Rev Proc 2015-36

RP 2015-36.pdf

Pre-Approved Plans Program

Rev Proc 2015-36

OMB: 1545-1674

Document [pdf]
Download: pdf | pdf
26 CFR § 601.201: Rulings and determination letters.
(Also Part I, §§ 401, 403, and 501; Reg. §§ 1.401(a)–1, 1.403(a)–1, and 1.501(a)–1.)

Rev. Proc. 2015–36
Table of Contents
SECTION 1. PURPOSE..................................................................................................................................................................20
SECTION 2. BACKGROUND .......................................................................................................................................................21
SECTION 3. CHANGES TO REVENUE PROCEDURE 2011– 49.............................................................................................22
PART I – M&P PLANS
SECTION
SECTION
SECTION
SECTION
SECTION
SECTION
SECTION
SECTION
SECTION

4. DEFINITIONS ..........................................................................................................................................................22
5. PROVISIONS REQUIRED IN M&P PLANS ........................................................................................................24
6. OPINION LETTERS - SCOPE ................................................................................................................................27
7. OPINION LETTER APPLICATIONS - INSTRUCTIONS TO SPONSORS........................................................28
8. APPROVED PLANS - MAINTENANCE OF APPROVED STATUS..................................................................29
9. WITHDRAWAL OF REQUESTS ...........................................................................................................................30
10. ABANDONED PLANS ..........................................................................................................................................30
11. RECORD KEEPING REQUIREMENTS ..............................................................................................................30
12. M&P MASS SUBMITTERS ..................................................................................................................................30
PART II – VOLUME SUBMITTER PLANS

SECTION
SECTION
SECTION
SECTION
SECTION
SECTION

13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.

DEFINITIONS ........................................................................................................................................................33
PROVISIONS REQUIRED IN EVERY VS PLAN..............................................................................................34
APPROVED PLANS - MAINTENANCE OF APPROVED STATUS................................................................35
ADVISORY LETTERS - SCOPE..........................................................................................................................36
ADVISORY LETTER APPLICATIONS- INSTRUCTIONS TO VS PRACTITIONERS..................................37
VS MASS SUBMITTERS......................................................................................................................................38
PART III – ALL PRE-APPROVED PLANS

SECTION
SECTION
SECTION
SECTION
SECTION
SECTION
SECTION
SECTION
SECTION

19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.

EMPLOYER RELIANCE.......................................................................................................................................38
WHERE TO FILE AND OTHER RULES FOR APPLICATIONS AND LETTERS.........................................40
AMENDMENTS .....................................................................................................................................................41
REVOCATION .......................................................................................................................................................41
SECOND ON-CYCLE SUBMISSION PERIOD (POST-EGTRRA) FOR PRE-APPROVED DB PLANS ......41
REMEDIAL AMENDMENT PERIOD..................................................................................................................42
EFFECT ON OTHER DOCUMENTS ...................................................................................................................42
EFFECTIVE DATE ................................................................................................................................................42
PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT .......................................................................................................................42

SECTION 1. PURPOSE
.01 This revenue procedure sets forth
the procedures of the Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) for issuing opinion and advisory letters regarding the acceptability
under §§ 401, 403(a), and 4975(e)(7) of
the Internal Revenue Code (Code) of the
form of pre-approved plans (that is, mas-

July 6, 2015

ter and prototype (M&P) and volume submitter (VS) plans). This revenue procedure modiﬁes and supersedes Rev. Proc.
2011– 49, 2011– 44 I.R.B. 608. Section 3
describes the changes to Rev. Proc. 2011–49.
.02 This revenue procedure also extends to October 30, 2015, the deadline
for submitting on-cycle applications for
opinion and advisory letters for pre-

20

approved deﬁned beneﬁt plans for the
plans’ second six-year remedial amendment cycle. The extension to October 30,
2015, applies to pre-approved deﬁned
beneﬁt mass submitter lead and specimen
plans, word-for-word identical plans,
M&P minor modiﬁer placeholder applications, and deﬁned beneﬁt non-mass submitter plans.

Bulletin No. 2015–27

SECTION 2. BACKGROUND
.01 Prior to being superseded by this
revenue procedure, procedures for the issuance of opinion and advisory letters by
the IRS regarding the acceptability of the
form of pre-approved plans were set forth
in Rev. Proc. 2011– 49 (as modiﬁed by
Ann. 2012–3, 2012– 4 I.R.B. 335; Ann.
2013–37, 2013–34 I.R.B. 155; Ann.
2014 – 4, 2014 –7 I.R.B. 523; Ann. 2014 –
41, 2014 – 52 I.R.B. 979; and Rev. Proc.
2015– 6, 2015–1 I.R.B. 194). Sections
6.03(4) and 16.03(4) of Rev. Proc.
2011– 49 provided that opinion and advisory letters would not be issued for employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs).
Sections 6.03(6) and 16.03(6) provided
that opinion and advisory letters would
not be issued for applicable deﬁned beneﬁt plans within the meaning of
§ 411(a)(13)(C) (Hybrid Plans).
.02 Rev. Proc. 2015– 6 sets forth the
general procedures of the IRS on the issuance of employee plans determination
letters, including determination letters for
M&P and VS plans.
.03 Rev. Proc. 2007– 44, 2007–2 C.B.
54, (as modiﬁed by Rev. Proc. 2008 –56,
2008 –2 C.B. 826; Rev. Proc. 2009 –36,
2009 –2 C.B. 304; Notice 2009 –97,
2009 –2 C.B. 972; Notice 2010 – 48,
2010 –27 I.R.B. 9; Notice 2010 –77,
2010 –51 I.R.B. 851; Notice 2011– 85,
2011– 44 I.R.B. 605; Ann. 2012–3; Rev.
Proc. 2012–50, 2012–50 I.R.B. 708; Ann.
2013–37; Ann. 2014 – 4; Ann. 2014 – 41;
and Rev. Proc. 2015– 6) describes a system of cyclical remedial amendment periods under the Code. Under this system,
every individually designed plan qualiﬁed
under § 401(a) or 403(a) has a regular
ﬁve-year remedial amendment cycle.
These remedial amendment cycles are
staggered and spread over ﬁve-year periods, so that different categories of plans
have different cycles. The effect of this
system is that plan sponsors may apply for
new determination letters generally only
once every ﬁve years in order to continue
to have a letter on which to rely. In addition, under this system every preapproved plan generally has a regular, sixyear remedial amendment cycle. Every

pre-approved plan must be submitted to
the IRS for a new opinion or advisory
letter every six years, during the applicable on-cycle submission period at the beginning of the plan’s six-year cycle. Preapproved deﬁned contribution plans have
a different six-year cycle than preapproved deﬁned beneﬁt plans.
.04 Sponsors and VS practitioners
maintaining pre-approved deﬁned beneﬁt
plans who sought opinion and advisory
letters for the ﬁrst six-year cycle submitted their applications to the IRS between
February 1, 2007, and January 31, 2008.
The IRS’s review took into account the
requirements of the Economic Growth
and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001
(EGTRRA), Pub. L. 107–16, and other
items identiﬁed in Notice 2007–3, 2007–1
C.B. 255 (2006 Cumulative List). Adopting employers of these pre-approved plans
generally had until April 30, 2012, to
adopt the plans and to apply for a determination letter.
.05 Sponsors and VS practitioners
maintaining pre-approved deﬁned contribution plans submitted their applications
to the IRS from February 1, 2011, to April
2, 2012. The IRS’s review took into account the requirements of the Pension
Protection Act of 2006 (PPA ’06), Pub. L.
109 –280, and other items identiﬁed in
Notice 2010 –90, 2010 –52 I.R.B. 909
(2010 Cumulative List).1 The 2010 Cumulative List consists of statutory, regulatory, and guidance changes to plan qualiﬁcation
requirements
that
were
considered by the IRS in its review of the
pre-approved deﬁned contribution plans
submitted during the applicable on-cycle
submission period for the second six-year
cycle as well as its review of single employer individually designed Cycle A
plans. Adopting employers have until
April 30, 2016, to adopt these plans and to
apply for a determination letter, if eligible.
.06 The second six-year remedial
amendment cycle for pre-approved deﬁned beneﬁt plans began on February 1,
2013, and ends on January 31, 2019. Section 18.02(2) of Rev. Proc. 2007– 44 provides that the 9-month applicable on-cycle
submission period for sponsors and VS

practitioners maintaining deﬁned beneﬁt
mass submitter plans ended on October
31, 2013, and for sponsors and VS practitioners maintaining non-mass submitter
plans ended on January 31, 2014. Ann.
2013–37 extended the submission period
for deﬁned beneﬁt mass submitter plans to
January 31, 2014. Ann. 2014 – 4 provided
an extension to February 2, 2015, for submissions of pre-approved deﬁned beneﬁt
plans by sponsors and VS practitioners
seeking opinion and advisory letters for
the second six-year remedial amendment
cycle. Ann. 2014 – 41 further extended the
end of this period to June 30, 2015. Therefore, the 12-month on-cycle submission
period for both mass and non-mass submitter sponsors and VS practitioners,
word-for-word identical adopters, and
M&P minor modiﬁer placeholder applications was scheduled to end on June 30,
2015. Section 23 of this revenue procedure further extends this submission deadline to October 30, 2015. The 2012 Cumulative List of Changes in Plan
Qualiﬁcation Requirements, Notice 2012–
76, 2012–52 I.R.B. 775 (2012 Cumulative
List), is to be used by plan sponsors and
VS practitioners submitting opinion or advisory letter applications for deﬁned beneﬁt plans during the second remedial
amendment cycle.
.07 The third six-year remedial amendment cycle for pre-approved deﬁned contribution plans begins on February 1,
2017, and ends on January 31, 2023. The
IRS will begin accepting opinion and advisory letter applications for pre-approved
deﬁned contribution plans for the third
six-year remedial amendment cycle on
February 1, 2017. The 12-month applicable on-cycle submission period for nonmass submitter sponsors and VS practitioners, word-for-word identical adopters,
and M&P minor modiﬁer placeholder applications will end on January 31, 2018.
As provided in section 18.02(1) of Rev.
Proc. 2007– 44, the 9-month applicable
on-cycle submission period for sponsors
and VS practitioners maintaining deﬁned
contribution mass submitter plans will end
on October 31, 2017. The 2016 Cumulative List of Changes in Plan Qualiﬁcation

1
This included requirements related to the following statutes: PPA ’06, the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007, Pub.
L. 110 –28; the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax Act of 2008 (HEART Act), Pub. L. 110 –245; the Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 (WRERA), Pub. L.
110 – 458; and the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 (SBJA), Pub. L. 111–240.

Bulletin No. 2015–27

21

July 6, 2015

Requirements, when issued, will be used
by plan sponsors and VS practitioners
submitting opinion or advisory letter applications for plans during these periods.
The IRS will announce the deadline for
timely adoption by employers when the
review of the pre-approved documents is
close to being completed.
.08 Ann. 2011– 82, 2011–52 I.R.B.
1052, describes changes to the Employee
Plans determination letter program. These
changes, which eliminated features of the
determination letter program that were of
limited utility, were ﬁrst added by Rev.
Proc. 2012– 6, 2012–1 I.R.B. 197, and are
currently reﬂected in Rev. Proc. 2015– 6.
Under these procedures, many preapproved plan adopters may no longer
apply for determination letters.
.09 It is expected that the procedures
for applying for opinion and advisory letters will be updated from time to time.
SECTION 3. CHANGES TO
REVENUE PROCEDURE 2011– 49
.01 Section 4 is modiﬁed to include
deﬁnitions for ESOPs and cash balance
plans.
.02 Section 4.07 is modiﬁed to reduce
the required number of adopting employers necessary to qualify as a sponsor from
30 to 15 and to provide that if a sponsor
requests an opinion letter for more than
one basic plan document it must represent
to the IRS that it has at least 30 employerclients in the aggregate, each of which is
expected to adopt at least one of the sponsor’s basic plan documents. The 30 unafﬁliated sponsor requirement included in
the deﬁnition of M&P Mass Submitter in
section 4.08 has been retained.
.03 Section 5 is modiﬁed to set forth
additional provisions required by M&P
ESOPs and cash balance plans, as provided in section 5.15 and 5.16, respectively.2 In addition, section 15.13 is modiﬁed with regard to the eligibility of
employees to participate in an ESOP.
.04 Section 6.03(4) is deleted and replaced with section 6.03(4) and (5) in
order to allow sponsors to request opinion
letters for ESOPs and to set forth the
speciﬁc areas for which opinion letters

will not be issued for ESOPs. The remaining paragraphs in section 6.03 have been
renumbered to reﬂect these changes.
.05 Section 6.03(6) is deleted and replaced with section 6.03(7) in order to
allow sponsors to submit cash balance
plans to the IRS and request opinion letters for plans containing these features
and to set forth speciﬁc areas for which
opinion letters will not be issued for cash
balance plans.
.06 Section 7.04 is modiﬁed to eliminate the requirement that requests for
opinion letters for deﬁned beneﬁt plans
containing integrated and nonintegrated
features must be submitted as separate
ﬁlings.
.07 Section 13 is modiﬁed to make the
qualiﬁcation requirements for a VS Mass
Submitter consistent with those of a M&P
Mass Submitter.
.08 Section 13 is modiﬁed to include
deﬁnitions for ESOPs and cash balance
plans.
.09 Section 13.04 is modiﬁed to allow
the submission for a VS plan to contain up
to ten related trusts for approval for each
basic plan document, without an additional user fee.
.10 Section 13.05 is modiﬁed to reduce
the required number of adopting employers necessary to qualify as a VS practitioner from 30 to 15 and to provide that if a
VS practitioner requests an advisory letter
for more than one specimen plan document it must represent to the IRS that it
has at least 30 employer-clients in the
aggregate, each of which is expected to
adopt at least one of the practitioner’s
basic plan documents. The 30 unafﬁliated
sponsor requirement included in the deﬁnition of VS Mass Submitter in section
13.06 has been retained.
.11 Section 14 is modiﬁed to set forth
additional provisions required for VS
ESOPs and cash balance plans, as provided in section 14.07 and 14.08, respectively. In addition section 14.02 is modiﬁed with regard to the eligibility of
employees to participate in an ESOP.
.12 Section 16.03(4) is deleted and replaced with section 16.03(4) and (5) in
order to allow VS practitioners to request

advisory letters for ESOPs and to set forth
speciﬁc areas for which advisory letters
will not be issued for ESOPS. The remaining paragraphs in section 16.03 have been
renumbered to reﬂect these changes.
.13 Section 16.03(6) is deleted and replaced with section 16.03(7) in order to
allow VS practitioners to submit cash balance plans to the IRS and request advisory
letters for plans containing these features
and to set forth speciﬁc areas for which
advisory letters will not be issued for cash
balance plans.
.14 Section 19 is revised to delineate
the scope of an employer’s reliance on an
opinion/advisory letter, pursuant to the
changes to the determination letter program described in Ann. 2011– 82.
.15 Section 23 is revised to extend the
deadline for submitting on-cycle applications for opinion and advisory letters for
pre-approved deﬁned beneﬁt plans for the
plans’ second six-year remedial amendment cycle to October 30, 2015.
PART I – M&P PLANS
SECTION 4. DEFINITIONS
.01 Master Plan - A “master plan” is a
plan (including a plan covering selfemployed individuals) that is made available by a sponsor for adoption by employers and for which a single funding
medium (for example, a trust or custodial
account) is established, as part of the plan,
for the joint use of all adopting employers.
A master plan consists of a basic plan
document, an adoption agreement, and,
unless included in the basic plan document, a trust or custodial account document.
.02 Prototype Plan - A “prototype
plan” is a plan (including a plan covering
self-employed individuals) that is made
available by a sponsor for adoption by
employers and under which a separate
funding medium is established for each
adopting employer. A prototype plan consists of a basic plan document, an adoption agreement, and, unless the basic plan
document incorporates a trust or custodial
account agreement the provisions of
which are applicable to all adopting em-

2
Employers currently using individually designed plans who wish to use the six-year remedial amendment cycle, as described in Part IV of Rev. Proc. 2007– 44, as an adopter of a
pre-approved plan, should complete Form 8905 Certiﬁcation of Intent to Adopt Pre-Approved Plan, no later than the end of their applicable remedial amendment cycle. For further
information, see http://www.irs.gov/Retirement-Plans.

