SECTION 4. LATE SUBMISSIONS FOR

OPINION OR ADVISORY LETTERS

.01 Applications for opinion or advisory letters submitted by sponsors and practitioners, including word-for-word identical adopters and minor modifier placeholder applications, are generally processed in the order received. If a sponsor or practitioner of an M&P or VS plan with a valid opinion or advisory letter from the immediately preceding six-year cycle (or, for the initial six-year cycle, a valid opinion or advisory letter for GUST ¹ ) submits an application for an opinion or advisory letter after the scheduled due date provided for in section 16 of Rev. Proc. 2007–44 (or in the predecessor procedure,

Rev. Proc. 2005–66, 2005–2 C.B. 509) or in any successor revenue procedure, then the review of the plan will be delayed and may not be completed by the time the review of timely submitted pre-approved plans is completed for other sponsors and practitioners (approximately two years). As a result, an employer adopting such plan may have less than two years to adopt the late submitted pre-approved plan ( i.e., less time than an employer adopting a pre-approved plan that had been submitted by the deadline set forth in section 16 of Rev. Proc. 2007–44).

.02 Any application for an opinion or advisory letter submitted by sponsors and practitioners, including word-for-word identical adopters and minor modifier placeholder applications, should be mailed to the address listed in section 20 of Rev. Proc. 2005–16 and include the appropriate user fee referred to in section 6.05 or 6.06 of Rev. Proc. 2007–8, 2007–1 I.R.B. 230.