Today, the IRS published Revenue Procedure 2007-44, which is the long-awaited revision to Rev. Proc. 2005-66. (Hat tip to Benefitslink.com)
For defined benefit pension plan geeks, we are celebrating tonight because the deadline for submitting the plans for opinion/advisory letters was just extended from October 31, 2006, to January 31, 2008. Three more months to rework and edit the plan language is like Christmas in August.
Revenue Procedure 2005-66 created the new remedial amendment cycles for submitting EGTRRA documents to the IRS for determination letters, and updating plan documents in general. It was Rev. Proc. 2005-66 which established the 5-year remedial amendment cycle for individually designed plans based on the last digit of the sponsoring employer’s EIN, and the 6-year remedial amendment cycle for pre-approved prototypes and volume submitter plan documents.
The Pension Protection Act became law on August 17, 2006, after the IRS released Rev. Proc. 2005-66. In Rev. Proc. 2007-44, the IRS clarifies that individually designs plans submitted for determination letters may contain provisions from the Pension Protection Act, but the Service will not consider those provisions as part of the determination letter.
The IRS has also clarified that pre-approved defined benefit plans will be required to contain certain provisions from PPA. The 2006 Cumulative List, published as Notice 2007-3, contains the specific provisions of PPA which the IRS wants included in the EGTRRA defined benefit prototypes and volume submitter plans. The IRS extended the deadline for submitting pre-approved defined benefit plans for opinion/advisory letters from October 31, 2007, to January 31, 2008.
Also included is a substantial discussion of the deadline for plan amendments. I will include more on this tomorrow or Friday. Starting tomorrow, I am blogging from the Cincinnati Benefits Conference, one of the best benefit conferences in the country. The conference is jointly sponsored by the Cincinnati Bar Association and the IRS, and includes a stellar group of speakers, and attendees. The IRS and DOL do a great job every year of releasing long-awaited guidance during the conference, and then spending a couple of hours explaining what the guidance means. I expect this revenue procedure will be one of the central topics of discussion.
On a sad note, Form 6406, the Short Form Application for Determination for Minor Amendment of Employee Benefit Plan, has been discontinued, and will not be accepted by the IRS after July 9, 2007.
Technorati Tags: Pension Protection Act, ppa, IRS, DOL, Form 6406, 2007-44, remedial amendment, EGTRRA, determination letter, opinion, advisory, pension, retirement, 2005-66, ERISA
1 response so far ↓
1 Ira Langer, Esq // Feb 19, 2008 at 5:19 pm
“On a sad note, Form 6406, the Short Form Application for Determination ***, has been discontinued…”
Q: how do you submit a corrective amend under EPCRS, which requires that the amend be submitted to IRSfor a determination letter (this was previously done with a 6406) ?
Thanks in advance.
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