Does anyone know of any authority on how years before 1988 (the first year of DFVC) would be treated under the program?

http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq_dfvc.html


See the sixth question from the bottom.

The answer to your question (unstated in the DOL document, intentionally I'm sure) is that there was no civil penalty which the DOL could assess for failure to file pre-1988 5500s. Consequently, there is no need for any DOL relief for pre-1988 failures to file. Unfortunately, the IRS could still assess penalties for failure to file for pre-1988 years (although this is probably only a theoretical problem rather than a real one).