§ 4208.4 Conditions for abatement.

(a) Waiver of liability for a 70-percent contribution decline. An employer that has incurred a partial withdrawal under section 4205(a)(1) of ERISA shall have no obligation to make payments with respect to that partial withdrawal (other than delinquent payments) for plan years beginning after the second consecutive plan year in which the conditions of either paragraph (a)(1) or (a)(2) are satisfied for each of the two years:

(1) The number of contribution base units with respect to which the employer has an obligation to contribute under the plan for each year is not less than 90 percent of the total number of contribution base units with respect to which the employer had an obligation to contribute to the plan for the high base year (as defined in paragraph (d) of this section).

(2) The conditions of this paragraph are satisfied if—

(i) The number of contribution base units with respect to which the employer has an obligation to contribute for each year exceeds 30 percent of the total number of contribution base units with respect to which the employer had an obligation to contribute to the plan for the high base year (as defined in paragraph (d) of this section); and

(ii) The total number of contribution base units with respect to which all employers under the plan have obligations to contribute in each of the two years is not less than 90 percent of the total number of contribution base units for which all employers had obligations to contribute in the partial withdrawal year.