Congress passes pension amendments.

• Author: Nevius, Alistair M.

On December 23, 2008, President Bush signed into law the Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008, EL. 110-458. The act makes various technical corrections to provisions of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, P.L. 109-280 (PPA), as well as enacting pension provisions that relate to the current economic crisis.

Among the act's provisions is a measure that temporarily waives (for 2009 but not for 2008) the 50% excise tax on taxpayers aged 70 1/2 or older who fail to take required minimum distributions from IRAs or defined contribution retirement plans (Sec. 401(a)(9)).

PPA Technical Corrections

Under current law, the funding target under the PPA is phased in over three years (Sec. 430). The act would require plans that fall below the set target funding percentage for a particular year to fund up to the specified funding percentage for that year, instead of 100%.

For plan years starting between October 1, 2008, and September 30, 2009, the act permits multiemployer plans to elect to freeze their current funding certification for one year based on the previous year's level. Multiemployer plans that have funding improvement and rehabilitation plans in place in 2008 and 2009 have their current funding improvement or rehabilitation period extended by three years, from 10 to 13 years (Sec. 432).

The act makes the 2008 transition rule for determining at-risk status apply to both the 70% and 80% prongs of the test (Sec. 430(i) (4)(B)). The IRS previously provided methods for estimating if a plan's funding target attainment percentage (using actuarial assumptions for at-risk plans) for the previous year was less than 70%. Under the act, the same estimation methods may be used to determine if the plan's funding target attainment percentage for the previous year was less than 80%.

The act also provides that plans can pay lump sums of $5,000 or less, even if an underfunded plan is...