03/28/02

The Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program ("DFVC"), which was adopted in 1995, has been made much more affordable. Under the new and improved DFVC, late filing penalties are reduced from $50 per day to $10 per day, capped at $2,000 per year per plan (but only $750 for small plans). Even better, there's a new maximum penalty on a per plan basis, so multiple year submissions are capped at $4,000 per plan, or $1,500 for small plans. If you're submitting 5 years of reports under DFVC, make sure you put them all in the same envelope so they're considered one submission. Apprenticeship programs and "top-hat" plans facing potentially massive penalties because they did not file the one-time filing under the regs., can now file under DFVC and face a reduced penalty of only $750. The IRS has announced that it will not impose penalties under the Code for plans filing under the DOL's DFVC. (Under the 1995 DFVC Program, DOL sort-of hinted, but couldn't promise, that IRS might not impose penalties.)