July 6, 2015

22

Bulletin No. 2015–27

ployers, a trust or custodial account document.
.03 Basic Plan Document - A “basic
plan document” is the portion of a plan
containing all of the non-elective provisions applicable to all adopting employers. No options (including blanks to be
completed) may be provided in the basic
plan document, except as provided in section 12.03(1) of this revenue procedure
regarding ﬂexible plans.
.04 Adoption Agreement - An “adoption agreement” is the portion of the plan
containing the options that may be selected by an adopting employer.
.05 Trust or Custodial Account Document (Note: This deﬁnition does not apply
if the basic plan document includes a trust
or custodial account agreement the provisions of which apply to all adopting employers.)
(1) A “trust or custodial account document” is the portion of a M&P plan that
contains the trust agreement or custodial
account agreement and includes provisions covering such matters as the powers
and duties of trustees, investment authority, and the kinds of investments that may
be made.
(2) Except as provided in section 5.09
and this section 4.05, all provisions of the
trust or custodial account document must
be applicable to all adopting employers of
that trust, and no options (including
blanks to be completed) may be provided
in the trust or custodial account document.
(3) With respect to prototype plans, a
sponsor or mass submitter may provide up
to 10 separate trust or custodial account
documents that are intended for use with
any single basic plan document. Notwithstanding the preceding sentence, a sponsor
or mass submitter may submit more than
10 separate trust or custodial account documents intended for use with any single
basic plan document, provided that an additional user fee is submitted for each trust
document in excess of 10. See section 6 of
Rev. Proc. 2015– 8.
(4) As provided in section 5.09, a sponsor or M&P mass submitter may provide a
trust or custodial account document designated for use only by adopters of nonstandardized plans that provides for
blanks to be completed with respect to
administrative provisions of the trust or
custodial account agreement.

Bulletin No. 2015–27

(5) Any trust or custodial account document (including one to be used by adopters of standardized plans) may provide for
blanks to be completed that merely enable
the adopting employer to specify the
names of the plan, employer, trustee or
custodian, plan administrator and other ﬁduciaries, the trust year, and the name of
any pooled trust in which the plan’s trust
will participate.
.06 Opinion Letter - An “opinion letter” is a written statement issued by the
IRS to a sponsor or M&P mass submitter
as to the acceptability of the form of a
M&P plan under § 401(a), 403(a), or both
§§ 401(a) and 4975(e)(7) and, in the case
of a master plan, the acceptability of the
master trust under § 501(a).
.07 Sponsor - A “sponsor” is any person that (1) has an established place of
business in the United States where it is
accessible during every business day and
(2) represents to the IRS that it has at least
15 employer-clients, each of which is reasonably expected to adopt the same basic
plan document of the plan sponsor.
A sponsor may request an opinion letter for more than one basic plan document
provided it represents to the IRS that it has
at least 30 employer-clients in the aggregate, each of which is reasonably expected
to adopt at least one of the sponsor’s basic
plan documents. The IRS reserves the
right at any time to request from the sponsor a list of the employers that have adopted or are expected to adopt the sponsor’s M&P plans, including the
employers’ business addresses and employer identiﬁcation numbers.
Notwithstanding the preceding two
paragraphs, any person that has an established place of business in the United
States where it is accessible during every
business day may sponsor a plan as a
word-for-word identical adopter or minor
modiﬁer adopter of a plan of a M&P mass
submitter, regardless of the number of employers that are expected to adopt the
plan.
By submitting an application for an
opinion letter for a M&P plan under this
revenue procedure (or by having an application ﬁled on its behalf by a M&P mass
submitter), a person represents to the IRS
that it is a sponsor, as deﬁned in this
section 4.07, and agrees to comply with
any requirements imposed on sponsors by

23

this revenue procedure. Failure to comply
with these requirements may result in the
loss of eligibility to sponsor M&P plans
and the revocation of opinion letters that
have been issued to the sponsor.
.08 M&P Mass Submitter - A “M&P
mass submitter” is any person that (1) has
an established place of business in the
United States where it is accessible during
every business day and (2) submits opinion letter applications on behalf of at least
30 unafﬁliated sponsors each of which is
sponsoring, on a word-for-word identical
basis, the same basic plan document. A
ﬂexible plan (as deﬁned in section
12.03(1)) that is adopted by a sponsor will
be considered a word-for-word identical
plan. For purposes of determining whether
30 unafﬁliated sponsors sponsor, on a
word-for-word basis, the same basic plan
document, the mass submitter is treated as
an unafﬁliated sponsor. For purposes of
this deﬁnition, afﬁliation is determined
under § 414(b) and (c). Additionally, the
following will be considered to be afﬁliated: any law ﬁrm, accounting ﬁrm, consulting ﬁrm, etc., with its partners, members, associates, etc. A M&P mass
submitter will be treated as a M&P mass
submitter with respect to all of its M&P
plans provided the 30 unafﬁliated sponsor
requirement is met with respect to at least
one basic plan document.
Notwithstanding the preceding paragraph, any person that received a favorable opinion letter under the Tax Reform
Act of 1986, Pub. L. No. 99 –514, for a
plan as a M&P mass submitter under Rev.
Proc. 89 –9, 1989 –1 C.B. 780, will continue to be treated as a M&P mass submitter with respect to all of its M&P plans
if it submits applications on behalf of at
least 10 sponsors (regardless of afﬁliation), each of which is sponsoring the
same basic plan document on a word-forword identical basis. For purposes of determining whether 10 sponsors sponsor
the same basic plan document on a wordfor-word identical basis, the mass submitter is counted as one of the 10 sponsors.
.09 Standardized Plan - A “standardized plan” is a M&P plan (other than an
ESOP or Hybrid Plan) that meets the following requirements:
(1) Under the provisions governing eligibility and participation, the plan by its
terms beneﬁts all employees described in

July 6, 2015

section 5.13 (regardless of whether any
employer is treated as operating separate
lines of business under § 414(r)) except
those that may be excluded under
§ 410(a)(1) or (b)(3). The adoption agreement may provide options as to whether
some or all of the employees described in
§ 410(a)(1) or (b)(3) are to be excluded,
provided that the criteria for excluding
employees described in § 410(a)(1) or
(b)(3) apply uniformly to all employees. A
standardized plan generally may not deny
an accrual or allocation to an employee
eligible to participate merely because the
employee is not an active employee on the
last day of the plan year or has failed to
complete a speciﬁed number of hours of
service during the year. However, the plan
may deny an allocation or accrual to an
employee who is eligible to participate if
the employee terminates service during
the plan year with not more than 500
hours of service and is not an active employee on the last day of the plan year.
A plan will not fail to satisfy the requirements of this paragraph (1) merely
because the plan provides, either as the
result of an elective provision or by default in the absence of an election to the
contrary, that individuals who become
employees, within the meaning of section
5.13, as the result of a “§ 410(b)(6)(C)
transaction” will be excluded from eligibility to participate in the plan during the
period beginning on the date of the transaction and ending on a date that is not
later than the last day of the ﬁrst plan year
beginning after the date of the transaction.
A “§ 410(b)(6)(C) transaction” is an asset
or stock acquisition, merger, or other similar transaction involving a change in the
employer of the employees of a trade or
business.
(2) The eligibility requirements under
the plan are not more favorable for highly
compensated employees (as deﬁned in
§ 414(q)) than for other employees.
(3) Under the plan, allocations, in the
case of a deﬁned contribution plan (other
than any cash or deferred arrangement
part of the plan), or beneﬁts, in the case of
a deﬁned beneﬁt plan, are determined on
the basis of total compensation. For this
purpose, total compensation means a definition of compensation that includes all
compensation within the meaning of
§ 415(c)(3) and excludes all other com-

July 6, 2015

pensation, or that otherwise satisﬁes
§ 414(s) and § 1.414(s)–1(c).
(4) Unless the plan is a target beneﬁt
plan or a § 401(k) and/or 401(m) plan, the
plan must, by its terms, satisfy one of the
design-based safe harbors described in
§ 1.401(a)(4)–2(b)(2) (taking into account
§ 1.401(a)(4)–2(b)(4)) or § 1.401(a)(4)–
3(b)(3), (4), or (5) (taking into account
§ 1.401(a)(4)–3(b)(6)).
(5) All beneﬁts, rights, and features
under the plan (other than those, if any,
that have been prospectively eliminated)
are currently available to all employees
beneﬁting under the plan.
(6) Any past service credit under the
plan must meet the safe harbor in
§ 1.401(a)(4)–5(a)(3).
(7) Any hardship distribution must satisfy the safe harbor standards in the regulations under § 401(k).
.10 Nonstandardized Plan - A “nonstandardized plan” is a M&P plan (including an ESOP or Hybrid Plan that meets
the requirements of this revenue procedure) that is not a standardized plan.
.11 ESOP Deﬁnitions
(1) ESOP - An “ESOP” is an employee
stock ownership plan within the meaning
of § 4975(e)(7).
(2) Exempt Loan - An “exempt loan” is
a loan described in § 4975(d)(3) that
meets the requirements for exemption
from the excise tax imposed under
§ 4975(a) and (b) described in § 54.4975–
7(b).
(3) Readily Tradable Employer Securities - “Readily tradable employer securities” are publicly traded securities as deﬁned in § 1.401(a)(35)–1(f)(5).
.12 Hybrid Plan Deﬁnitions
(1) Cash Balance Formula - A “cash
balance formula” is a statutory hybrid
beneﬁt
formula
as
deﬁned
in
§ 1.411(a)(13)–1(d)(4) used to determine
all or any part of a participant’s accumulated beneﬁt, under which the accumulated beneﬁt provided under the formula is
expressed as the current balance of a hypothetical account maintained for the participant. The hypothetical account balance
generally consists of principal credits and
hypothetical interest credits.
(2) A Cash Balance Plan - A “cash
balance plan” is a deﬁned beneﬁt plan that
includes a cash balance formula.

24

(3) Conversion Amendment - A “conversion amendment” is deﬁned in
§ 1.411(b)(5)–1(c)(4), as (i) an amendment that reduces or eliminates the beneﬁts that, but for the amendment, a participant would have earned after the
effective date of the amendment under a
beneﬁt formula that is not a statutory hybrid beneﬁt formula, and (ii) with respect
to which, after the effective date of the
amendment, all or a portion of the participant’s beneﬁt accruals under the plan are
determined under a statutory hybrid beneﬁt formula.
(4) Hypothetical Interest - “Hypothetical interest” is an interest credit as deﬁned
in § 1.411(b)(5)–1(d)(1)(ii)(A), which refers to an adjustment to a participant’s
hypothetical account balance for a period
that is not conditioned on service and that
is determined by applying a rate of interest or rate of return to the participant’s
hypothetical account balance as of the beginning of the period.
(5) Offset - An “offset” is the reduction
of beneﬁts under an employer’s deﬁned
beneﬁt plan by an amount attributable to
the beneﬁts payable under another plan of
the employer.
(6) Principal Credit - “Principal credit”
is deﬁned in § 1.411(b)(5)–1(d)(1)(ii)(D)
as any increase in a participant’s hypothetical account balance that is not hypothetical interest.
(7) Statutory Hybrid Plan - A “statutory hybrid plan” is a deﬁned beneﬁt plan
that contains a statutory hybrid beneﬁt
formula.
(8) Variable Annuity Plan - A “variable annuity plan” is any deﬁned beneﬁt
plan that includes a variable annuity beneﬁt formula as deﬁned in § 1.411(a)(13)–
1(d)(6).
SECTION 5. PROVISIONS
REQUIRED IN M&P PLANS
.01 Sponsor Amendments - M&P plans
must provide a procedure for sponsor
amendment, so that changes in the Code,
regulations, revenue rulings, other statements published by the IRS, or corrections
of prior approved plans may be applied to
all employers who have adopted the plan.
Sponsors must make reasonable and diligent efforts to ensure that adopting employers of the sponsor’s M&P plan have
actually received and are aware of all plan

Bulletin No. 2015–27

amendments and that such employers
complete and sign new adoption agreements if necessary. See section 5.11. The
provision for sponsor amendment must
provide that, for purposes of reliance on
the opinion letter, the sponsor will no longer have the authority to amend the plan
on behalf of the adopting employer as of
the date of the adoption of an employer
amendment to the plan to incorporate a
type of plan not allowable in the M&P
program described in section 6.03 (e.g. the
addition of enabling language for multiemployer plan features) or as of the date
the IRS notiﬁes the sponsor that the plan
is being treated as an individually designed plan pursuant to section 24.03.
Failure to comply with this requirement
may result in the loss of eligibility to
sponsor M&P plans and the revocation of
opinion letters that have been issued to the
sponsor.
.02 Employer Amendments - An employer that amends any provision of an
approved M&P plan including its adoption agreement (other than to change the
choice of options selected, if the plan permits or contemplates such a change) or an
employer that chooses to discontinue participation in a plan as amended by its
sponsor without substituting another approved M&P plan is considered to have
adopted an individually designed plan.
However, this rule does not apply in the
case of amendments permitted under sections 5.06 and 5.09 and sample or model
amendments published by the IRS that
speciﬁcally provide that their adoption by
an adopter of a M&P plan will not cause
such plan to be treated as individually
designed. Additionally, a plan will not be
treated as individually designed if a closing agreement under the Audit Closing
Agreement Program or a compliance
statement under the Voluntary Correction
Program of the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS) has
been issued with respect to the employer’s
plan with regard to the amendment.3 Also
see section 19.03 regarding the effect of
employer amendments on an employer’s
ability to rely on an opinion letter, and
section 24 with respect to applicable remedial amendment periods. An employer
that amends a M&P plan because of a
3

waiver of the minimum funding requirement under § 412(d) will also be considered to have an individually designed
plan. The procedures set forth in Rev.
Proc. 2015– 6, as amended annually and
as related to the issuance of determination
letters for individually designed plans,
will then apply to the plan as adopted by
the employer. See also section 19 of Rev.
Proc. 2007– 44 regarding the effect employer amendments have on eligibility for
the six-year remedial amendment cycle
applicable to pre-approved plan adopters.
.03 Compensation Requirements in
Nonstandardized Plans - Each nonstandardized M&P plan must give the adopting employer the option to select total
compensation as the compensation to be
used in determining allocations or beneﬁts. For this purpose, total compensation
means a deﬁnition that includes all compensation within the meaning of
§ 415(c)(3) and excludes all other compensation or that otherwise satisﬁes
§ 414(s) under § 1.414(s)–1(c).
.04 Automatic or Optional Safe Harbor
Provisions in Nonstandardized Plans Each nonstandardized M&P plan, other
than a statutory hybrid plan as described
in section 4.12, must automatically or by
option allow the adopting employer to satisfy one of the design-based safe harbors
described in § 1.401(a)(4)–2(b)(2) or in
§ 1.401(a)(4)–3(b)(3), (4), and (5).
.05 Anti-Cutback Provisions - M&P
plans must speciﬁcally provide for the
protection provided under § 411(a)(10)
and (d)(6), to the extent required, in the
event that the employer amends the plan
in any manner, such as by revising the
options selected in the adoption agreement or by adopting a new M&P plan. A
sponsor may not amend its plan in a manner that could result in the elimination of
a beneﬁt to the extent the beneﬁt is required to be protected under § 411(d)(6)
with respect to the plan of any adopting
employer, unless permitted to do so under
§§ 1.401(a)– 4 and 1.411(d)– 4. In addition, a M&P plan that does not contain
vesting rules for all years that are at least
as favorable to participants as those provided in § 416(b), must speciﬁcally provide that any vesting that occurs while the
plan is top-heavy will not be cut back if

the plan ceases to be top-heavy. See
§§ 411(d)(6)(C) and 1.411(d)– 4(d) for
certain exceptions applicable to ESOPs.
.06 Adopting Employer Modiﬁcation
to Satisfy §§ 415 and 416 - M&P plans
must provide that plan provisions may be
amended by plan language completed by
the employer in the adoption agreement if
such overriding language is necessary to
satisfy § 415 or 416 because of the required aggregation of multiple plans under these sections. Generally, a space
should be provided in the adoption agreement with instructions for the employer to
add such language as necessary to satisfy
§§ 415 and 416. In addition, a space must
be provided in the adoption agreement for
the employer to specify the interest rate
and mortality tables used for purposes of
establishing the present value of accrued
beneﬁts in order to compute the top-heavy
ratio under § 416. Such a space must be
included in both deﬁned contribution
plans and deﬁned beneﬁt plans.
.07 Aggregation for § 415 compliance Plan language must be incorporated that
aggregates all deﬁned contribution M&P
plans and all deﬁned beneﬁt M&P plans to
satisfy § 415(c) and (f).
.08 Top-heavy Requirements - Each
plan must either provide that all of the
additional requirements applicable to topheavy plans (described in § 416) apply at
all times or provide that such requirements apply automatically if the plan is
top-heavy regardless of how the adoption
agreement is completed. In any such latter
case, all of the requirements for determining whether the plan is top-heavy must be
included in the plan. (See Questions T-35
and T-36 of § 1.416 –1.)
.09 Adopting Employer Modiﬁcation
of Trust or Custodial Account Document An employer that adopts a nonstandardized M&P plan will not be considered to
have an individually designed plan merely
because the employer amends administrative provisions of the trust or custodial
account document (such as provisions relating to investments and the duties of
trustees), provided the amended provisions are not in conﬂict with any other
provision of the plan and do not cause the
plan to fail to qualify under § 401(a). For
this purpose, an amendment includes

See Section 6.05(5)(b) of Rev. Proc. 2013–12, 2013– 4 I.R.B. 313.

