Vermont Statutes Title 3 Sec. 535
Terms Used In Vermont Statutes Title 3 Sec. 535
- Covered employee: means an individual who is 18 years of age or older who is employed by a covered employer and who has wages or other compensation that are allocable to the State during a calendar year. See
- Covered employer: means a person, entity, or subsidiary engaged in a business, industry, profession, trade, or other enterprise in the State, whether for profit or not for profit, that has not offered to an employee, or is within a control group that maintains or contributes to, effective in form or operation at any time within the current calendar year or two preceding calendar years, a specified tax-favored retirement plan. See
- Program: means the VT Saves Program established in accordance with this chapter. See
§ 535. Penalties
(a) Failure to enroll. If a covered employer fails to enroll a covered employee without reasonable cause, the covered employer is subject to a penalty for each covered employee for each calendar year or portion of a calendar year during which the covered employee was not enrolled in the Program or had not opted out of participation in the Program. The amount of any penalty imposed on a covered employer for the failure to enroll a covered employee without reasonable cause is determined as follows:
(1) prior to October 1, 2025, the maximum penalty per covered employee is $10.00;
(2) beginning on October 1, 2025 and ending on September 30, 2026, the maximum penalty per covered employee is $20.00;
(3) on or after October 1, 2026, the maximum penalty per covered employee is $75.00.
(b) Waivers. The Treasurer is authorized to establish a rule waiving the penalty for a covered employer for any failure to enroll a covered employee for which it is established that the covered employer did not know that the failure existed and exercised reasonable diligence to meet the requirements of this chapter, provided that:
(1) no penalty shall be imposed on any failure for which it is established that the covered employer subject to liability for the penalty did not know that the failure existed and exercised reasonable diligence to meet the requirements of this subsection above;
(2) no penalty shall be imposed on any failure if:
(A) the covered employer subject to liability for the penalty exercised reasonable diligence to meet those requirements; and
(B) the covered employer complies with the requirements set forth in subdivision (1) of this subsection (b) with respect to each covered employee by the end of the 90-day period beginning on the first date the covered employer knew, or exercising reasonable diligence would have known, that the failure existed; and
(3) in the case of a failure that is due to reasonable cause and not to willful neglect, the Treasurer may waive all or part of the penalty to the extent that the payment of the penalty would be excessive or otherwise inequitable relative to the failure involved. (Added 2023, No. 43, § 1, eff. July 1, 2023.)