PBGC premium filings
A defined benefit plan owes the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation a premium every year, on top of its Form 5500. Prepare it here from the same plan record, with PBGC’s published rates applied and the file checked before you upload it.
$79 per filing, paid by card when it goes. Preparing and checking it is free. All prices
The essentials
Who files it
Every PBGC-covered defined benefit plan — single-employer or multiemployer — for every plan year, whether or not a premium is actually due.
When
The 15th day of the tenth full month of the plan year: 15 October for a calendar-year plan. Plan years beginning in 2025 were pulled forward a month, to 15 September.
What it costs
A flat rate per participant plus, for single-employer plans, a variable rate per $1,000 of unfunded vested benefits, capped per participant. We apply PBGC’s published rates for the year and show the arithmetic.
How it is filed
Through PBGC’s My PAA, by uploading the XML we produce. PBGC has no submission interface for software, so the upload — and the payment — are always yours.
How it works here
- Start from a plan you already file a Form 5500 for — the EIN, plan number, sponsor and administrator come across.
- Enter the participant counts and the actuary’s unfunded vested benefits. The flat-rate premium, the variable-rate premium before the cap, the total and the net amount due are worked out from PBGC’s published rates, with the rate shown beside each figure.
- The file is checked against PBGC’s schema and the business rules PBGC gave us — the same checks My PAA runs — before you can download it.
- Download the XML, carrying our vendor code CLDK251, and upload it to My PAA.
- Pay PBGC by ACH or wire with the remittance line PBGC requires, generated for the plan:
EIN/PN: XX-XXXXXXX/XXX PYC: MM/DD/YYYY. PBGC does not process paper checks, so we never suggest one.
Premium rates and payment details are quoted from PBGC’s own pages, and the page you pay from shows the date they were read. This page explains the filing in general terms; it is not actuarial, tax or legal advice, and the plan administrator remains responsible for what is filed and paid.