Bulletin No. 2015–27

25

July 6, 2015

modiﬁcation of the language of the trust
or custodial account document and the
addition of overriding language.
An employer that adopts a standardized M&P plan may amend the trust or
custodial account document, provided
such amendment merely involves the
speciﬁcation of the names of the plan,
employer, trustee or custodian, plan administrator and other ﬁduciaries, the trust
year, or the name of any pooled trust in
which the plan’s trust will participate.
.10 Provisions Required in Adoption
Agreements Regarding Reliance - The
adoption agreement of every standardized
and nonstandardized M&P plan must include, in close proximity to the signature
blank, a statement that describes the limitations on employer reliance on an opinion letter. See section 19.
.11 Other Provisions Required in
Adoption Agreements - Each M&P plan
must contain a dated employer signature
line. The employer must sign the adoption
agreement when it ﬁrst adopts the plan
and must complete and sign a new adoption agreement if the plan has been restated. In addition, the employer must
complete a new signature page if it modiﬁes any prior elections or makes new
elections in its adoption agreement. The
signature requirement may be satisﬁed by
an electronic signature that reliably authenticates and veriﬁes the adoption of the
adoption agreement, or restatement,
amendment or modiﬁcation thereof, by
the employer. The adoption agreement
must state that it is to be used with one
and only one speciﬁc basic plan document. In addition, the adoption agreement
must contain a cautionary statement to the
effect that the failure to properly ﬁll out
the adoption agreement may result in failure of the plan to qualify under § 401(a),
403(a), or 4975(e)(7), as applicable. The
adoption agreement must also contain a
statement that provides that the sponsor
will inform the adopting employer of any
amendments made to the plan or of the
discontinuance or abandonment of the
plan.
.12 Sponsor Telephone Numbers M&P plan adoption agreements must include the sponsor’s name, address, and
telephone number (or a space for the address and telephone number of the sponsor’s authorized representative) for inqui-

July 6, 2015

ries by adopting employers regarding the
adoption of the plan, the meaning of plan
provisions, or the effect of the opinion
letter.
.13 Deﬁnition of Employee under
§ 414(b), (c), (m), (n), and (o) - Each
M&P plan must include a deﬁnition of
employee as any employee of the employer maintaining the plan or any other
employer aggregated under § 414(b), (c),
(m), or (o) and the regulations thereunder.
The deﬁnition of employee shall also include any individual treated under
§ 414(n) or under the regulations under
§ 414(o) as an employee of any employer
described in the preceding sentence.
With respect to ESOPs, employees
who meet this deﬁnition cannot participate in the ESOP unless they are employed by the employer corporation who
issues the stock held by the ESOP or by
any corporation that is a member of the
same controlled group of corporations as
the employer corporation (within the
meaning of § 1563(a), as modiﬁed by
§ 409(l)(4)(B) and (C) and as determined
without regard to §§ 1563(a)(4) and
1563(e)(3)(C)). With respect to ESOPs,
for all other purposes, including nondiscrimination testing and coverage, employees who meet the deﬁnition of employee
in the immediately preceding paragraph
are treated as employees.
.14 Deﬁnition of Service under
§ 414(b), (c), (m), (n), and (o) - Each
M&P plan must speciﬁcally credit all service with any employer aggregated under
§ 414(b), (c), (m), or (o) and the regulations thereunder as service with the employer maintaining the plan. In addition,
in the case of an individual treated under
§ 414(n) (or under regulations under
§ 414(o)) as the employee of any employer described in the previous sentence,
service with such employer must be credited to such individual.
.15 Additional Provisions Required for
ESOPs - ESOPs will not receive favorable
opinion letters under this revenue procedure unless, in addition to complying with
the requirements of subsections 5.01
through 5.14 of this revenue procedure,
the plan documents include the following:
(1) A statement that the plan is an
employee stock ownership plan within the
meaning of § 4975(e)(7) and is designed
to invest primarily in employer stock;

26

(2) A provision that deﬁnes employer
stock in accordance with § 409(l)(1) or
(2);
(3) Provisions that meet the diversiﬁcation requirements of § 401(a)(28)(B),
or, if applicable, § 401(a)(35);
(4) Provisions that meet the valuation,
independent appraiser, and allocation of
earnings requirements set forth in
§ 401(a)(28)(C), § 54.4975–11(d)(5), and
Rev. Rul. 80 –155, 1980 –1 C.B. 84;
(5) Provisions that meet the voting requirements of § 409(e);
(6) Provisions that meet the right to
demand and put option requirements of
§ 409(h), to the extent applicable;
(7) Provisions that meet the distribution requirements of § 409(o);
(8) Provisions that set forth the requirements relating to exempt loans as described in § 4975(d)(3), § 54.4975–7, and
§ 54.4975–11(c);
(9) Provisions that meet the ESOP annual addition requirements described in
§ 1.415(c)–1(f), and, if the ESOP is maintained by an employer that is a C corporation, the requirements described in
§ 415(c)(6);
(10) If an ESOP provides for forfeitures, provisions that meet the forfeiture
requirement of § 54.4975–11(d)(4);
(11) If an ESOP holds employer securities consisting of stock in an S corporation, provisions that meet the requirements of § 409(p) and § 1.409(p)–1;
(12) If an ESOP is maintained by employers that are C corporations, provisions
that meet the requirements of § 409(n);
and
(13) Provisions (in the adoption agreement) that identify the plan sponsor as
being either a C corporation or an S corporation.
.16 Additional Provisions Required for
Cash Balance Plans - Plans containing
cash balance features will not receive favorable opinion letters unless, in addition
to complying with the requirements of
subsections 5.01 through 5.14 of this revenue procedure, they meet the following
requirements:
(1) Prior beneﬁt structures protected All cash balance plans must ensure compliance with the anti-cutback provisions
of § 411(d)(6). To receive a favorable
opinion letter under this revenue procedure, a cash balance plan must provide

Bulletin No. 2015–27

that, at all times, prior accrued beneﬁts
(and other beneﬁts protected under
§ 411(d)(6)(B)) are protected. A cash balance plan that was the subject of a conversion amendment must comply with the
provisions of § 411(b)(5)(B)(iii) and must
comply with § 1.411(b)(5)–1(c). However, a favorable opinion letter will not be
issued for a plan that uses an opening
hypothetical account balance as described
in § 1.411(b)(5)–1(c)(3) to meet the requirements of § 1.411(b)(5)–1(c).
(2) Step-rate structure of principal
credits - Cash balance plans that contain
any structure of principal credits that increase with age, service, or other measure
during a participant’s employment must
be deﬁnitely determinable, operationally
nondiscriminatory, and at all times in
compliance with the “133 1/3 percent
rule” of § 411(b)(1)(B) and the regulations thereunder. Employers may not rely
on the opinion letter with respect to the
requirements of § 411(b)(1) for increasing
principal credit schedules that are created
by adopting employers by completing
blanks in the plan formula, but may rely
on the opinion letter with respect to the
requirements of § 411(b)(1) for increasing
principal credit schedules speciﬁed in the
M&P basic plan document and/or adoption agreement.
SECTION 6. OPINION LETTERS SCOPE
.01 General Limits on Opinion Letters
- Opinion letters will be issued only to
sponsors or M&P mass submitters. Opinion letters constitute determinations as to
the qualiﬁcation of the plans as adopted
by particular employers only under the
circumstances, and to the extent, described in section 19. In the case of prototype plans, opinion letters do not constitute rulings or determinations as to the
exempt status of related trusts or custodial
accounts.
.02 Nonapplicability of this Revenue
Procedure to IRAs (including traditional
IRAs, Roth IRAs, SEPS, and Simple
IRAs) and section 403(b) Plans - Opinion
letters will not be issued under this revenue procedure for prototype plans intended to meet the requirements for individual retirement arrangements under
§ 408 or for § 403(b) plans (see Rev. Proc.
87–50, 1987–2 C.B. 647; Rev. Proc. 97–

Bulletin No. 2015–27

29, 1997–1 C.B. 698; Rev. Proc. 98 –59,
1998 –2 C.B. 727; Rev. Proc. 2010 – 48,
2010 –50 I.R.B. 828; Rev. Proc. 2013–22,
2013–18 I.R.B. 985; Rev. Proc. 2014 –28,
2014 –16 I.R.B. 944; and Rev. Proc.
2015–22, 2015–11 I.R.B. 754).
.03 Areas Not Covered by Opinion
Letters - Opinion letters will not be issued
for:
(1) Multiemployer plans;
(2) Union plans (this does not preclude
a M&P plan from covering employees of
the employer who are included in a unit
covered by a collective bargaining agreement or the adoption of a M&P plan pursuant to such agreement as a singleemployer plan that covers only employees
of the employer);
(3) Stock bonus plans other than
ESOPs;
(4) ESOPs that are a combination of a
stock bonus plan and a money purchase
plan;
(5) ESOPs that provide for the holding
of preferred employer stock, even if such
stock is described in § 409(l)(3);
(6) Pooled fund arrangements contemplated by Rev. Rul. 81–100, 1981–1 C.B.
326 (as modiﬁed by Rev. Rul. 2004 – 67,
2004 –2 C.B 28; Rev. Rul. 2011–1,
2011–2 I.R.B. 251; Notice 2012– 6,
2012–3 I.R.B. 293; and Rev. Rul. 2014 –
24, 2014 –37 I.R.B. 529);
(7) Statutory hybrid plans with any of
the following features:
(a) Any statutory hybrid beneﬁt formula that is not a cash balance formula,
such as a formula under which beneﬁts are
determined by reference to the current
value of an accumulated percentage of the
participant’s average compensation (a
Pension Equity Plan or “PEP”);
(b) Provisions that allow for hypothetical interest crediting based on rates of
return that are subject to participant
choice, or any rate that does not meet the
requirements of § 1.411(b)(5)–1(d).
(c) Provisions that allow a rate used to
determine hypothetical interest to be
based on actual return on plan assets or a
subset of plan assets (as described in
§ 1.411(b)(5)–1(d)(5)(ii)) or the rate of
return on certain RICs (as described in
§ 1.411(b)(5)–1(d)(5)(iv)).
(d) A conversion amendment, except
for plans providing that, after the effective
date of the conversion amendment, a par-

27

ticipant’s accrued beneﬁt is equal to the
sum of accruals under the prior formula
plus the beneﬁt based on the cash balance
formula (“A⫹B Conversion”);
(e) Provisions that use the 3-percent
accrual rule or the fractional accrual rule
under § 411(b)(1)(A) or (C) to satisfy the
accrued beneﬁt requirements under
§ 411(b)(1);
(f) Provisions that provide for funding
exclusively through insurance contracts as
described in § 412(e)(3); and
(g) Provisions that provide for offsets
of beneﬁts accrued under another plan
(the “offsetting plan”), unless:
(i) The offset is applied on an accumulated basis at the participant’s annuity
starting date, rather than offsetting each
year’s principal credit by that year’s accruals or contributions under the offsetting plan;
(ii) The cash balance formula is treated
as a lump sum-based beneﬁt formula under § 1.411(a)(13)–1(d)(3) only if the offsetting plan is a deﬁned contribution plan
and the offset is applied by subtracting the
account balance under the deﬁned contribution plan from the hypothetical account
balance under the cash balance formula
prior to converting the balance to an annuity beneﬁt;
(iii) The offset meets the safe-harbor
requirements of § 1.401(a)(4)– 8(d) (except that the offset can be computed by
subtracting the account balance under the
offsetting plan from the hypothetical account balance under the cash balance formula), including the requirement that the
offsetting plan cannot be a section 401(k)
plan or a section 401(m) plan;
(iv) For the purpose of determining the
amount of the offset against any deﬁned
beneﬁt formula, the offset reﬂects the
value of any distributions from the offsetting plan made prior to the participant’s
annuity starting date under the cash balance plan;
(v) The offset is applied on a uniform
basis for all participants;
(vi) The plan provides a minimum accrued beneﬁt to participants (expressed as
a lifetime annuity commencing at normal
retirement age) of no less than 0.5% of
compensation for each year of credited
service, which is not reduced by the offset
applied to other formulas under the plan;

July 6, 2015

(vii) Accrued beneﬁts, considered in
conjunction with deﬁned contribution accounts subject to any offset, meet nondiscrimination requirements; and
(viii) The amount of the offset, including any procedures and actuarial assumptions for converting a deﬁned contribution
account balance (under a speciﬁcallynamed deﬁned contribution plan) to an
annuity amount, is deﬁnitely determinable.
(8) Plans described in § 414(k) (relating to a deﬁned beneﬁt plan that provides
a beneﬁt derived from employer contributions that is based partly on the balance of
the separate account of a participant);
(9) Target beneﬁt plans, other than
plans that, by their terms, satisfy each of
the safe harbor requirements described in
§ 1.401(a)(4)– 8(b)(3)(i), as well as the
additional rules in § 1.401(a)(4)–
8(b)(3)(ii) through (vii);
(10) Deﬁned beneﬁt plans that provide
for employee contributions (other than
statutory hybrid plans that accepted employee contributions prior to the ﬁrst plan
year after the effective date of this revenue procedure);
(11) Plans that would not satisfy the
qualiﬁcation requirements except as governmental plans as described in § 414(d);
(12) Church plans described in
§ 414(e) that have not made the election
provided by § 410(d);
(13) Plans under which the § 415 limitations are incorporated by reference;
(14) Plans that incorporate the ADP
test under § 401(k)(3) or the ACP test
under § 401(m)(2) by reference;
(15) Section 401(k) plans (standardized and nonstandardized) that provide for
hardship distributions under circumstances other than those described in the
safe harbor standards in the regulations
under § 401(k);
(16) Fully-insured § 412(e)(3) plans,
other than non-statutory hybrid plans that
by their terms satisfy the safe harbor in
§ 1.401(a)(4)–3(b)(5);
(17) Plans that fail to contain a provision reﬂecting the requirements of
§ 414(u) (see Rev. Proc. 96 – 49, 1996 –2
C.B. 369);
(18) Plans that include purported failsafe provisions for § 401(a)(4) or the average beneﬁt test under § 410(b);

July 6, 2015

(19) Plans that include blanks or ﬁll-in
provisions for the employer to complete,
unless the provisions have parameters that
preclude the employer from completing
the provisions in a manner that could violate the qualiﬁcation requirements;
(20) Plans designed to satisfy the provisions of § 105;
(21) Plans that include § 401(h) accounts;
(22) Eligible combined plans within
the meaning of § 414(x)(2); or
(23) Variable annuity plans and plans
that provide for accruals that are determined in whole or in part based on the
value of or rate of return on identiﬁed
assets, including plan assets.
.04 The IRS may, in its discretion, decline to issue opinion letters for other
types of plans not described in this section.
SECTION 7. OPINION LETTER
APPLICATIONS - INSTRUCTIONS
TO SPONSORS
.01 The IRS Issues Opinion Letters
-The IRS will, upon the request of a sponsor, issue an opinion letter as to the acceptability of the form of the sponsor’s
M&P plan and any related trust or custodial account documents under §§ 401(a),
403(a), 501(a), and 4975(e)(7).
.02 Procedure for Requesting Opinion
Letters - A request for an opinion letter
relating to a M&P plan must be submitted
on the current version of Form 4461, Application for Approval of Master or Prototype or Volume Submitter Deﬁned Contribution Plans, Form 4461-A, Application for
Approval of Master or Prototype or Volume
Submitter Deﬁned Beneﬁt Plan, or Form
4461-B, Application for Approval of Master
or Prototype or Volume Submitter Plans
(Mass Submitter Adopting Sponsor or Practitioner), as appropriate. Additionally, the
M&P request must be accompanied by the
required user fee submitted with Form
8717-A, User Fee for Employee Plan Opinion or Advisory Letter Request, a signed certiﬁcation that all necessary amendments required by the IRS to retain the qualiﬁed status
of the sponsor’s plan have been made and
communicated to all adopting employers, and
Attachment I to Form 4461, or Attachment
I-A to Form 4461-A, as applicable. These
forms may be downloaded from the Internet at
the following address: http://www.irs.gov/

