IRS Updates DB Forms and Documents

On February 1, the IRS began accepting applications for opinion and advisory letters for preapproved DB plans for the second six-year remedial amendment cycle. Plan sponsors and practitioners should use Form 4461-A (revised in March 2013), Attachment 1-A, and Form 8717-A (revised in February) when submitting a preapproved DB plan to the IRS.

In April, the IRS also updated information for their Defined Benefit Listing of Required Modifications and Information Package (LRM). This information package contains samples of plan provisions that have been found to satisfy certain specific requirements of the Internal Revenue Code and the 2012 Cumulative List of Changes in Plan Qualification Requirements (Notice 2012-76, 2012-52 I.R.B. 775).

According to the IRS, such language may or may not be acceptable in different plans depending on the context in which used. The package is to assist plan sponsors who are drafting or redrafting plans to conform to applicable law and regulations, and is designed with the intent of enabling the IRS to process and approve master and prototype (M&P) plans more quickly.

The DB LRM contains sample language that plan sponsors and mass submitters of DB M&P plans may use in drafting their plans. M&P plan sponsors and mass submitters are encouraged to use LRM language and to identify where the LRM is used in their plan documents. In addition, practitioners and mass submitters of Volume Submitter plans may find the language useful in drafting plans.

More information about the forms, as well as the forms themselves, can be found here.