrees that it would be premature to impose the requirements wholesale to the 2021
Form 5500 Annual Return/Reports.
Rather, for the 2021 reporting year, in addition to the participating employer information required for all MEPs, pooled employer plans only will be required to indicate, on a non-standard attachment, whether they are in compliance with the Form PR
registration requirements and provide the AckID number for their latest Form PR filing.10
Some commenters complained that pooled employer plans should not be required to provide the AckID number, claiming that this requirement was unnecessary because the Department already has the Form PR and issued the AckID number. Some commenters suggested that asking any questions about the pooled plan provider was duplicative of the Form PR and that the AckID could be found by a separate 9 The Department understands from some comments on the proposal that, depending on the treatment of receivables and forfeitures by the plan, the sum of the account balances of the employees of each employer and the beneficiaries of such employees may not match the net asset value reported on Schedule H or I. The Department believes that the aggregate account balance information should be calculated and reported in accordance with the statutory direction in the SECURE Act. Filers can add an explanatory statement to the extent they wish to explain any difference between that sum and other total asset values reported on the Form 5500.
10 AckID is the acknowledgement code generated by the system in response to a completed filing for the most recent Form PR submitted. The instructions to the Form PR advise the pooled plan provider that it must keep, under ERISA section 107, the electronic receipt for the Form PR filing as part of the records of the pooled employer plans operated by the pooled plan provider.

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