28

Retirement-Plans/Preapproved-PlanSubmission-Procedures. All information
on the ﬁrst page of the application must be
typed. The request must be sent to the
address in section 20 of this revenue procedure.
.03 Expediting Review of Substantially
Identical Plans - The IRS reserves the
right to review applications in any order
that will expedite the processing of opinion letter applications, subject to section
21.03. To expedite the review of substantially identical plans that are not mass
submitter plans, the IRS encourages plan
drafters and sponsors to include with each
opinion letter application, if appropriate, a
cover letter setting forth the following information:
(1) The name and ﬁle folder number (if
available) of the plan that, for review purposes, the plan drafter designates as the
“lead plan” (including the name and EIN
of the sponsor);
(2) A list of all plans written by the
plan drafter that are substantially identical
to the lead plan (including the information
described in paragraph (1) above);
(3) A description of each location in
the plan for which the application is
being submitted that is not word-forword identical to the language of the
lead plan, including an explanation of
the purpose and effect of each such difference; and
(4) A certiﬁcation, made under penalty
of perjury by the plan drafter, that the
information described in paragraph (3)
above is true and complete. If the sponsor
or plan drafter is aware that a lead plan or
any substantially identical plan has been
assigned for review to a specialist, the
cover letter should also indicate the name
of the specialist, if possible. To the extent
feasible, lead plans and substantially identical plans should be submitted together.
The IRS will regard the information and
certiﬁcation described in paragraph (3)
above and this paragraph (4) as a material
representation for purposes of issuing an
opinion letter.
.04 Separate Applications Required for
Different Categories of M&P Plans/Use
of Same Basic Plan Document by Multiple Plans - A M&P adoption agreement
may not contain any combination of
proﬁt-sharing, money purchase (other
than target beneﬁt), ESOP, target beneﬁt,

Bulletin No. 2015–27

or deﬁned beneﬁt plan features. Thus for
example, a single adoption agreement
may not contain features of both a money
purchase plan and a target beneﬁt plan. In
addition, one basic plan document may
not be used for both deﬁned beneﬁt and
deﬁned contribution plans. Provided that
the provisions of the basic plan document
are identical for all plans using that document (that is, the basic plan document
contains no elective or optional features),
separate deﬁned contribution plans may
use the same basic plan document and
separate deﬁned beneﬁt plans may use the
same basic plan document. Accordingly,
separate deﬁned contribution adoption
agreements may be associated with the
same deﬁned contribution basic plan document. For example, a sponsor may submit one deﬁned contribution basic plan
document with adoption agreements for a
money purchase plan, a target beneﬁt
plan, and a proﬁt-sharing plan. The
adoption agreement submitted for a deﬁned beneﬁt plan may contain any combination of plan provisions providing
integrated (that is, that provide for permitted disparity) and non-integrated traditional formulas, and a cash balance
formula. A separate adoption agreement
and completed application form must be
submitted with respect to each deﬁned
beneﬁt plan and each deﬁned contribution plan. In the case of a simultaneous
submission of plans using the same basic plan document, only one copy of the
basic plan document should be provided. If the requests are not simultaneous, the sponsor must submit a copy of
the basic plan document with each submission and include a cover letter identifying the original submission. The
number of such basic plan document
must remain the same as in the prior
submission.
.05 Sample Language - A Listing of
Required Modiﬁcations (LRM) containing sample language to be used in drafting
M&P plans is available from the IRS.
Such language is not automatically required in M&P plans but should be used
as a guide in drafting such plans. To expedite the review of their plans, sponsors
are encouraged to use LRM language and
to identify the location of such language
in their plan documents. LRMs may be
downloaded from the Internet at the fol-

Bulletin No. 2015–27

lowing address: http://www.irs.gov/
Retirement-Plans/Listing-of-RequiredModiﬁcations-LRMs
.06 Material Furnished to Adopting
Employers - A sponsor must furnish each
adopting employer with a copy of the approved plan, copies of any subsequent
amendments, and the most recently issued
opinion letter from the IRS.
.07 Timing of Issuance of Opinion Letters - The IRS intends to issue opinion
letters to M&P mass submitters and sponsors (as well as advisory letters to VS
mass submitters and VS practitioners) at
approximately the same time within the
applicable six-year cycle. In the interim,
the IRS will send a notiﬁcation to the
applicable M&P or VS mass submitter,
sponsor, or VS practitioner, if the IRS
determines that the plan appears to be in
full compliance with the applicable qualiﬁcation requirements, based on the submissions and the completed review. Notwithstanding the preceding sentence, this
notiﬁcation only provides assurance that
the IRS believes the plan appears to meet
the applicable qualiﬁcation requirements
under review as of the date of the notiﬁcation. This notiﬁcation is for the convenience of the applicable sponsor, VS practitioner, or mass submitter, but does not
constitute an ofﬁcial opinion or advisory
letter. Until issuance of the ofﬁcial opinion or advisory letter, no reliance exists.
In addition, the IRS reserves the right to
require changes after the notiﬁcation is
sent, in its sole discretion.
SECTION 8. APPROVED PLANS MAINTENANCE OF APPROVED
STATUS
.01 Cumulative List in Six-Year Cycle
- Rev. Proc. 2007– 44 provides that sponsors of pre-approved M&P plans must
submit requests for opinion letters during
the applicable on-cycle submission period
for a six-year cycle in order to continue to
rely on their opinion letters. Sponsors may
apply for opinion letters at other times, but
these ﬁlings will be “off-cycle” ﬁlings as
described in section 21.03 of this revenue
procedure. The IRS will review the plans
that have been submitted during the applicable on-cycle submission period for a
six-year cycle taking into account the applicable Cumulative List that identiﬁes
changes in the qualiﬁcation requirements

29

of the Code as well as items of published
guidance relating to the plan qualiﬁcation
requirements, such as regulations and revenue rulings. However, in order to be
qualiﬁed, a plan must comply in operation
with all relevant qualiﬁcation requirements, not just those on the applicable
Cumulative List.
.02 Subsequent Required Interim
Amendments - Except as otherwise provided in future guidance, in the event of
changes in qualiﬁcation requirements
resulting from future guidance, or other
regulatory or statutory changes that
were not taken into account in issuing
the opinion letter, an approved M&P
plan must be amended by the sponsor
and, if necessary, the employer, to retain
its approved status if any provisions
therein fail to meet the requirements of
law, regulations, or other issuances and
guidelines affecting qualiﬁcation. See
section 5.01 of Rev. Proc. 2007– 44 regarding the time by which such amendments must be adopted. Failure to so
amend could result in the loss of a
plan’s qualiﬁed status. However, this
does not change the applicable on-cycle
submission period for the six-year cycle
when sponsors must request opinion letters, which will still occur only once
every six years. Sponsors are required to
make reasonable and diligent efforts to
ensure that each employer that, to the
best of the sponsor’s knowledge, continues to maintain the plan as a M&P plan
amends its plan when necessary.
The plan must operationally comply
with any changes in qualiﬁcation requirements and the terms of the plan as
ultimately amended to reﬂect the
changes.
.03 Loss of Qualiﬁed Status - If a
sponsor reasonably concludes that an
employer’s M&P plan may no longer be
a qualiﬁed plan and the sponsor does not
or cannot submit a request to correct the
qualiﬁcation failure under EPCRS, it is
incumbent on the sponsor to notify the
employer that the plan may no longer be
qualiﬁed, advise the employer that adverse tax consequences may result from
loss of the plan’s qualiﬁed status, and
inform the employer about the availability of EPCRS. See Rev. Proc. 2013–12.

July 6, 2015

SECTION 9. WITHDRAWAL OF
REQUESTS
.01 Notiﬁcation and Effect - A sponsor
may withdraw its request for an opinion
letter at any time prior to the issuance of
such letter by notifying the IRS in writing
of such withdrawal, at the address provided in section 20.01. The sponsor must
also notify each employer who adopted
the plan that the request has been withdrawn. The plan of such an employer will
become an individually designed plan unless the employer adopts another preapproved plan. See Rev. Proc. 2007– 44.
.02 IRS Retains Information - Even
though a request is withdrawn, the IRS
will retain all correspondence and documents associated with that request and
will not return them to the sponsor. If a
request is withdrawn, the case may be
referred to IRS Employee Plans Examinations, which has audit jurisdiction over the
returns of any employers that have adopted the plan.
SECTION 10. ABANDONED PLANS
.01 Notiﬁcation to the IRS - A sponsor
must notify the IRS in writing if an approved M&P plan is no longer used by
any employer and the sponsor no longer
intends to offer the plan for adoption.
Such written notiﬁcation must be sent to
the address in section 20 and must refer to
the ﬁle folder number appearing on the
latest opinion letter issued.
.02 Notiﬁcation to Employers - A
sponsor that intends to abandon an approved M&P plan that is in use by any
adopting employer must inform each
adopting employer that the form of the
plan has been terminated, and that the
employer’s plan will become an individually designed plan (unless the employer
adopts another pre-approved plan). After
so informing all adopting employers, the
sponsor should notify the IRS in accordance with subsection 10.01 above.
SECTION 11. RECORD KEEPING
REQUIREMENTS
.01 Filing of Opinion Letter Application Constitutes Agreement to Comply
with Record Keeping Requirements - By
submitting an application for an opinion
letter under this revenue procedure (or by

July 6, 2015

having an application ﬁled on its behalf by
a M&P mass submitter), a M&P plan
sponsor agrees, as provided in section
4.07, to comply with the requirements imposed on the sponsor by this revenue procedure, including the record keeping requirements of this section. Failure to
comply with the requirements imposed on
the sponsor by this revenue procedure
may result in the loss of eligibility to
sponsor M&P plans and the revocation of
opinion letters that have been issued to the
sponsor.
.02 Maintenance and Availability of
Records of Adopting Employers - A M&P
plan sponsor must maintain, or have maintained on its behalf, for each of its plans,
a record of the names, business addresses,
and taxpayer identiﬁcation numbers of all
employers that have adopted the plan.
However, a sponsor need not maintain
records with respect to employers that, to
the best of the sponsor’s knowledge,
ceased to maintain the plan as a M&P plan
more than three years earlier. Upon written request, a sponsor must provide to the
IRS a list of such adopting employers that
indicates, to the best of the sponsor’s
knowledge, which of such employers continue to maintain the plan as a M&P plan
and which of such employers have ceased
to maintain the plan as a M&P plan within
the preceding three years.
SECTION 12. M&P MASS
SUBMITTERS
.01 Opinion Letters Issued to M&P
Mass Submitters
(1) The IRS will, upon request by a
M&P mass submitter, issue an opinion
letter as to the acceptability of the form of
the mass submitter’s M&P plan and any
related trust or custodial account documents under §§ 401(a), 403(a),
4975(e)(7), and 501(a). With respect to its
plan, the M&P mass submitter must submit a completed Form 4461 or 4461-A,
and Attachment I to Form 4461 or Attachment I-A to Form 4461-A, as applicable,
to the address in section 20. The ﬁrst page
of the Form 4461 or 4461-A must be
typed. In the case of an initial submission
of a basic plan document under this revenue procedure, the M&P mass submitter’s
application must also be accompanied by
applications for opinion letters ﬁled on
behalf of the requisite number of identical

30

adopters (as determined under section
4.08), unless the M&P mass submitter has
already satisﬁed this requirement in connection with a previous application under
this revenue procedure involving another
basic plan document. Any plan submitted
by a M&P mass submitter must include
language designating the M&P mass submitter as agent for the sponsor for purposes of making plan amendments. The
M&P request must be accompanied by the
required user fee submitted with Form
8717-A, and a signed certiﬁcation that all
necessary amendments required by the
IRS to retain the qualiﬁed status of the
M&P mass submitter’s plan have been
made and communicated to all adopting
sponsors. These forms and attachments
may be downloaded from the Internet at
the following address: http://www.irs.
gov/Retirement-Plans/Preapproved-PlanSubmission-Procedures.
(2) After satisfying the requirement as
to the number of adopting sponsors, the
M&P mass submitter may submit additional applications on behalf of other
sponsors that wish to adopt a word-forword identical plan or a plan that contains
minor modiﬁcations from the mass submitter plan, as provided in section
12.03(2). In addition, the M&P mass submitter may then submit requests for opinion letters under this section 12.01 for its
other plans, regardless of the number of
identical adopters of such other plans.
(3) The IRS intends to issue opinion
letters to M&P mass submitters and sponsors (as well as advisory letters to VS
mass submitters and VS practitioners) at
approximately the same time within the
applicable six-year cycle. In the interim,
the IRS will send a notiﬁcation to the
applicable M&P or VS mass submitter,
sponsor, or VS practitioner, if the IRS
determines that the plan appears to be in
full compliance with the applicable qualiﬁcation requirements based on the submissions and the completed review. Notwithstanding the preceding sentence, this
notiﬁcation only provides assurance that
the IRS believes the plan appears to meet
the applicable qualiﬁcation requirements
under review as of the date of the notiﬁcation. This notiﬁcation is for the convenience of the applicable sponsor, VS practitioner, or mass submitter, but does not
constitute an ofﬁcial opinion or advisory

Bulletin No. 2015–27

letter. Until issuance of the ofﬁcial opinion or advisory letter, no reliance exists.
The IRS reserves the right to require
changes after the notiﬁcation is sent, in its
sole discretion.
.02 Reduced Procedural Requirements
for Sponsors That Use Mass Submitter
Plans - A sponsor of a M&P plan of a
mass submitter must obtain an opinion
letter. For qualiﬁcation, or if the sponsor’s
plan includes modiﬁcations, the M&P
mass submitter must submit on behalf of
the sponsor a completed Form 4461-B
which contains a declaration by the M&P
mass submitter under penalty of perjury
that the sponsor has adopted a M&P plan
that is word-for-word identical to a plan of
the M&P mass submitter, or a M&P plan
that is a minor modiﬁcation of the mass
submitter’s plan. The Form 4461-B must
be typed. If the sponsor is sponsoring a
word-for-word identical plan (including a
ﬂexible plan), a copy of the plan need not
be submitted. If the M&P mass submitter
submits a plan with minor modiﬁcations,
it must comply with the requirements of
section 12.03(2). The request must be accompanied by the required user fee submitted with Form 8717-A and a signed
certiﬁcation that all necessary amendments required by the IRS to retain the
qualiﬁed status of the sponsor’s plan have
been made and communicated to all
adopting employers. Upon receipt of the
request for an opinion letter, the IRS will,
as soon as administratively feasible, issue
an opinion letter with respect to the sponsor’s plan (provided that an opinion letter
has been issued with respect to the M&P
mass submitter’s plan).
.03 Deﬁnitions - (1) Flexible Plan
(a) In general - A “ﬂexible plan” is a
plan submitted by a M&P mass submitter
that contains optional provisions (as deﬁned in (b) below). Sponsors that adopt
the ﬂexible plan may include or delete any
optional provision that is designated as
such in the M&P mass submitter’s plan,
provided the inclusion or deletion of speciﬁc optional provisions conforms to the
M&P mass submitter’s written representation to the IRS concerning the choices
available to sponsors and the coordination
of optional provisions. A M&P mass submitter must bracket and identify the optional provisions when submitting such
plan, and must also provide the IRS a

