Is there still time for a GUST preapproved plan to be submitted for a determination letter or did that end on June 15, 2005?
Rev. 08/03/06, E-mail Alert 2006-15

Preapproved defined contribution plans
Only employers adopting preapproved defined contribution plans may submit for a “GUST” Favorable Determination Letter (FDL) at this time. Thus, only Form 5307 will be accepted for GUST letter applications. We put the acronym GUST in quotes as the IRS is not quite sure what to label this determination letter as it is more than GUST but not an EGTRRA letter. The letter issued is a favorable determination approval relating to the GUST requirements and in addition both the “good faith” EGTRRA amendment and the RMD amendment. (However, the documents being submitted are not actual EGTRRA documents since the IRS has not even approved the first EGTRRA preapproved documents as yet and these submissions are based on the GUST language.)

Defined benefit preapproved plans
The GUST program for preapproved defined benefit plans to obtain Opinion and Advisory Letters at the sponsor level will remain open until the IRS announces it is closed. This will most likely occur some time late this year so the IRS can open the EGTRRA amendment cycle. We expect the IRS to begin accepting defined benefit document submissions in February 2007.

Individually designed plans
According to Rev. Proc. 2005-66, the last day the IRS would accept individually designed GUST determination letter applications using Form 5300 for defined contribution and defined benefit plans was January 31, 2006. Only EGTRRA restated documents that include all of the elements listed in Notice 2005-101 will be accepted after that date. Individually designed submissions are now based on a five (5) year cycle based on the sponsoring employer’s taxpayer identification number. The IRS has been emphatic that plans should only be submitted during their respective cycle year, not off-cycle. For employers who adopt new individually designed plans after the close of their respective cycle year and who therefore cannot submit for an FDL, will have until the end of the next amendment cycle (using the new five-year cycle) to restate their document and submit for an FDL.