RETIREMENT PLANS (Note)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

Retirement Benefits [Abstract]

Retirement Plans [Note Text Block]

International Paper sponsors and maintains the Retirement Plan of International Paper Company (the Pension Plan), a tax-qualified defined benefit pension plan that provides retirement benefits to substantially all U.S. salaried and hourly and union employees who work at a participating business unit.

The Pension Plan provides defined pension benefits based on years of credited service and either final average earnings (salaried employees and hourly employees receiving salaried benefits), hourly job rates or specified benefit rates (hourly and union employees).

Effective January 1, 2019, the Company froze participation, including credited service and compensation, for salaried employees under the Pension Plan, the Pension Restoration Plan and the SERP plan. This change does not affect benefits accrued through December 31, 2018. For service after December 31, 2018, employees affected by the freeze receive a company contribution to their individual Retirement Savings Account.

Net periodic pension expense for our qualified and nonqualified U.S. defined benefit plans comprised the following: 

	Three Months Ended September 30,				Nine Months Ended September 30,
In millions	2020		2019		2020		2019
Service cost	$	21	$	17	$	64	$	51
Interest cost	98		110		294		330
Expected return on plan assets	(167)		(158)		(501)		(473)
Actuarial loss	51		50		152		150
Amortization of prior service cost	5		4		15		12
Net periodic pension expense	$	8	$	23	$	24	$	70

The components of net periodic pension expense other than the Service cost component are included in Non-operating pension expense in the Consolidated Statement of Operations.

The Company’s funding policy for our pension plans is to contribute amounts sufficient to meet legal funding requirements, plus any additional amounts that the Company may determine to be appropriate considering the funded status of the plan, tax deductibility, the cash flows generated by the Company, and other factors. The Company made no voluntary cash contributions to the qualified pension plan in the first nine months of 2020 or 2019. The nonqualified defined benefit plans are funded to the extent of benefit payments, which totaled $22 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2020.