Bulletin No. 2015–27

written representation describing the
choices available to sponsors and the coordination of optional provisions. Thus,
such a representation must indicate
whether a sponsor’s plan may contain
only one of a certain group of optional
provisions, may contain only a speciﬁc
combination of provisions, or may exclude the provisions entirely. Similarly, if
the inclusion (or deletion) of a speciﬁc
optional provision in a sponsor’s plan will
automatically result in the inclusion (or
deletion) of any other optional provision,
this must be set forth in the M&P mass
submitter’s representation. A ﬂexible plan
may contain only optional provisions that
meet the requirements of (b) below, and
must be drafted so that the qualiﬁcation of
any sponsor’s plan will not be affected by
the inclusion or deletion of optional provisions. For example, if a sponsor’s deﬁned contribution plan contains an optional provision that allows a portion of a
participant’s account to be invested in life
insurance, then under the terms of the
sponsor’s plan, the application of the proceeds must meet the requirements of
§§ 401(a)(11) and 417. A ﬂexible plan
adopted by a sponsor that differs from the
M&P mass submitter plan only because
the sponsor has deleted certain optional
provisions from its plan in conformance
with the M&P mass submitter’s representation described in this paragraph will be
treated as a word-for-word identical plan
to the M&P mass submitter plan. The IRS
encourages M&P mass submitters to limit
the number of optional provisions described in (b)(i) and (ii) below, that they
provide under a ﬂexible plan to six investment provisions and six administrative
provisions.
(b) Optional Provisions - A ﬂexible
plan may contain optional provisions that
comply with the requirements set forth in
this paragraph. The optional provisions
may be arranged as separate optional articles or as separate optional provisions
within a single article. A ﬂexible plan may
also contain optional provisions in the
adoption agreement. For example, if a
M&P mass submitter ﬂexible plan basic
plan document contains an optional provision that would allow for loans under a
sponsor’s M&P plan, the adoption agreement could also include an optional provision that would enable an adopting em-

31

ployer to elect whether loans will be
available under the plan it adopts. If the
sponsor does not wish to enable adopting
employers to make loans available under
their plans, both the basic plan document
optional provision and the adoption agreement optional provision would be deleted
from the sponsor’s M&P plan. Sponsors
may include or delete optional provisions
of M&P mass submitter plans, but once
the sponsor has decided to include an optional provision, it must offer that provision to all adopting employers. Any optional provision that the IRS determines
does not meet the requirements of this
section will have to be changed to a nonoptional provision or deleted from the
M&P mass submitter’s plan. The following is an exclusive list of the allowable
optional provisions that a ﬂexible plan
may contain:
(i) Investment Provisions - A M&P
mass submitter may offer a variety of investment provisions in its plan for sponsors to include or delete from their version
of the plan. However, the plan as adopted
by the sponsor must provide some method
for investing trust assets. Investment provisions are those provisions that describe
the plan’s methods of investing the trust
or custodial funds, including provisions
such as the availability of loans and investments in insurance contracts or other
funding media, and self-directed investments. (Also see sections 4.05 and 5.09
regarding ﬂexibility permitted in trust or
custodial account documents.)
(ii) Administrative Provisions - A
M&P mass submitter may offer a variety
of administrative provisions in its plan for
sponsors to include or delete from their
version of the plan. However, the plan as
adopted by the sponsor must describe how
the plan will be administered. Administrative provisions are those provisions that
describe the administration of the plan,
including the powers, duties, and responsibilities of a plan’s custodian, trustee,
administrator, employer, and other ﬁduciaries. Administrative provisions include
the allocation of responsibilities among
ﬁduciaries, the resignation or replacement
of ﬁduciaries, claims procedures under the
plan, and record-keeping requirements.
However, procedural provisions that are
required for plan qualiﬁcation are not administrative provisions under this section.

July 6, 2015

For example, provisions that provide for
the notice to participants required by
§ 417 and record-keeping required by regulations under §§ 401(k) and (m) are not
administrative provisions for purposes of
this revenue procedure, and may not be
optional provisions.
(iii) Cash or Deferred Arrangement - A
M&P deﬁned contribution mass submitter
(other than an ESOP) may include a selfcontained cash or deferred arrangement
(as deﬁned in § 401(k)) for sponsors to
include or delete.
(c) Addition of Optional Provisions by
the M&P Mass Submitter - A M&P mass
submitter may add additional optional
provisions to its plan after a favorable
opinion letter is issued. Generally, the addition of such optional provisions will not
be treated as a plan amendment for purposes of this revenue procedure, Rev.
Proc 2015– 6, and Rev. Proc. 2015– 8,
2015–1 I.R.B. 235. Accordingly, sponsors
and adopting employers will not be required to obtain new opinion and determination letters in order to preserve reliance.
However, the addition of a cash or deferred arrangement or any change to the
language of the adoption agreement subsequent to the issuance of an opinion letter
will be treated as a plan amendment to the
M&P mass submitter’s plan, and the requirements of subsection .04 of this section 12 will then apply. The M&P mass
submitter must submit such additional optional provisions to the IRS, along with a
completed Form 4461 or 4461-A, as applicable, and a check or money order in
the amount speciﬁed in section 6.04(6) of
Rev. Proc. 2015– 8. No opinion letter will
be issued to the M&P mass submitter or
any adopting sponsor with respect to the
addition of these optional provisions. Instead, a letter will be issued to the M&P
mass submitter notifying it that the addition of such optional provisions will not
affect the status of favorable opinion and
determination letters issued to sponsors
and adopting employers.
(d) Notiﬁcation to Employer - If a
M&P mass submitter adds optional provisions, as described in the preceding paragraph, all adopting sponsors who wish to
include the additional optional provisions
must furnish each adopting employer with
a copy of the plan that includes such additional provisions. If a sponsor decides to

July 6, 2015

include or delete an optional provision
after it initially adopted the plan, it must
also furnish each adopting employer with
a copy of the new plan. However, if such
inclusion or deletion results in a change to
the language of the adoption agreement,
such change will be treated as a plan
amendment and the sponsor and its adopting employers may not continue to rely on
previously issued opinion letters.
(2) Minor Modiﬁcations
(a) A “minor modiﬁcation” is a minor
change to an otherwise word-for-word
identical plan of the M&P mass submitter
that does not require an in-depth technical
review. For example, a change from ﬁveyear 100% vesting to three-year 100%
vesting is a minor modiﬁcation. On the
other hand, a change in the method of
accrual of beneﬁts in a deﬁned beneﬁt
plan would not be considered a minor
modiﬁcation. A minor modiﬁcation must
be submitted by the M&P mass submitter
on behalf of the sponsor that will adopt
the modiﬁed plan. Subject to sections
12.05 and 21.03 and the provisions of this
section, submissions with respect to minor
modiﬁcations will be reviewed on an expedited basis and opinion letters will be
issued to the sponsor as soon as possible.
(b) The IRS reserves the right to determine if such changes are actually minor. If
it is determined that the changes are extensive or require an in-depth technical
review, the plan submitted under the next
paragraph will not be entitled to expedited
review and will otherwise be treated as a
non-mass submitter plan. In the event the
plan is treated as a non-mass submitter
plan, the IRS will notify the M&P mass
submitter in writing of its determination.
Within 30 days following the date of such
communication, either the M&P mass
submitter may revise the plan so that the
modiﬁcations are minor and resubmit the
revised plan, or the sponsor may submit
Form 4461 or 4461–A, whichever is applicable, and an additional user fee in an
amount equal to the difference between a
non-mass submitter plan application user
fee and a minor modiﬁer application user
fee. If, after such 30 day period neither
action has been taken, the application may
be considered withdrawn.
(c) The M&P mass submitter must initially submit the ﬁrst page of the applicable Form 4461–B, as a placeholder. Such

32

form must be typed. When the IRS sends
a notiﬁcation to the applicable sponsor
with respect to the lead plan indicating
that the IRS has determined that the plan
appears to be in full compliance with the
applicable qualiﬁcation requirements, as
described above, the M&P mass submitter
must submit a copy of the M&P mass
submitter’s plan with the modiﬁcations
highlighted, as well as a statement indicating the location and effect of each
change. The M&P mass submitter must
certify under penalty of perjury that the
plan of the sponsor, except for the delineated changes, is word-for-word identical
to the plan for which the M&P mass submitter received a favorable opinion letter.
If a M&P mass submitter fails to identify
each modiﬁcation, such failure will be
considered a material misrepresentation,
and an employer may not rely on any
opinion letter that may be issued with
respect to the plan. If a M&P mass submitter repeatedly fails to identify such
modiﬁcations, the IRS may deny permission to that M&P mass submitter to submit additional modiﬁcations.
.04 Amendments of M&P Mass Submitter Plans - If a M&P mass submitter
amends the plan, the mass submitter must
provide copies of the amendment to sponsors who have adopted the plan. Any
sponsor that does not wish to make the
amendments made by a M&P mass submitter may switch to another M&P mass
submitter or may submit an application
for an opinion letter on its own behalf
during the next applicable on-cycle submission period for pre-approved plans. A
M&P mass submitter should not submit
an application for an opinion letter with
respect to plan amendments. The IRS will
not issue an opinion letter with respect to
amendments made between the applicable
on-cycle submission periods, and the
M&P mass submitter should submit a restated plan, including the amendments,
during the next six-year cycle.
.05 Expeditious Processing Accorded
M&P Mass Submitter Plans - Subject to
section 21.03, all M&P mass submitter
plans, including the adoption of approved
M&P mass submitter plans by sponsors,
will be accorded more expeditious processing than M&P plans submitted by
non-mass submitters, to the extent administratively feasible.

Bulletin No. 2015–27

PART II – VOLUME SUBMITTER
PLANS
SECTION 13. DEFINITIONS
.01 Volume Submitter Plan - A “volume submitter plan” or “VS plan” refers
to either a specimen plan of a VS practitioner or a plan of a client of the VS
practitioner that is substantially similar to
the VS practitioner’s approved specimen
plan.
.02 Specimen Plan - A “specimen
plan” is a sample plan of a VS practitioner
(rather than the actual plan of an employer). A specimen plan may be a single
document that does not use an adoption
agreement, or it may consist of a basic
plan document and an adoption agreement, within the meaning of section 4.03
and section 4.04, respectively.
.03 Advisory Letter - An “advisory letter” is a written statement issued by the
IRS to a VS practitioner or VS mass submitter as to the acceptability of the form
of a specimen plan and any related trust or
custodial account documents under
§ 401(a), 403(a), or 4975(e)(7).
.04 Trust or Custodial Account Document - A “trust or custodial account document” is the portion of a VS plan that
contains the trust agreement or custodial
account agreement and includes provisions covering such matters as the powers
and duties of trustees, investment authority, and the kinds of investments that may
be made. Under this revenue procedure,
each VS plan may be submitted with up to
10 separate trust or custodial account documents for approval, per specimen document, without an additional user fee. If
more than 10 trust documents are submitted, a user fee is due for each trust in
excess of 10.
.05 VS Practitioner - A VS practitioner
is any person that (1) has an established
place of business in the United States
where it is accessible during every business day and (2) represents to the IRS that
it has at least 15 employer-clients each of
which is reasonably expected to adopt a
plan that is substantially similar to the VS
practitioner’s specimen plan.
A VS practitioner may submit more
than one specimen plan for an advisory
letter provided it represents to the IRS that
it has at least 30 employer-clients in the
aggregate, each of which is reasonably

Bulletin No. 2015–27

expected to adopt at least one of the practitioner’s specimen plans on a substantially similar basis. The IRS reserves the
right at any time to request from the VS
practitioner a list of the employers that
have adopted or are expected to adopt the
VS practitioner’s specimen plans, including the employers’ business addresses and
employer identiﬁcation numbers. Notwithstanding the preceding two sentences,
any person that has an established place of
business in the United States where it is
accessible during every business day may
sponsor a specimen plan as a word-forword identical adopter of a specimen plan
of a VS mass submitter, regardless of the
number of employers that are expected to
adopt the plan.
By submitting an application for an
advisory letter for a specimen plan under
this revenue procedure (or by having an
application ﬁled on its behalf by a VS
mass submitter), a person represents to the
IRS that it is a VS practitioner, as deﬁned
in this section 13.05. If the VS practitioner’s specimen plan permits the VS practitioner to amend the VS plan on behalf of
adopting employers, as permitted by section 15, the VS practitioner also agrees to
comply with any requirements imposed
on sponsors of M&P plans by this procedure. Failure to comply with these requirements may result in the loss of eligibility to sponsor specimen plans and the
revocation of advisory letters that have
been issued to the VS practitioner.
.06 VS Mass Submitter - A VS mass
submitter is any person that (1) has an
established place of business in the United
States where it is accessible during every
business day and (2) submits advisory letter applications on behalf of at least 30
unafﬁliated VS practitioners each of
which is sponsoring on a word-for-word
identical basis the same specimen plan.
For purposes of determining whether 30
unafﬁliated VS practitioners sponsor on a
word-for word basis the same specimen
plan, the VS mass submitter is treated as
one of the 30 unafﬁliated VS practitioners.
For purposes of this deﬁnition, afﬁliation
is determined under § 414(b) and (c). Additionally, the following will be considered to be afﬁliated: any law ﬁrm, accounting ﬁrm, consulting ﬁrm, etc., with
its partners, members, associates, etc. A
VS mass submitter will be treated as a VS

33

mass submitter with respect to all of its
specimen plans provided the 30 unafﬁliated VS practitioner requirement is met
with respect to at least one of its specimen
plans.
.07 ESOP Deﬁnitions
(1) ESOP - An “ESOP” is an employee
stock ownership plan within the meaning
of § 4975(e)(7).
(2) Exempt Loan - An “exempt loan” is
a loan described in § 4975(d)(3) that
meets the requirements for exemption
from the excise tax imposed under
§ 4975(a) and (b) described in § 54.4975–
7(b).
(3) Readily Tradable Employer Securities - “Readily tradable employer securities” are publicly traded securities as deﬁned in § 1.401(a)(35)–1(f)(5).
.08 Hybrid Plan Deﬁnitions
(1) Cash Balance Formula - A “cash
balance formula” is a statutory hybrid
beneﬁt
formula
as
deﬁned
in
§ 1.411(a)(13–1(d)(4) used to determine
all or any part of a participant’s accumulated beneﬁt, under which the accumulated beneﬁt provided under the formula is
expressed as the current balance of a hypothetical account maintained for the participant. The hypothetical account balance
generally consists of principal credits and
hypothetical interest credits.
(2) Cash Balance Plan - A “cash balance plan” is a deﬁned beneﬁt plan that
includes a cash balance formula.
(3) Conversion Amendment - A “conversion amendment” is deﬁned in
§ 1.411(b)(5)–1(c)(4), as (i) an amendment that reduces or eliminates the beneﬁts that, but for the amendment, a participant would have earned after the
effective date of the amendment under a
beneﬁt formula that is not a statutory hybrid beneﬁt formula, and (ii) with respect
to which, after the effective date of the
amendment, all or a portion of the participant’s beneﬁt accruals under the plan are
determined under a statutory hybrid beneﬁt formula.
(4) Hypothetical Interest - “Hypothetical interest” is an interest credit as deﬁned
in § 1.411(b)(5)–1(d)(1)(ii)(A), which refers to an adjustment to a participant’s
hypothetical account balance for a period
that is not conditioned on service and that
is determined by applying a rate of interest or rate of return to the participant’s

July 6, 2015

hypothetical account balance as of the beginning of the period.
(5) Offset - An “offset” is the reduction
of beneﬁts under an employer’s deﬁned
beneﬁt plan by an amount attributable to
the beneﬁts payable under another plan of
the employer.
(6) Principal Credit - “Principal credit”
is deﬁned in § 1.411(b)(5)–1(d)(1)(ii)(D)
as any increase in a participant’s hypothetical account balance that is not hypothetical interest.
(7) Statutory Hybrid Plan - A “statutory hybrid plan” is a deﬁned beneﬁt plan
that contains a statutory hybrid beneﬁt
formula.
(8) Variable Annuity Plan - A “variable annuity plan” is any deﬁned beneﬁt
plan that includes a variable annuity beneﬁt formula as deﬁned in § 1.411(a)(13)–
1(d)(6).
SECTION 14. PROVISIONS
REQUIRED IN EVERY VS PLAN
.01 Anti-Cutback Provisions - VS
plans must speciﬁcally provide for the
protection provided under § 411(a)(10)
and (d)(6), to the extent required, in the
event that the employer amends the plan
in any manner. If a VS plan authorizes the
VS practitioner to amend the plan on behalf of employers, the VS practitioner
may not amend the plan in a manner that
could result in the elimination of a beneﬁt
to the extent the beneﬁt is required to be
protected under § 411(d)(6) with respect
to the plan of any adopting employer,
unless permitted to do so under
§§ 1.401(a)– 4 and 1.411(d)– 4. In addition, a VS plan that is not exempt from the
top-heavy requirements and that does not
contain vesting rules for all years that are
at least as favorable to participants as
those provided in § 416(b), must speciﬁcally provide that any vesting that occurs
while the plan is top-heavy will not be cut
back if the plan ceases to be top-heavy.
See § 411(d)(6)(C) and § 1.411(d)– 4(d)
for certain exceptions applicable to
ESOPs.
.02 Deﬁnition of Employee under
§ 414(b), (c), (m), (n), and (o) - Each VS
plan must include a deﬁnition of employee as any employee of the employer
maintaining the plan or any other employer aggregated under § 414(b), (c),
(m), or (o) and the regulations thereunder.

