The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently issued Revenue Procedure 2022-40 to expand the IRS’s determination letter program to include individually designed 403(b) plans. Previously, the IRS’s determination letter...more
Rev. Proc. 2002-4 listed the update for requesting Internal Revenue Service (IRS) determination letters, private letter rulings, and other tax advice on employee plan matters. ...more
Tax laws have long required that qualified retirement plans timely adopt written plan documents and amendments. But what evidence must a plan sponsor provide to an IRS auditor to prove that they have timely adopted a written...more
Generally, for a tax qualified retirement plan to be adopted, the plan document must be signed and dated by the sponsoring employer and retained. However, in Val Lanes Recreation Center Corp. v. Commissioner of Internal...more
At the heart of tax qualified retirement plan compliance is a requirement to timely adopt plans and plan amendments. Failure to adopt plan amendments when required can result in plan disqualification. Accordingly, it is very...more
If you maintain a qualified retirement plan, such as a 401(k) or pension plan, that covers more than 100 employees, you are likely in the midst of your annual plan audit. During this process, your auditor might ask for a copy...more
• The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has updated its Operational Compliance List for retirement plans with a number of changes that take effect in 2019, with a focus on changes to hardship distributions. • The Operational...more
Since the end of the IRS’s cyclical determination letter program for individually designed retirement plans in 2017, plan sponsors have been able to request favorable determination letters for individually designed plans only...more
The IRS recently reversed course on the availability of the determination letter program for merged qualified retirement plans – thereby providing new alternatives for integrating qualified retirement plan benefits in the...more
The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) recently issued guidance on two additional options for sponsors of qualified retirement plans to apply for and receive determination letters on the qualified status of their plans. The IRS...more
The IRS announced yesterday that it will expand its determination letter program for tax-qualified retirement plans. Under previous IRS procedures, a plan sponsor could submit its plan document to the IRS, and the IRS would...more
For many years, plan sponsors could regularly get a determination letter from the IRS to ensure that their individually-designed qualified retirement plan met all of the requirements for favorable tax treatment. However, in...more
As 2017 comes to an end, we are pleased to present you with our traditional End of Year Plan Sponsor “To Do” Lists. This year, we are publishing our “To Do” Lists in four separate Employee Benefits Updates. Part 1 covered...more
A lot has been written over the last few months about what to do now that the IRS has closed its determination letter program for ongoing individually designed tax-qualified retirement plans....more
The Internal Revenue Service has largely ended its determination letter program by which sponsors of individually designed retirement plans can obtain confirmation that their plan documents are tax-qualified. The IRS has...more
This advisory reminds plan sponsors of deadlines for amending qualified retirement plans and for submitting certain plans to the IRS for a determination letter, as well as other significant changes to the determination letter...more
On September 29, 2016, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Revenue Procedure 2016-51 (Rev. Proc. 2016-51), which updates the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS) and changes how sanctions will be...more
In July of 2015, the IRS announced that it would end its regular determination letter program for individually designed plans effective January 1, 2017. At the time of this announcement, many plan sponsors and other...more
On September 16, 2016, the IRS and the Department of the Treasury requested public comment on ways the IRS and Treasury “can improve compliance…by making it easier for plan sponsors to satisfy requirements for qualified plan...more
A qualified retirement plan (hereinafter a “Plan”) must satisfy the requirements of the Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) in form and in operation. In other words, the documents establishing and governing the Plan must satisfy...more
As we reported earlier this year, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is making significant changes to its determination letter program for tax-qualified retirement plans. Last month, the IRS issued Revenue Procedure 2016-37...more
The Internal Revenue Service recently issued Revenue Procedure 2016-37, which sets forth in detail the significant changes to the IRS’s determination letter program for qualified retirement plans, which we have written about...more
In 2015, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that it would cut back the determination letter program for qualified retirement plans. In Revenue Procedure (Rev. Proc.) 2016-37, published June 29, 2016, the IRS has...more
In Depth - On June 29, 2016, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officially sounded the death knell for the five-year remedial amendment cycle with its release of Revenue Procedure 2016-37. Effective January 1, 2017,...more
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has recently issued detailed guidance on the new determination letter program for tax-qualified retirement plans. In 2015, the IRS announced that, due to budgetary constraints, the program...more