SECTION 17. ADVISORY

LETTERS - INSTRUCTIONS TO VS PRACTITIONERS

.01 Employee Plans Rulings and Agreements Issues Advisory Letters - Employee Plans Rulings and Agreements 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) or § 403(a).

.02 Procedure for Requesting Advisory Letters - A request for an advisory letter relating to a specimen plan must be submitted in accordance with the procedures described in this section. Forms 4461, 4461–A, and 4461–B, currently applicable to M&P plans, are being revised to incorporate VS submissions. The Service expects to announce revised procedures for requesting advisory letters that include submission on these forms in the near future. When Forms 4461, 4461–A and 4461–B are published, the following requirements will be incorporated into the instructions to the forms. Until then, VS submissions should include:

(1) a cover letter requesting approval of VS submissions, indicating the type of plan for which approval is requested. The request must include a certification that the VS practitioner meets the requirements, including that it has at least 30 employerclients (or 10, if applicable) each of which is reasonably expected to timely adopt a plan that is substantially similar to the VS practitioner’s specimen plan, as described in section 13.04.

(2) a copy of the specimen plan, including adoption agreement, if applicable, and any related specimen trust instrument;

because the employer has modified the specimen plan), the practitioner’s authority to amend the plan on behalf of the adopting employer is conditioned on the plan being covered by a favorable determination letter.

.06 Responsibilities of Practitioner

• A VS practitioner who is authorized to adopt plan amendments on behalf of adopting employers 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. Failure to do so may result in the loss of eligibility to sponsor VS plans and the revocation of advisory letters that have been issued to the VS practitioner. 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.

.07 Loss of Qualified Status - If a practitioner reasonably concludes that an employer’s VS plan may no longer be a qualified plan and the practitioner does not or cannot submit a request to correct the qualification failure under the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS), it is incumbent on the 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. 2003–44.