July 6, 2015

The deﬁnition of employee shall also include any individual treated under
§ 414(n) or under the regulations under
§ 414(o) as an employee of any employer
described in the preceding sentence.
With respect to ESOPs, employees
who meet this deﬁnition cannot participate in the ESOP unless they are employed by the employer corporation who
issues the stock held by the ESOP or by
any corporation that is a member of the
same controlled group of corporations as
the employer corporation (within the
meaning of § 1563(a), as modiﬁed by
§ 409(l)(4)(B) and (C) and as determined
without regard to §§ 1563(a)(4) and
1563(e)(3)(C)). With respect to ESOPs,
for all other purposes, including nondiscrimination testing and coverage, employees who meet the deﬁnition of employee
in the immediately preceding paragraph
are treated as employees.
.03 Deﬁnition of Service under
§ 414(b), (c), (m), (n), and (o) - Each VS
plan must speciﬁcally credit all service
with any employer aggregated under
§ 414(b), (c), (m), or (o) and the regulations thereunder as service with the employer maintaining the plan. In addition,
in the case of an individual treated under
§ 414(n) (or under regulations under
§ 414(o)) as the employee of any employer described in the previous sentence,
service with such employer must be credited to such individual.
.04 Adopting Employer Modiﬁcation
of Trust or Custodial Account Document An employer will not be considered to
have an individually designed plan merely
because the employer amends administrative provisions of the trust or custodial
account document (such as provisions relating to investments and the duties of
trustees), provided the amended provisions are not in conﬂict with any other
provision of the plan and do not cause the
plan to fail to qualify under § 401(a). For
this purpose, an amendment includes
modiﬁcation of the language of the trust
or custodial account document and the
addition of overriding language.
.05 Other Provisions Required in
Adoption Agreements - Each VS plan
must contain a dated employer signature
line. The employer must sign the adoption
agreement when it ﬁrst adopts the plan
and must complete and sign a new adop-

34

tion agreement if the plan has been restated. In addition, the employer must
complete a new signature page if it modiﬁes any prior elections or makes new
elections in its adoption agreement. The
signature requirement may be satisﬁed by
an electronic signature that reliably authenticates and veriﬁes the adoption of the
adoption agreement, or restatement,
amendment or modiﬁcation thereof, by
the employer. The adoption agreement
must state that it is to be used with one
and only one specimen plan. In addition,
the adoption agreement must contain a
cautionary statement to the effect that the
failure to properly ﬁll out the adoption
agreement may result in failure of the plan
to qualify under § 401(a) or 403(a). If the
VS practitioner has the authority to amend
the plan on behalf of employers who have
adopted the plan, as described under section 15.03 below, the adoption agreement
must also contain a statement that provides that the VS practitioner will inform
the adopting employer of any amendments made to the plan or of the discontinuance or abandonment of the plan.
.06 VS Practitioner Telephone Numbers - VS plan adoption agreements must
include the VS practitioner’s name, address, and telephone number (or a space
for the address and telephone number of
the VS practitioner’s authorized representative) for inquiries by adopting employers regarding the adoption of the plan, the
meaning of plan provisions, or the effect
of the advisory letter.
.07 Additional Provisions Required for
ESOPs -, ESOPs will not receive favorable advisory letters under this revenue
procedure unless, in addition to complying with the requirements of subsections
14.01 through 14.06 of this revenue procedure, they include the following:
(1) A statement that the plan is an
employee stock ownership plan within the
meaning of § 4975(e)(7) and is designed
to invest primarily in employer stock;
(2) A provision that deﬁnes employer
stock in accordance with § 409(l)(1) or
(2);
(3) Provisions that meet the diversiﬁcation requirements of § 401(a)(28)(B),
or, if applicable, § 401(a)(35);
(4) Provisions that meet the valuation,
independent appraiser, and allocation of
earnings requirements set forth in

Bulletin No. 2015–27

§ 401(a)(28)(C), § 54.4975–11(d)(5), and
Rev. Rul. 80 –155, 1980 –1 C.B. 84;
(5) Provisions that meet the voting requirements of § 409(e);
(6) Provisions that meet the right to
demand and put options requirements of
§ 409(h), to the extent applicable;
(7) Provisions that meet the distribution requirements of § 409(o);
(8) Provisions that set forth the requirements relating to exempt loans as described in § 4975(d)(3), § 54.4975–7, and
§ 54.4975–11(c);
(9) Provisions that meet the ESOP annual addition requirements described in
§ 1.415(c)–1(f), and if the ESOP is maintained by an employer that is a C corporation, the requirements described in
§ 415(c)(6);
(10) If an ESOP provides for forfeitures, provisions that meet the forfeiture
requirement of § 54.4975–11(d)(4);
(11) If an ESOP holds employer securities consisting of stock in an S corporation, provisions that meet the requirements of § 409(p) and § 1.409(p)–1;
(12) If an ESOP is maintained by employers that are C corporations, provisions
that meet the requirements of § 409(n);
and
(13) Provisions that identify the plan
sponsor as being either a C corporation or
an S corporation.
.08 Additional Provisions Required for
Cash Balance Plans - Plans containing
cash balance features will not receive favorable advisory letters unless, in addition
to complying with the requirements of
subsections 14.01 through 14.06 of this
revenue procedure, they meet the following requirements:
(1) Prior beneﬁt structures protected All cash balance plans must ensure compliance with the anti-cutback provisions
of § 411(d)(6). To receive a favorable
advisory letter under this revenue procedure, a cash balance plan must provide
that, at all times, prior accrued beneﬁts
(and other beneﬁts protected under
§ 411(d)(6)(B)) are protected. A cash balance plan that was the subject of a conversion amendment must comply with the
provisions of § 411(b)(5)(B)(iii) and must
comply with § 1.411(b)(5)–1(c). However, a favorable advisory letter will not
be issued for a plan that uses an opening
hypothetical account balance as described

Bulletin No. 2015–27

in § 1.411(b)(5)–1(c)(3) to meet the requirements of § 1.411(b)(5)–1(c).
(2) Step-rate structure of principal
credits - Cash balance plans that contain
any structure of principal credits that increase with age, service, or other measure
during a participant’s employment must
be deﬁnitely determinable, operationally
nondiscriminatory, and at all times in
compliance with the “133 1/3 % rule” of
§ 411(b)(1)(B) and the regulations thereunder. Employers may not rely on the
advisory letter with respect to the requirements of § 411(b)(1) for increasing principal credit schedules that are created by
adopting employers by completing blanks
in the plan formula, but may rely on the
advisory letter with respect to the requirements of § 411(b)(1) for increasing principal credit schedules speciﬁed in the
specimen plan.
SECTION 15. APPROVED PLANS MAINTENANCE OF APPROVED
STATUS
.01 Cumulative List in Six-Year Cycle
- Rev. Proc. 2007– 44 provides that VS
practitioners of pre-approved VS plans
must submit requests for advisory letters
during the applicable on-cycle submission
period for a six-year cycle in order to
continue to rely on their advisory letters.
VS practitioners may apply for advisory
letters at other times, but these ﬁlings will
be “off-cycle” ﬁlings, as described in section 21.03 of this revenue procedure. The
IRS will review the plans that have been
submitted during the applicable on-cycle
submission period for a six-year cycle taking into account the applicable Cumulative List that identiﬁes changes in the
qualiﬁcation requirements of the Code as
well as items of published guidance relating to the plan qualiﬁcation requirements,
such as regulations and revenue rulings.
However, in order to be qualiﬁed, a plan
must comply in operation with all relevant
qualiﬁcation requirements, not just those
on the applicable Cumulative List.
.02 Subsequent Required Interim
Amendments - Except as otherwise provided in future guidance, in the event of
changes in qualiﬁcation requirements resulting from future guidance, or other regulatory or statutory changes that were not
taken into account in issuing the advisory
letter, an approved VS plan must be

35

amended by the VS practitioner and, if
necessary, the employer, to retain its approved status if any provisions therein fail
to meet the requirements of law, regulations, or other issuances and guidelines
affecting qualiﬁcation. See section 5.01 of
Rev. Proc. 2007– 44 regarding the time by
which such amendments must be adopted.
Failure to so amend could result in the
loss of a plan’s qualiﬁed status. This does
not change the applicable on-cycle submission period for the six-year cycle when
VS practitioners must request advisory
letters, which will still occur only once
every six years. VS practitioners are required to make reasonable and diligent
efforts to ensure that each employer that,
to the best of the VS practitioner’s knowledge, continues to maintain the plan as a
VS plan amends its plan when necessary.
The plan must operationally comply
with any changes in qualiﬁcation requirements and the terms of the plan as ultimately amended to reﬂect the changes.
.03 Option to Permit VS Practitioner
Amendment - A VS practitioner may
amend its specimen plan. Ordinarily the
amendments will apply only to the plans
of employers who adopt the plan after it
has been amended and will not apply to
plans of employers who adopted the plan
prior to the amendment. However, a VS
plan may, but is not required to, include a
provision that authorizes the VS practitioner to amend the plan on behalf of employers who have previously adopted the
plan, so that changes in the Code, regulations, revenue rulings, other statements
published by the IRS (including model
and sample amendments that speciﬁcally
provide that their adoption will not cause
such plan to be individually designed), or
corrections of prior approved plans may
be applied to all employers who have adopted the plan. The provision for VS practitioner amendment must provide that, for
purposes of reliance on the advisory letter,
the VS practitioner will no longer have the
authority to amend the plan on behalf of
the adopting employer as of the date of the
adoption of an employer amendment to
the plan to incorporate a type of plan not
allowable in the VS program described in
section 16.03 (e.g., the addition enabling
language for multiemployer plan features)
or as of the date the IRS notiﬁes the VS
practitioner that the plan is being treated

July 6, 2015

as an individually designed plan pursuant
to section 24.03.
.04 Responsibilities of VS Practitioner
- A VS practitioner must comply with the
requirements in this section 15 as well as
sections 7.06 and 9 through 11 that apply
to M&P sponsors. Thus, the VS practitioner must maintain, or have maintained on
its behalf, a record of the employers that
have adopted the plan, and the VS practitioner must make reasonable and diligent
efforts to ensure that adopting employers
have actually received and are aware of all
plan amendments and that such employers
adopt new documents when necessary.
.05 Loss of Qualiﬁed Status - If a VS
practitioner reasonably concludes that an
employer’s VS plan may no longer be a
qualiﬁed plan and the VS practitioner
does not or cannot submit a request to
correct the qualiﬁcation failure under EPCRS, it is incumbent on the VS practitioner to notify the employer that the plan
may no longer be qualiﬁed, advise the
employer that adverse tax consequences
may result from loss of the plan’s qualiﬁed status, and inform the employer about
the availability of EPCRS. See Rev. Proc.
2013–12.
SECTION 16. ADVISORY LETTERS
- SCOPE
.01 General Limits on Advisory Letters
- Advisory letters will be issued only to
VS practitioners or VS mass submitters.
Advisory letters constitute determinations
as to the qualiﬁcation of the plans as adopted by particular employers only under
the circumstances, and to the extent, described in section 19. Advisory letters do
not constitute rulings or determinations as
to the exempt status of related trusts or
custodial accounts.
.02 Nonapplicability of this Revenue
Procedure to section 403(b) Plans – Advisory letters will not be issued under this
revenue procedure for plans intended to
meet the requirements under § 403(b). See
Rev. Proc. 2013–22, 2013–18 I.R.B. 985,
as modiﬁed by Rev. Proc. 2014 –28 and
Rev. Proc. 2015–22) for administrative
procedures for the purpose of seeking
opinion/advisory letters for § 403(b) arrangements.
.03 Areas Not Covered by Advisory
Letters - Advisory letters will not be issued for:

July 6, 2015

(1) Multiemployer plans;
(2) Union plans (this does not preclude
a VS plan from covering employees of the
employer who are included in a unit covered by a collective bargaining agreement
or the adoption of a VS plan pursuant to
such agreement as a single-employer plan
that covers only employees of the employer);
(3) Stock bonus plans other than
ESOPs;
(4) ESOPs that are a combination of a
stock bonus plan and a money purchase
plan;
(5) ESOPS that provide for the holding
of preferred employer stock, even if such
stock is described in § 409(l)(3);
(6) Pooled fund arrangements contemplated by Rev. Rul. 81–100 (as modiﬁed
by Rev. Rul. 2004 – 67, Rev. Rul. 2011–1,
Notice 2012– 6, and Rev. Rul. 2014 –24);
(7) Statutory hybrid plans with any of
the following features:
(a) Any statutory hybrid beneﬁt formula that is not a cash balance formula,
such as a formula under which beneﬁts are
determined by reference to the current
value of an accumulated percentage of the
participant’s average compensation (a
Pension Equity Plan or “PEP”);
(b) Provisions that allow for hypothetical interest crediting based on rates of
return that are subject to participant
choice, or any rate that does not meet the
requirements of § 1.411(b)(5)–1(d).
(c) Provisions that allow a rate used to
determine hypothetical interest to be
based on actual return on plan assets or a
subset of plan assets (as described in
§ 1.411(b)(5)–1(d)(5)(ii)) or the rate of
return on certain RICs (as described in
§ 1.411(b)(5)–1(d)(5)(iv)).
(d) A conversion amendment, except
for plans providing that, after the effective
date of the conversion amendment, a participant’s accrued beneﬁt is equal to the
sum of accruals under the prior formula
plus the beneﬁt based on the cash balance
formula (“A⫹B Conversion”);
(e) Provisions that use the 3-percent
accrual rule or the fractional accrual rule
under § 1.411(b)(1)(A) or (C) to satisfy
the accrued beneﬁt requirements under
§ 411(b)(1);
(f) Provisions that provide for funding
exclusively through insurance contracts as
described in § 412(e)(3); and

36

(g) Provisions that provide for offsets
of beneﬁts accrued under another plan
(the “offsetting plan”), unless:
(i) The offset is applied on an accumulated basis at the participant’s annuity
starting date, rather than offsetting each
year’s principal credit by that year’s accruals or contributions under the offsetting plan;
(ii) The cash balance formula is treated
as a lump sum-based beneﬁt formula under § 1.411(a)(13)–1(d)(3) only if the offsetting plan is a deﬁned contribution plan
and the offset is applied by subtracting the
account balance under the deﬁned contribution plan from the hypothetical account
balance under the cash balance formula
prior to converting the balance to an annuity beneﬁt;
(iii) The offset meets the safe-harbor
requirements of § 1.401(a)(4)– 8(d) (except that the offset can be computed by
subtracting the account balance under the
offsetting plan from the hypothetical account balance under the cash balance formula), including the requirement that the
offsetting plan cannot be a section 401(k)
plan or a section 401(m) plan;
(iv) For the purpose of determining the
amount of the offset against any deﬁned
beneﬁt plan formula, the offset reﬂects the
value of any distributions from the offsetting plan made prior to the participant’s
annuity starting date under the cash balance plan;
(v) The offset is applied on a uniform
basis for all participants;
(vi) The plan provides a minimum accrued beneﬁt to participants (expressed as
a lifetime annuity commencing at normal
retirement age) of no less than 0.5% of
compensation for each year of credited
service, which is not reduced by the offset
applied to other formulas under the plan;
(vii) Accrued beneﬁts, considered in
conjunction with deﬁned contribution accounts subject to any offset, meet nondiscrimination requirements; and
(viii) The amount of the offset, including any procedures and actuarial assumptions for converting a deﬁned contribution
account balance (under a speciﬁcallynamed deﬁned contribution plan) to an
annuity amount, is deﬁnitely determinable.
(8) Plans described in § 414(k) (relating to a deﬁned beneﬁt plan that provides

