SECTION 5. GENERAL RULES

.01 The Service will deny a request if the request fails to meet the requirements of this revenue procedure or if the Service determines that a substitute mortality table does not sufficiently reflect the mortality experience of the applicable plan population.

.02 If separate mortality tables are used for disabled individuals pursuant to § 430(h)(3)(D), then those individuals are disregarded for all purposes under this revenue procedure.

.03 A separate request must be made with respect to each plan (the “Plan”), or group of plans that are permissively aggregated (the “Permissive Group”), for which the use of a substitute mortality table or tables is requested. The request must include a complete copy of the Base Tables that will form the basis for the substitute mortality tables that will be used. The request must state the first day of the first plan year for which the substitute mortality tables are to be applicable (the “Requested Effective Plan Year”) and must state the term of years (not more than 10) that the tables are requested to be used.

Each request also must identify the Base Year of the Base Tables. Under § 1.430(h)(3)–2(c)(2)(iii), the base year is the calendar year that contains the day before the midpoint of the Experience Study Period. For example, if an Experience Study Period consists of the 5-consecutive-year period beginning July 1, 2006, and ending June 30, 2011, the midpoint of the Experience Study Period is January 1, 2009, and the Base Year is 2008. If the Experience Study Period reflects different plan years for plans within the Permissive Group as described in subsection 7.03, the midpoint is determined taking into account the total number of years and months reflected in the Experience Study Period.

.04 The request must include a description of the populations within the Plan (or

the Permissive Group) for which the use of substitute mortality tables is requested and a description of the populations, if any, for which the use of substitute mortality tables is not requested.

For example, if the use of substitute mortality tables is requested for nondisabled female individuals (but for no other individuals) where separate mortality tables are used for disabled individuals pursuant to § 430(h)(3)(D), then the population for whom the use of substitute mortality tables is requested would be described as “Nondisabled Females” and the population for whom the use of substitute mortality tables is not requested would be described as “Nondisabled Males.”

Similarly, if the use of substitute mortality tables is requested for male annuitants (but not male nonannuitants) and for females on a combined annuitant/nonannuitant basis, in each case including disabled individuals, then the populations for whom the use of substitute mortality tables is requested would be described as “Male Annuitants” and “Females,” and the population for whom the use of substitute mortality tables is not requested would be described as “Male Nonannuitants.”

.05 The request must include the plan identification information described in Section 6, the credible mortality experience demonstrations described in Section 7, the stability demonstrations described in Section 8, the lack of credible mortality experience demonstrations described in Section 9, the unadjusted mortality experience described in Section 10, the Base Table construction methods as set forth in Section 11 or 12, and the demonstrations with respect to the Base Tables described in Section 13.

.06 If there are other plans subject to § 430 maintained by the applicant, or members of the applicant’s controlled group, that have credible mortality experience for which the use of substitute mortality tables will be requested in a separate request, then the Service will not summarily deny the request for the use of substitute mortality tables on the grounds that all plans with credible mortality experience maintained by the applicant would not be using substitute mortality tables, but only if the applicant requests that the 180-day review period provided under § 430(h)(3)(C)(v)(II) not begin for the initial request and any such separate request

2008–42 I.R.B. 938 October 20, 2008

(4) minimizes the total period of time covered by the overall Experience Study Period by overlapping (to the greatest extent possible) the periods used to analyze experience data for each plan in the Permissive Group.

For example, consider a Permissive Group consisting of two plans, Plan A with a calendar-year plan year and Plan B with a March 1-February 28 plan year, with experience data gathered by plan years for each plan. If the plan sponsor submits a request to use substitute mortality tables for the Permissive Group effective with the plan year beginning January 1, 2009, for Plan A and March 1, 2009, for Plan B, the plan sponsor may use an Experience Study Period ending as early as December 31, 2006, based on the first day of the plan year for Plan A. If the plan sponsor wishes to use the approach provided in this subsection .03 and uses a 4-year period ending on December 31, 2006, to analyze the experience data for Plan A, the period used to analyze the experience data for Plan B must be a 4-year period ending on February 28, 2007. The Experience Study Period in this case would be the period beginning January 1, 2003, and ending February 28, 2007.

.04 In order to demonstrate credible mortality experience, the number of deaths during each year of the Experience Study Period (and, in total, for the entire Experience Study Period) within each population for which the use of substitute mortality tables is requested must be provided in tabular form.