SECTION 9. PAYMENT OF FEE

.01 Method of payment . Each request to the Service for a letter ruling, determination letter, opinion letter, etc. must be accompanied by a check or money order, payable to the United States Treasury, in the appropriate amount. Taxpayers should not send cash.

.02 Transmittal forms . Form 8717, User Fee for Employee Plan Determination Letter Request, and Form 8718, User Fee for Exempt Organization Determination Letter Request, are intended to be used as attachments to determination letter and advisory letter applications. Space is reserved for the attachment of the applicable user fee check or money order. No similar form has been designed to be used in connection with requests for letter rulings, opinion letters, or administrative scrutiny determinations.

.03 Effect of nonpayment or payment of incorrect amount . It will be the general practice of the Service that:

(1) The respective offices within the Service that are responsible for issuing letter rulings, determination letters, etc. will exercise discretion in deciding

whether to immediately return submissions that are not accompanied by a properly completed check or money order or that are accompanied by a check or money order for less than the correct amount. In those instances where the submission is not immediately returned, the requester will be contacted and given a reasonable amount of time to submit the proper fee. If the proper fee is not received within a reasonable amount of time, the entire submission will then be returned. However, the respective offices of the Service, in their discretion, may defer substantive consideration of a submission until proper payment has been received.

(2) An application for a determination letter will not be returned merely because Form 8717 or Form 8718 was not attached.

(3) The return of a submission to the requester may adversely affect substantive rights if the submission is not perfected and resubmitted to the Service within 30 days of the date of the cover letter returning the submission. Examples of this are: (a) where an application for a determination letter is submitted prior to the expiration of the remedial amendment period under § 401(b) and is returned because no user fee was attached, the submission will be timely if it is resubmitted by the expiration of the remedial amendment period or, if later, within 30 days after the application was returned; and (b) where an application for exemption under § 501(c)(3) is submitted before expiration of the period provided by § 1.508–1(a)(2) and is returned because no user fee was attached, the submission will be timely if it is resubmitted before expiration of the period provided by § 1.508–1(a)(2) or within 30 days, whichever is later.

(4) If a check or money order is for more than the correct amount, the submission will be accepted and the amount of the excess payment will be returned to the requester.