Bulletin No. 2015–27

a beneﬁt derived from employer contributions that is based partly on the balance of
the separate account of a participant);
(9) Target beneﬁt plans, other than
plans which, by their terms, satisfy each
of the safe harbor requirements described
in § 1.401(a)(4)– 8(b)(3)(i), as well as the
additional rules in § 1.401(a)(4)–
8(b)(3)(ii) through (vii);
(10) Church plans described in
§ 414(e) that have not made the election
provided by § 410(d);
(11) Governmental deﬁned beneﬁt
plans that include “deferred retirement option plan” (DROP) features, or similar
provisions in which a participant earns
additional beneﬁts for continued employment post-normal retirement age in the
form of credits to a separate account (including a cash balance account or other
arrangement) under the same plan;
(12) Plans under which the § 415 limitations are incorporated by reference;
(13) Plans that incorporate the ADP
test under § 401(k)(3) or the ACP test
under § 401(m)(2) by reference;
(14) Section 401(k) plans that provide
for hardship distributions under circumstances not described in the safe harbor
standards in the regulations under
§ 401(k), unless these distributions are
subject to nondiscriminatory and objective criteria contained in the plan;
(15) Fully-insured § 412(e)(3) plans,
other than non-statutory hybrid plans that
by their terms satisfy the safe harbor in
§ 1.401(a)(4)–3(b)(5);
(16) Plans that fail to contain a provision reﬂecting the requirements of
§ 414(u) (see Rev. Proc. 96 – 49);
(17) Plans that include purported failsafe provisions for § 401(a)(4) or the average beneﬁt test under § 410(b);
(18) Plans that include blanks or ﬁll-in
provisions for the employer to complete,
unless the provisions have parameters that
preclude the employer from completing
the provisions in a manner that could violate the qualiﬁcation requirements;
(19) Plans designed to satisfy the provisions of § 105;
(20) Plans that include § 401(h) accounts;
(21) Eligible combined plans within
the meaning of § 414(x)(2); or
(22) Variable annuity plans and plans
that provide for accruals that are deter-

Bulletin No. 2015–27

mined in whole or in part based on the
value of or rate of return on identiﬁed
assets, including plan assets.
The IRS may, in its discretion, decline
to issue advisory letters for other types of
plans not described in this section 16.03.
SECTION 17. ADVISORY LETTER
APPLICATIONS - INSTRUCTIONS
TO VS PRACTITIONERS
.01 The IRS Issues Advisory Letters The IRS will, upon the request of a VS
practitioner, issue an advisory letter as to
the acceptability of the form of the VS
practitioner’s specimen plan under
§ 401(a), 403(a), or 4975(e)(7).
.02 Procedure for Requesting Advisory
Letters - A request for an advisory letter
relating to a specimen plan must be submitted on the current version of Form
4461, Application for Approval of Master
or Prototype or Volume Submitter Deﬁned
Contribution Plans, Form 4461–A, Application for Approval of Master or Prototype or Volume Submitter Deﬁned Beneﬁt
Plan, or Form 4461–B, Application for
Approval of Master or Prototype or Volume Submitter Plans Mass Submitter
Adopting Sponsor or Practitioner, as appropriate. Additionally, the request must
be accompanied by the required user fee
submitted with Form 8717–A, User Fee
for Employee Plan Opinion and Advisory
Letter Request, a signed certiﬁcation that
all necessary amendments required by the
IRS to retain the qualiﬁed status of the VS
practitioner’s specimen plan have been
made and communicated to all adopting
employers, and Attachment I to Form
4461 or Attachment I-A to Form 4461-A,
as applicable. These forms and attachments may be downloaded from the Internet at the following address: http://www.irs.
gov/Retirement-Plans/Preapproved-PlanSubmission-Procedures. All information
on the ﬁrst page of the application must be
typed. The request must be sent to the
address in section 20.
.03 Separate Specimen Plans and Applications Required for Different Categories of Plans (1) Specimen plans that consist of a
basic plan document and adoption agreement. Except as provided in this section
17.03(1), the rules in section 7.04 (disregarding references therein to standardized and nonstandardized plans) apply

37

to a specimen plan that consists of a
basic plan document and adoption
agreement as if the specimen plan were
a M&P plan.
In addition, the same basic plan document may not be used for both nongovernmental specimen plans (i.e., specimen
plans that are not described in § 414(d))
and governmental specimen plans. However, separate governmental deﬁned contribution specimen plans may have the
same basic plan document and separate
governmental deﬁned beneﬁt specimen
plans may have the same basic plan document.
A separate application form is required
to be submitted for each specimen plan,
that is, for each basic plan document/
adoption agreement combination (if the
specimen plan consists of a basic plan
document and adoption agreement). In the
case of a simultaneous submission of
plans using the same basic plan document,
only one copy of the basic plan document
should be provided. If the requests are not
simultaneous, the sponsor must submit a
copy of the basic plan document with each
submission and include a cover letter
identifying the original submission. The
plan number of such basic plan document
must remain the same as in the prior submission.
(2) Specimen plans that consist of a
single document without an adoption
agreement. A separate specimen plan and
application is required for each of the following categories of specimen plans that
consist of a single document without an
adoption agreement: a proﬁt-sharing plan
(with or without a § 401(k) arrangement),
a money purchase pension plan that is not
a target beneﬁt plan, a target beneﬁt plan,
an ESOP, and a deﬁned beneﬁt plan. In
addition, a separate specimen plan and
application is required for each of the categories of plans in the preceding sentence
if the specimen plan is a governmental
plan. Different categories may not be
combined in a single specimen plan or
application. Thus, for example, separate
specimen plans and application forms
must be submitted for a governmental deﬁned beneﬁt specimen plan that consists
of a single document without an adoption
agreement and a nongovernmental deﬁned
beneﬁt specimen plan that consists of a

July 6, 2015

single document without an adoption
agreement.
.04 Sample Language - A Listing of
Required Modiﬁcations (LRM) containing sample plan language is available
from the IRS. Although the sample language is designed for use in M&P plans,
which use an adoption agreement format,
VS practitioners should refer to the sample language as a guide in drafting VS
plans. To expedite the review of their
plans, VS practitioners are encouraged to
use LRM language if appropriate and to
identify the location of such language in
their plan documents. LRMs may be
downloaded from the Internet at http://
www.irs.gov/Retirement-Plans/Listing-ofRequired-Modiﬁcations-LRMs.
.05 Timing of Issuance of Advisory
Letters - The IRS intends to issue advisory
letters to VS practitioners and VS mass
submitters (as well as opinion letters to
M&P mass submitters and sponsors) at
approximately the same time within the
applicable six-year cycle. In the interim,
the IRS will send a notiﬁcation to the
applicable M&P or VS mass submitter,
sponsor, or VS practitioner if the IRS determines that the plan appears to be in full
compliance with the applicable qualiﬁcation requirements, based on the submissions and the completed review. Notwithstanding the preceding sentence, this
notiﬁcation only provides assurance that
the IRS believes the plan appears to meet
the applicable qualiﬁcation requirements
under review as of the date of the notiﬁcation. This notiﬁcation is for the convenience of the applicable sponsor, VS practitioner, or mass submitter, but does not
constitute an ofﬁcial opinion or advisory
letter. Until issuance of the ofﬁcial opinion or advisory letter no reliance exists.
The IRS reserves the right to require
changes after the notiﬁcation is sent, in its
sole discretion.
SECTION 18. VS MASS
SUBMITTERS
.01 Advisory Letters Issued to VS
Mass Submitters - The IRS will, upon
request by a VS mass submitter issue an
advisory letter as to the acceptability of
the form of the VS mass submitter’s specimen plan under § 401(a), 403(a), or
4975(e)(7). See section 20 for the address
to ﬁle the application. The provisions of

July 6, 2015

section 17.05 on the timing of the issuance
of advisory letters and an interim notiﬁcation by the IRS also apply under this
section.
.02 As noted in section 17.02, a VS
mass submitter’s application must be submitted on the current version of Form
4461 or Form 4461–A and include a completed Attachment I for a deﬁned contribution plan or Attachment I–A for a deﬁned beneﬁt plan. Form(s) 4461–B are
completed for the requisite number of unafﬁliated VS practitioners (as described in
section 13.06) and submitted along with
the mass submitter’s application and must
be signed by both the mass submitter and
the unafﬁliated VS practitioner. Additionally, the VS request must be accompanied
by the required user fee submitted with
Form 8717–A and a signed certiﬁcation
that all necessary amendments required by
the IRS to retain the qualiﬁed status of the
VS practitioner’s specimen plan have
been made and communicated to all
adopting employers. These forms may
be downloaded from the Internet at
the following address: http://www.irs.
gov/Retirement-Plans/Preapproved-PlanSubmission-Procedures. All information
on the ﬁrst page of the application must be
typed. The request must be sent to the
address in section 20.
PART III – ALL PRE-APPROVED
PLANS
SECTION 19. EMPLOYER
RELIANCE
.01 Standardized M&P Plans - An employer adopting a standardized M&P plan
may rely on that plan’s opinion letter,
except as provided in (1) through (3) and
section 19.03 below, if the sponsor of
such plan or plans has a currently valid
favorable opinion letter, the employer has
followed the terms of the plan(s), and the
coverage and contributions or beneﬁts under the plan(s) are not more favorable for
highly compensated employees (as deﬁned in § 414(q)) than for other employees. Opinion letters will not be issued for
standardized M&P Plans that include either an ESOP or a Hybrid Plan formula.
(1) An employer may not rely on an
opinion letter for a standardized M&P
plan with respect to the requirements of
§§ 415 and 416, without obtaining a de-

38

termination letter, if the employer maintains at any time, or has maintained at any
time, another plan, including a standardized plan, that was qualiﬁed or determined
to be qualiﬁed covering some of the same
participants. An employer that adopts a
standardized deﬁned contribution plan
will not be considered to have maintained
another plan merely because the employer
has maintained another deﬁned contribution plan(s), provided such other plan(s)
has been terminated prior to the effective
date of the standardized plan and no annual additions have been credited to the
account of any participant under such
other plan(s) as of any date within a limitation year of the standardized plan. For
this purpose, a plan that has been properly
replaced by the adoption of a standardized
plan is not considered another plan. To be
considered a replacement plan, and thus,
for the employer to be able to rely on the
standardized plan with respect to the requirements of §§ 415 and 416 without
obtaining a determination letter, the plan
that has been replaced and the standardized plan must be of the same type (for
example, both deﬁned beneﬁt plans). An
employer’s addition of language to a standardized M&P plan to satisfy the requirements of §§ 415 and 416, given the required aggregation of plans, would require
submission on Form 5300 in order to preserve reliance on the opinion/advisory letter, pursuant to section 8.02 of Rev. Proc.
2015– 6.
(2) An employer that has adopted a
standardized deﬁned beneﬁt plan may rely
on an opinion letter with respect to the
requirements of § 401(a)(26) only if the
plan satisﬁes the requirements of
§ 401(a)(26) with respect to its prior beneﬁt structure or is deemed to satisfy
§ 401(a)(26) pursuant to regulations thereunder.
(3) An employer that adopts a standardized plan may not rely on an opinion
letter with respect to: (a) whether the timing of any amendment to the plan (or
series of amendments) satisﬁes the nondiscrimination requirements of § 1.401(a)
(4)–5(a), except with respect to plan
amendments granting past service that
meet the safe harbor described in
§ 1.401(a)(4)–5(a)(3) and are not part of a
pattern of amendments that signiﬁcantly
discriminates in favor of highly compen-

Bulletin No. 2015–27

sated employees; or (b) whether the plan
satisﬁes the effective availability requirement of § 1.401(a)(4)– 4(c) with respect to
any beneﬁt, right, or feature. An employer
that adopts a standardized plan as an
amendment to a plan other than a standardized plan may not rely on an opinion
letter with respect to whether a beneﬁt,
right, or feature that is prospectively eliminated satisﬁes the current availability requirements of § 1.401(a)(4)– 4.
.02 Nonstandardized M&P Plans and
Volume Submitter Plans - An employer
adopting a nonstandardized M&P or VS
plan may rely on that plan’s opinion or
advisory letter as described in this section
19 if the employer’s plan is identical to an
approved M&P or specimen plan with a
currently valid favorable opinion or advisory letter, the employer has not amended
the plan other than to choose options provided under the approved plan or to make
amendments as described in section
19.03(3), and the employer has followed
the terms of the plan.
(1) Except as provided in section
19.02(2), (3) and (4), adopting employers
of nonstandardized M&P plans and VS
plans may not rely on a favorable opinion
or advisory letter with respect to the requirements of:
(a) § 401(a)(4), 401(a)(26), 401(l),
410(b), or 414(s); or
(b) if the employer maintains or has
ever maintained another plan covering
some of the same participants, §§ 415 or
416.
For this purpose, whether an employer
maintains or has ever maintained another
plan will be determined using principles
consistent with section 19.01 above.
(2) Adopting employers of nonstandardized M&P plans and VS plans may
rely on the opinion or advisory letter with
respect to the requirements of §§ 410(b)
and 401(a)(26) (other than the
§ 401(a)(26) requirements that apply to a
prior beneﬁt structure) if 100 percent of
all nonexcludable employees beneﬁt under the plan.
(3) Nonstandardized M&P plans must
give adopting employers the option to
elect a safe harbor allocation or beneﬁt
formula and a safe harbor compensation
deﬁnition, unless the only formula under
the plan is a cash balance formula. Adopting employers of nonstandardized M&P

Bulletin No. 2015–27

plans that elect a safe harbor allocation or
beneﬁt formula and a safe harbor compensation deﬁnition may rely on an opinion
letter with respect to the nondiscriminatory
amounts requirement under § 401(a)(4).
Adopting employers of nonstandardized
M&P plans that are § 401(k) and/or
§ 401(m) plans may rely on an opinion
letter with respect to whether the form of
the plan satisﬁes the actual deferral
percentage test of § 401(k)(3) or the
actual contribution percentage test of
§ 401(m)(2) if the employer elects to use
a safe harbor deﬁnition of compensation
in the test. Adopting employers of nonstandardized M&P plans described in
§ 401(k)(11) and/or § 401(m)(12) may
rely on an opinion letter with respect to
whether the form of the plan satisﬁes
these requirements unless the plan provides for the safe harbor contribution to be
made under another plan.
(4) A VS plan may give an adopting
employer the ability to select an allocation
formula for employer nonelective contributions that satisﬁes one of the designbased safe harbors in § 1.401(a)(4)–
2(b)(2) or a beneﬁt formula that satisﬁes
one of the design-based safe harbors under § 1.401(a)(4)–3(b)(3), (4), or (5), and
the ability to select a safe harbor compensation deﬁnition for such formula that satisﬁes § 1.414(s)–1(c). If the plan of the
adopting employer allocates contributions
or provides beneﬁts using one of the designed
based
safe
harbors
in
§ 1.401(a)(4)–2(b)(2) or § 1.401(a)(4)–
3(b)(3), (4), or (5), and the plan deﬁnes
compensation using a deﬁnition that satisﬁes § 1.414(s)–1(c) then the adopting
employer may rely on an advisory letter
with respect to the nondiscriminatory
amounts requirement under § 401(a)(4).
(5) Except as provided in sections
5.16(2) and 14.08(2), adopting employers
of M&P plans and VS plans that contain a
cash balance formula with a structure of
principal credits that increase with age,
service, or other measure during a participant’s employment may not rely on a
favorable opinion or advisory letter with
respect to the requirements of § 411(b)(1).
.03 Other Limitations and Conditions
on Reliance - The following conditions
and limitations apply with respect to both
M&P and VS plans:

39

(1) An adopting employer can rely on a
favorable opinion or advisory letter for a
plan that amends or restates a plan of the
employer only if the plan that is being
amended or restated was qualiﬁed.
(2) An adopting employer has no reliance if the employer’s adoption of the
plan precedes the issuance of an opinion
or advisory letter for the plan.
(3) An adopting employer will not
have reliance on the opinion or advisory
letter if the adoption agreement or other
elective provisions in the plan are not
completed correctly when adopted by the
employer.
(4) An adopting employer may rely on
an opinion or advisory letter only if the
requirements of this section 19 are met,
and the employer’s plan is identical to an
approved M&P or specimen plan with a
currently valid favorable opinion or advisory letter; that is, the employer has not
added any terms to the approved M&P or
VS plan and has not modiﬁed or deleted
any terms of the plan other than choosing
options permitted under the plan or, in the
case of a M&P plan, amended the document as permitted under section 5.06 or
5.09 or, in the case of a VS plan, modiﬁed
the document as permitted under sections
14 and 15. Thus, for example, in the case
of a VS plan, the employer’s plan must be
identical to the approved specimen plan
except as the result of the employer’s selection among options that are permitted
under the terms of the approved specimen
plan and modiﬁcations permitted under
sections 14 and 15.
For purposes of this section 19.03(3), a
plan will not fail to be identical to an
approved M&P or specimen plan if:
(a) The employer modiﬁes or amends
the plan to add or change a provision
and/or to specify or change the effective
date of a provision, provided the employer
is permitted to make the modiﬁcation or
amendment under the terms of the approved M&P or specimen plan as well as
under § 401(a) or 403(a), and, except for
the effective date, the provision is identical to a provision in the approved plan;
(b) The employer, sponsor or VS practitioner adopts an interim or discretionary
amendment in accordance with section 21
or Rev. Proc. 2007– 44; or
(c) The employer adopts a model or
sample amendment that the IRS has indi-

