5500 Preparer's Manual for 2012 Plan Years
The premier resource in the field of Form 5500 preparation, 5500 Preparer's Manual will help you handle the required annual Form 5500 filings for both pension benefits and welfare benefit plans.
Both the House and Senate pension reform bills (H.R. 2830) are laden with "rifle shot" provisions that provide targeted benefits to one firm or class of firms and workers, Assistant Treasury Secretary Mark J. Warshawsky told the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries (ASPPA) in Washington, D.C., on April 24, 2006. "Put bluntly," he said, "these provisions have no place in a bill that should strengthen pension protections."
The House and Senate have each passed their own version of pension reform legislation. Conferees are currently working to iron out differences between the two bills.
Warshawsky identified the following "rifle shot" provisions in the House and Senate pension bills:
Provisions in the Senate bill that would allow airlines and airline catering companies a special lower measure of pension liability and a 20-year period to fund that liability.
A Senate bill provision that would increase PBGC guarantees for benefits for airline pilots.
A Senate bill provision that would delay the effective date of modified funding requirements for rural electric cooperatives until 2017.
A Senate bill provision that would delay the effective date until 2014 for a certain employer that has "rescued" another terminated plan with liability of $100-150 million that was settled via assumption of the plan by another employer before July 26, 2005.
House and Senate bill provisions that would allow smaller funding contributions for interstate bus companies.
Senate bill provisions that would authorize three different expansions of the ability to transfer surplus pension assets to be used to fund retiree health benefits, designed to apply to three specific firms.
A Senate bill provision containing an exemption from the new multiemployer funding rules for a plan subject to PBGC agreement prior to June 30, 2005, designed to benefit a dockworkers union plan.
A Senate bill provision that would treat a defined benefit plan sponsored by a certain nonprofit organization as a governmental plan.
For more information on this and related topics, consult the CCH Pension Plan Guide.
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