IRS announced in Rev. Proc. 2005-66 that the Remedial Amendment Deadline for all DC Pre-approved plans would be January 31, 2011.

All pre-approved DC plans must be updated based on law in effect at that time and submitted to IRS.

Employers must complete restatement of DB plans by the deadline announced in year five of preceding cycle.

IRS announced in Rev. Proc. 2005-66 that the Remedial Amendment Deadline for all DB Pre-approved plans would be January 31, 2013.

In addition, good faith interim amendments may be needed based on updated IRS guidance or new laws. The current remedial amendment period (RAP) rule requiring that all pre-approved plans be updated by the end of the 12th month following the receipt of the document sponsor’s opinion letter would be eliminated. A new single date deadline, applicable to all adopting employers, will be announced by the IRS and will replace the old 12th-month rule.

Employers who are not currently using a pre-approved plan but who wish to adopt one before the end of their plan’s RAP may do so by certifying their intent to so adopt such a plan. For example, if an individually designed plan has a RAP ending December 31, 2008, the employer may certify its intent to adopt a pre-approved plan by that date. The effect of the certification is that the employer will have until the end of the pre-approved plan’s RAP to adopt that plan.

The cycle provides that plans with employer identification numbers (EINs) ending in 1 or 6 must be restated in the first year (2006), and restated again in 2011. EINs ending in 2 or 7 would be restated in the second year (2007), and again in 2012, and so forth. Note that one of the two ending numbers will always coincide with the last digit of that calendar year. Also, each year’s deadline is actually January 31 of the following year. Thus, plans that must be submitted in 2006 actually have a deadline of January 31, 2007.

Although plans will not need to be amended in interim years, depending on the circumstances and to assure interim compliance, the IRS intends to issue model amendments similar to those issued for EGTRRA and the 401(a)(9) Required Minimum Distribution that may be adopted by individually designed plans.

NOTE: Keep in mind that we are still living under the sunset provisions of EGTRRA which bring the EGTRRA changes to an end 10 years after the passage of EGTRRA in 2001 – unless Congress enacts a law to make the changes permanent. Otherwise, the EGTRRA document will contain many provisions that are no longer supported by law.

Attached for reference is Revenue Procedure 2005-66 on the new Remedial Amendment Procedure. Also linked is Revenue Procedure 2005-16 which addresses the Master and Prototype plan and Volume Submitter EGTRRA document process.

Links to earlier articles Remedial Amendment Procedure Finalized 9-15-05; Section 401(b) Remedial Amendment Period Revenue Procedure 2004-25. For earlier articles refer to our Hot Topics and Commentary Pages.