Penalties About To Spike, So It’s A Good Time To Review Benefit Plans

Penalties for violations of ERISA, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, will increase sharply on August 1 of this year. The increase covers a number of ERISA violations, from failure to file a timely Form 5500, where penalties will rise by almost 100 percent to a maximum of $2,063 per day, to failing to provide required notices in plans that include an automatic contribution arrangement, where the penalties will increase from $1,000 to a maximum of $1,632 per day. The new rules and penalties are summarized in a post form Littler Mendelson attorneys. “Now is the perfect time for plan sponsors to perform a screening review of their benefit plans to make certain these increased penalties will not be imposed,” they write. A similar increase in OSHA penalties, also scheduled to go into effect on August 1, was detailed in an earlier Littler post.