(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.
Source credit, amendments & notes
(Pub. L. 109–280, title XI, §1101, Aug. 17, 2006, 120 Stat. 1055.)
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.
29 U.S.C. § 1202a — Employee plans compliance resolution system · USC 2024 ed., current through 2025-01-06 · https://pensionresource.website/EAMain?content=EAMain.Law&id=usc29-1202a&asof=2007-01-03 · printed Oct 16, 2026