Section 2. The § 401(b) Remedial

Amendment Period

.01 The Uruguay Round Agreements Act, Pub. L. 103–465 (GATT), the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996, Pub. L. 104–188 (SBJPA) (including § 414(u) and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994, Pub. L. 103–353 (USERRA)), and the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, Pub. L. 105–34 (TRA ’97) made a number of changes to the plan qualification requirements. Some of these changes require plans to be amended to retain qualified status. Other changes are optional; that is, employers may choose, but are not required, to amend their plans as a result of these changes.

.02 In Rev. Proc. 97–41, 1997–33 I.R.B. 51, the Service provided a remedial amendment period under § 401(b) that permits plan amendments to be made retroactively effective if they are adopted on or before the last day of the first plan year beginning on or after January 1, 1999, and they amend plan provisions related to GATT and SBJPA qualification changes that are effective before the first day of that plan year (“disqualifying provisions”). (A later date applies in the case of governmental plans, as defined in § 414(d).) Those amendments of disqual

ifying provisions that are required to be made to retain qualified status as a result of GATT and SBJPA qualification changes must be made retroactively effective as of the date on which the qualification change became effective with respect to the plan. Operational compliance prior to actual amendment is required if the qualification change is effective before the first day of the first plan year beginning on or after January 1, 1998. Those amendments of disqualifying provisions that are not required but that amend plan provisions that are integrally related to SBJPA qualification changes may be made retroactively effective as of the first day on which the plan was operated in accordance with the amended plan provision.

.03 Rev. Proc. 98–14, 1998–4 I.R.B. 22, provides that the remedial amendment period for GATT and SBJPA qualification changes also will apply to plan amendments of disqualifying provisions that relate to TRA ’97, conditioned on a plan’s operational compliance with the TRA ’97 plan amendments throughout the remedial amendment period.