SECTION 15. WAIVER OF

MINIMUM FUNDING

Scope .01 This section provides procedures with respect to defined contribution plans for requesting a waiver of the minimum funding standard account and requesting a determination letter on any plan amendment required for the waiver.

Applicability of Rev. Proc. 94–41 .02 The procedures of Rev. Proc. 94–41, 1994–1 C.B. 711, apply to the request for a waiver of the minimum funding requirement.

Waiver and determination letter request submitted to EP Technical

.03 Under this section, both the request for a waiver ruling and the request for a determination letter on the effect of any amendment necessary to satisfy section 3 of Rev. Rul. 78–223, 1978–1 C.B. 125, must be submitted by the taxpayer to EP Technical where it will be treated as a mandatory request for technical advice. The request that is submitted to EP Technical must include the following:

(1) All the procedural requirements described in section 3 of Rev. Proc. 94–41 must be satisfied;

(2) The submission must include a completed Form 5300 and all necessary documents, plan amendments, and information required by the Form 5300 and by this revenue procedure for approval of the plan amendments; and

(3) The request and the applicable user fee (required by Rev. Proc. 2002–8) for both the waiver request and the determination letter request should be sent to:

Internal Revenue Service Tax Exempt and Government Entities

Division Attention: T:EP:RA P.O. Box 27063 McPherson Station Washington, DC 20038

Additional information sent after the initial request should be sent to:

Manager, Actuarial T:EP:RA:T:A Internal Revenue Service 1111 Constitution Ave., NW. Washington, DC 20224

Handling of the request .04 The waiver request will be handled by EP Technical as follows:

(1) The waiver request and supporting documents will be forwarded to Actuarial, T:EP:RA:T:A, which will treat the request as a technical advice on the qualification issue with respect to the plan provisions necessary to satisfy section 3 of Rev. Rul. 78–223.

(2) EP Determinations will be notified of the request. In order not to delay the processing of the request, all materials relating to the determination letter request will be forwarded by EP Technical to EP Determinations for consideration while the technical advice request is completed.

(3) EP Technical will consider both the application for a funding waiver and the proposed plan amendment. If a waiver is to be granted and if EP Technical believes that qualification of the plan is not adversely affected by the plan amendment, the mandatory technical advice memorandum will be issued to EP Determinations. EP Determinations must decide within 10 working days from the date of the technical advice memorandum

January 7, 2002 232 2002–1 I.R.B.

Interested party notice and comment

When waiver request should be submitted