Beginning on July 1st, MERP will require participating employers to submit a Contribution Report along with MERP contributions. The Trust will no longer be issuing monthly “invoices”. Contribution Reporting templates are available for employers to use, but the Trust will also accept alternative reports that meet the needed requirements. Groups not currently providing Contribution Reports received a letter with the April statements. Below is an FAQ with additional detail and information.
What is happening?
The IAFF MERP (the Trust) is discontinuing the monthly billing invoices effective after the May 1, 2024, billing statement. In order to assist the transition, there will be no billing statement issued for the month of June 2024. Instead, Participating Employers will be required to provide the Trust with a Contribution Data Template detailing the contributions that are being submitted and how they should be applied to each plan participant. The Trust will refer to these as a “Contribution Data Report” or “Contribution Report”. Contribution Data Report cadence may vary depending on whether the employer remits contributions to the Trust on a monthly or per pay period basis.
What if I’m already providing a full Contribution Data Report?
Thank you for providing the Contribution Data Report! Please disregard this notice and continue with your present practice. If there is vital information missing from your current report, the Trust Office will contact you with detail on what specifically is needed.
Why is this happening?
The Trust needs to comply with certain U.S. Department of Labor reporting requirements and these requirements are best satisfied by moving from a monthly billing platform to a self-reported Contribution Data Report.
How should these reports be submitted to the Trust Office (Vimly)?
The Contribution Data Report should be submitted to the Trust Office via Excel (.xls) spreadsheet. As these reports contain sensitive personal data, we recognize the need to keep information secure. Contribution Data Reports may be submitted to the Trust Office securely in one of two ways (listed from most preferred to least preferred method):
- Online upload to the Trust Office’s secure platform: SIMON
- Via secure email system to the Trust Office
Contribution reports can also be sent to the Trust Office via Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). If you wish to set up SFTP with the Trust Office, please email the Trust Office.
Where do I access the Contribution Data Report?
A template of this document is publicly available at www.IAFFMERP.org under Forms and Documents titled “Template for Contribution Reporting”. We understand many employers have payroll systems that can produce similar reports. If you cannot feed information into the Trust template format, the Trust Office may be able to accept reports directly from your system, but only if they are approved.
Please contact the Trust Office (Vimly) at 844-353-7839 (press 1) or email the Trust Office to determine if your custom contribution report can be accepted.
What happens if I don’t begin providing the Contribution Data Report on/before July 1, 2024?
Contributions received by the Trust Office after July 1, 2024 will not be accepted if they are not accompanied by a Contribution Data Report within 5 business days of the contribution payment. The Trust will no longer accept contribution funds without the necessary information to allocate funds to the employees participating in IAFF MERP.
After May 1, 2024, the Trust Office will no longer provide a billing statement or any other regular notice reminding employers to remit contributions. The responsibility to send all contributions along with the Contribution Data Report to the Trust Office will be on the employer to provide at whatever cadence is stipulated in the contract.
Does anything else need to happen with this change?
We strongly recommend your next MOU or Labor Agreement be updated with language related to contribution reporting requirements to comply with current legal requirements. For a copy of model collective bargaining language related to this, please contact the Trust Office or the Trust Consultant, DiMartino Associates.
Who should I contact with questions?
Please contact the Trust Office (Vimly) at 844-353-7839 (press 1) or email the Trust Office or you can contact the
We strongly recommend your next MOU or Labor Agreement be updated with language related to contribution reporting requirements to comply with current legal requirements. For a copy of model collective bargaining language related to this, please contact the Trust Office or the Trust Consultant, DiMartino Associates. We are happy to work with you to make meeting this reporting requirement as seamless as possible.
Vimly will host two virtual informational sessions on Tuesday, May 14 & Thursday, May 16 so employers can ask questions about the Contribution Data Report and learn how to use SIMON to make changes and upload the report. Please reach out to either of the contacts above via email for meeting links.