July 6, 2015

cated will not cause the plan to be treated
as an individually designed plan.
For example, an employer is not required to restate its M&P or VS plan in
order to change options under the plan or
to specify different effective dates. Also
see section 5.02, which limits an employer’s ability to amend a M&P plan without
causing the plan to be treated as an individually designed plan, and section 5.11,
which requires the employer to complete a
new signature page when the employer
changes options in a M&P adoption
agreement. An adopting employer cannot
rely on an opinion or advisory letter if the
adopting employer has modiﬁed the terms
of the plan’s approved trust in a manner
that would cause the plan to fail to be
qualiﬁed under § 401(a).
(5) An adopting employer of any pension plan in which the normal retirement
age selected by the employer is less than
age 62 will not have reliance on the opinion/advisory letter that such age is reasonably representative of the typical retirement age for the employer’s industry, as
required by § 1.401(a)–1(b)(2).
.04 Reliance Equivalent to Determination Letter - If an employer can rely on a
favorable opinion or advisory letter pursuant to this section, the opinion or advisory letter shall be equivalent to a favorable determination letter. For example, the
favorable opinion or advisory letter shall
be treated as a favorable determination
letter for purposes of section 21 of Rev.
Proc. 2015– 6, regarding the effect of a
determination letter, and section 4.03 of
Rev. Proc. 2013–12, regarding the deﬁnition of “favorable letter” for purposes of
EPCRS. Of course, the extent of the employer’s reliance may be limited, as provided in this section.
SECTION 20. WHERE TO FILE
AND OTHER RULES FOR
APPLICATIONS AND LETTERS
.01 Opinion/advisory Letters - Applications for opinion and advisory letters,
including applications ﬁled by M&P and
VS mass submitters, should be sent to:
Internal Revenue Service
Attn: Pre-Approved Plans Coordinator
Room 5106, Group 7521
P.O. Box 2508
Cincinnati, OH 45201-2508

July 6, 2015

.02 For purposes of .01 and .02 above,
a request shipped by Express Mail or a
delivery service should be sent to the attention of the Pre-Approved Plans Coordinator, to:
Internal Revenue Service
550 Main Street
Room 5106, Group 7521
Cincinnati, OH 45202
.03 Effect of Failure to Disclose Material Fact or to Accurately Provide Information - The IRS may determine, based
on the application, the extent of review of
the pre-approved plan. A failure to disclose a material fact or misrepresentation
of a material fact in the application may
adversely affect the reliance that would
otherwise be obtained through issuance by
the IRS of a favorable opinion or advisory
letter. Similarly, failure to accurately provide any of the information called for on
any form required by this revenue procedure may result in no reliance on the favorable opinion letter or advisory letter.
.04 Additional Information May Be
Requested - The IRS may, at its discretion, require any additional information
that it deems necessary, including a demonstration of how the variables (options or
alternatives) in the M&P or specimen plan
interrelate to satisfy the qualiﬁcation requirements of the Code. If a letter requesting changes to plan documents is sent to
the sponsor or VS practitioner or an authorized representative, the changes must
be received no later than 30 days from the
date of the letter, and the response must
include either a copy of the plan with the
changes highlighted or, if the changes are
not extensive, replacement pages. If the
changes are not received within 30 days,
the application may be considered withdrawn. An extension of the 30-day time
limit will only be granted for good cause.
.05 Inadequate Submissions - The IRS
will return, without further action, plans
that are not in substantial compliance with
the qualiﬁcation requirements of § 401(a),
403(a), or 4975(e)(7), or plans that are so
deﬁcient that they cannot be reviewed in a
reasonable amount of time. A plan may be
considered not to be in substantial compliance if, for example, it omits or merely
incorporates qualiﬁcation requirements by
reference to the applicable Code section.
The IRS will not consider these plans until

40

after they are revised, and they will be
treated as new requests as of the date they
are resubmitted. No additional user fee
will be charged if an inadequate submission is amended to be in substantial compliance and is resubmitted to the IRS
within 30 days following the date the
sponsor or VS practitioner is notiﬁed of
such inadequacy.
.06 Nonidentiﬁcation of Questionable
Issues May Cause Delay - If the plan
document submitted as part of an opinion
or advisory letter request contains a provision that gives rise to an issue for which
contrary published authorities exist, failure to disclose and address signiﬁcant
contrary authorities, as required in section
6.11 of Rev. Proc. 2015– 6, may result in
requests for additional information, which
will delay action on the request.
.07 DOL Participant Loan Regulations
not Addressed by Opinion or Advisory
Letter - Pre-approved plans may adopt
procedures to comply with the Department of Labor’s (DOL) participant loan
regulations under section 408(b)(1) of
ERISA in the plan or in a separate document. The adoption of procedures outside
of the plan document that are intended to
comply with these regulations will not
cause a pre-approved plan to be considered an individually designed plan. The
IRS will not review loan program procedures (whether in the plan or in a separate
written document) to determine whether
they comply with the requirements of the
DOL regulations. Also, any opinion or
advisory letter issued for a pre-approved
plan will not consider whether loan program procedures may, in the operation of
the plan, have an adverse effect on the
qualiﬁed status of the plan. However, the
loan program procedures under the plan
may not be inconsistent with the qualiﬁcation requirements of § 401(a) of the
Code.
.08 Nontransferability of Opinion and
Advisory Letters - An opinion or advisory
letter issued to a sponsor or VS practitioner is not transferable to any other entity.
In the case of a change in entity, a letter
issued to a sponsor or VS practitioner may
not be relied upon by a different entity. If
a different entity assumes sponsorship of
the plan, it must submit an application for
a new letter. Such an application may be
ﬁled at the time of the assumption of

Bulletin No. 2015–27

sponsorship and the ﬁling is not limited to
the applicable on-cycle submission period. The application will be subject to a
reduced user fee as provided in section
6.03(8) or 6.04(4) of Rev. Proc. 2015– 8.
The new letter will recognize the change
in sponsorship and will not modify the
scope of or change the reliance on the
original letter. The IRS may in appropriate
circumstances request documentation of
the assumption of sponsorship prior to
issuing a letter to the new entity. Examples of a change in entity include, but are
not limited to, a change in the employer
identiﬁcation number, the acquisition of a
sponsor by another entity or the sale or
transfer of the stock or assets of the sponsor to another entity.
SECTION 21. AMENDMENTS
.01 Opinion or Advisory Letters for
Sponsor or VS Practitioner Amendments A plan must be operated in accordance
with the written plan document. When
there are changes with respect to plan
qualiﬁcation requirements that will impact
the provisions of the written plan document, the adoption of interim amendments
will generally be required in accordance
with the rules set forth in Rev. Proc.
2007– 44. Interim amendments adopted
by a pre-approved sponsor or VS practitioner on behalf of adopting employers
must be provided to the adopting employers. The date on which each amendment is
adopted by the sponsor or VS practitioner
must be provided with the amendment.
The requirement to provide the date for
each amendment is effective for amendments adopted by the sponsor or VS practitioner on or after October 31, 2011.
However, this does not change the applicable on-cycle submission period for the
six-year cycle when sponsors or VS practitioners must request opinion or advisory
letters, which will still only occur once
every six years. The IRS will entertain a
request for an opinion or advisory letter as
to the acceptability, for purposes of
§ 401(a), 403(a), or 4975(e)(7), of the
form of the plan as restated, during the
applicable on-cycle submission period for
the six-year cycle, as provided in section
8.01 and section 15.01. The sponsor or VS
practitioner must, except as provided in
section 12 or section 18, submit an application under the procedures in section 7 or

Bulletin No. 2015–27

section 17, together with a copy of the
plan’s certiﬁcation regarding interim
amendments, a cover letter summarizing
the changes to the plan that are affected by
such amendment(s), and a copy of the
plan that is being restated. The IRS retains
the right to request and secure from the
sponsor/VS practitioner in appropriate circumstances copies of all interim amendments reﬂected on the applicable Cumulative List that the sponsor / VS
practitioner has adopted on behalf of its
adopting employers.
.02 Loss of Qualiﬁed Status for Certain
Amendments - A pre-approved plan will
not lose its qualiﬁed status merely because
amendments are made that cover any of
the following:
(1) Amendments to conform a plan to
the requirements of section 402(a) of Title
I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), Pub. L. 93–
406, 1974 –3 C.B. 1, relating to named
ﬁduciaries.
(2) Amendments to conform a plan to
the requirements of section 503 of ERISA,
relating to claims procedures.
(3) Amendments to conform the plan
to the requirements of DOL Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2008 –1, which provides guidance on the need for plans to
specify the duties of trustees with respect
to the responsibility for collection of delinquent contributions.
(4) Amendments that adjust the limitations under §§ 415, 402(g), 401(a)(17),
and 414(q)(1)(B) to reﬂect annual cost-ofliving increases, other than amendments
that add automatic cost-of-living adjustment provisions to the plan.
(5) Amendments that reﬂect a change
of a sponsor’s or VS practitioner’s name.
The sponsor or VS practitioner must notify the IRS, in writing, of the change in
name and certify that it still meets the
conditions for sponsorship described in
section 4.07 or 13.05. (Also see section 20
regarding changes in employer identiﬁcation numbers.)
.03 Off-Cycle Filing - An application
for an opinion or advisory letter for a plan
that is word-for-word identical to an approved mass submitter that has a current
advisory or opinion letter will not be
treated as off-cycle merely because it is
submitted after the end of the applicable

41

on-cycle submission period for the sixyear cycle.
Any other application for an opinion or
advisory letter that is submitted after the
applicable on-cycle submission period for
the six-year cycle will be treated as an
off-cycle ﬁling. If such an off-cycle application is submitted before the beginning
of the two year period for employer adoption announced by the IRS for an applicable six-year cycle, the application will not
be reviewed until all on-cycle plans (including applications for determination letters for individually designed plans within
their staggered ﬁve-year cycle) have been
reviewed and processed. However, the
IRS may, in its discretion, determine
whether the processing of off-cycle ﬁlings
may be prioritized and accelerated under
certain circumstances. Off-cycle applications that are submitted during or after the
two-year period will not be accepted.
SECTION 22. REVOCATION
Revocation of Opinion or Advisory
Letter by the IRS - An opinion or advisory
letter found to be in error or not in accord
with the current views of the IRS may be
revoked. Also, see sections 4.07 and
13.05. Except in rare or unusual circumstances, such revocation will not be applied retroactively. See sections 13 and 14
of Rev. Proc. 2015– 4. For this purpose,
opinion and advisory letters will be given
the same effect as rulings. Revocation
may be effected by a notice to the sponsor
or VS practitioner to which the letter was
originally issued, or by publication in the
Internal Revenue Bulletin. The sponsor or
VS practitioner should then notify each
adopting employer of the revocation as
soon as possible. The content of the notiﬁcation to each adopting employer must
explain how the revocation affects any
reliance an adopting employer has on the
applicable advisory or opinion letter and
on any determination letter issued.
SECTION 23. SECOND ON-CYCLE
SUBMISSION PERIOD
(POST–EGTRRA) FOR PREAPPROVED DB PLANS
The second on-cycle submission period (post-EGTRRA) began on February
1, 2013, and was scheduled to end on
January 31, 2014, for applications for

July 6, 2015

opinion and advisory letters for deﬁned
beneﬁt plans that take into account the
changes identiﬁed on the 2012 Cumulative List. Anns. 2014 – 4 and 2014 – 41
extended the deadline to submit on-cycle
applications for opinion and advisory letters for such deﬁned beneﬁt plans to June
30, 2015. Pursuant to this revenue procedure, the deadline to submit on-cycle applications for opinion and advisory letters
for such deﬁned beneﬁt plans is extended
to October 30, 2015. Plans submitted in
accordance with this extension will continue to be reviewed based on the 2012
Cumulative List. However, a plan must
comply in operation with all relevant
qualiﬁcation requirements, not just those
on the 2012 Cumulative List. In addition,
if a plan has not been previously reviewed
for items on earlier cumulative lists, the
plan must still take those items into account. For example, pre-approved deﬁned
beneﬁt plans have not yet been reviewed
for items on the 2007 Cumulative List, so
those items have been retained on the
2012 Cumulative List. The IRS will announce the deadline for timely adoption
by employers when the review of the preapproved documents is close to being
completed.
SECTION 24. REMEDIAL
AMENDMENT PERIOD
.01 Rev. Proc. 2007– 44 contains the
IRS’s procedures for issuing letters for
pre-approved plans under a regular, sixyear remedial amendment cycle and individually designed plans under a staggered
ﬁve-year remedial amendment cycle. It
explains the conditions under which an
adopting employer that timely adopts a
pre-approved plan will be treated as having adopted the plan within the employer’s six-year remedial amendment cycle,
and which Cumulative List will apply in

July 6, 2015

the case of plans that become individually
designed under the circumstances described in section 24.02.
.02 An employer that has adopted a
M&P plan or a VS specimen plan may
have modiﬁed the plan in such a way that
the plan, as adopted by the employer,
would not be considered a M&P plan or a
VS plan. The effect of employer amendments or the adoption of an individually
designed plan on employers eligible for
the six-year remedial amendment cycle is
described in section 19 of Rev. Proc.
2007– 44.
.03 In addition to the provisions described in section 19 of Rev. Proc. 2007–
44, the IRS may in its discretion determine that a plan is an individually
designed plan that will not receive an extended remedial amendment cycle, due to
the nature and extent of the amendments.
SECTION 25. EFFECT ON OTHER
DOCUMENTS
Rev. Proc. 2011– 49 is modiﬁed and
superseded.
SECTION 26. EFFECTIVE DATE
This revenue procedure is effective
June 8, 2015.
SECTION 27. PAPERWORK
REDUCTION ACT
The collection of information contained in this revenue procedure has been
reviewed and approved by the Ofﬁce of
Management and Budget in accordance
with the Paperwork Reduction Act (44
U.S.C. 3507) under control number 15451674.
An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information un-

42

less the collection of information displays
a valid OMB control number.
The collection of information in this
revenue procedure is in sections 5.11,
8.02, 11.02, 12, 14.05, 15.02, 18, and 24.
This information is required to enable the
Commissioner, Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division of the Internal
Revenue IRS to make determinations in
connection with plan qualiﬁcation. This
information will be used to determine
whether a plan is entitled to favorable tax
treatment. The likely respondents are
banks, insurance companies, other ﬁnancial institutions, law, actuarial, and consulting ﬁrms, employee beneﬁt practitioners and employers.
The estimated total annual reporting
and/or recordkeeping burden is 988,290
hours.
The estimated annual burden per respondent/recordkeeper varies from 1/2 to
2,000 hours, depending on individual circumstances, with an estimated average of
3.18 hours. The estimated number of respondents and/or recordkeepers is
310,315.
The estimated frequency of responses
is occasional.
Books or records relating to a collection of information must be retained as
long as their contents may become material in the administration of any internal
revenue law. Generally, tax returns and
tax return information are conﬁdential, as
required by 26 U.S.C. § 6103.
DRAFTING INFORMATION
The principal author of this revenue
procedure is Kathleen Herrmann of the
Ofﬁce of Associate Chief Counsel (Tax
Exempt and Government Entities). For
further information regarding this revenue
procedure, contact Kathleen Herrmann at
(202) 317-6799 (not a toll-free number).

Bulletin No. 2015–27
File Type	application/pdf
File Title	IRB 2015-27 (Rev. July 6, 2015)
Subject	Internal Revenue Bulletin
Author	SE:W:CAR:MP:P:SPA
File Modified	2015-08-01
File Created	2015-08-01