SECTION 4. SCOPE

.01 Requests to which user fees apply . In general, user fees apply to all requests for letter rulings, opinion letters, determination letters, and advisory letters submitted by or on behalf of taxpayers, sponsoring organizations or other entities as described in this revenue procedure. Further, administrative scrutiny determination user fees, described in Rev. Proc. 93–41, are collected through the user fee program described in this revenue procedure. Requests to which a user fee or an administrative scrutiny determination user fee is applicable must be accompanied by the appropriate fee as determined from the fee schedule set forth in section 6 of this revenue procedure. The fee may be refunded in limited circumstances as set forth in section 10.

.02 Requests and other actions that do not require the payment of a user fee. Actions which do not require the payment of a user fee include the following:

(1) Requests for information letters as defined in Rev. Proc. 2014–4, this Bulletin;

(2) Elections pertaining to automatic extensions of time under § 301.9100–1 of the Procedure and Administration regulations;

(3) Use of forms which are not to be filed with the Service. For example, no user fee is required in connection with the use of Form 5305, Traditional Individual Retirement Trust Account, or Form 5305–A, Tradi- tional Individual Retirement Custodial Ac- count, in order to adopt an individual retirement account under § 408(a);

(4) In general, plan amendments whereby sponsors amend their plans by adopting, wordfor-word, the model language contained in a revenue procedure which states that the amendment should not be submitted to the Service and that the Service will not issue new opinion, advisory, ruling or determination let

Sec. 4.02 Bulletin No. 2014–1 243 January 2, 2014

ters for plans that are amended solely to add the model language; and

(5) Change in accounting period or accounting method permitted by a published revenue procedure that permits an automatic change without prior approval of the Commissioner.

.03 Exemptions from the user fee re- quirements . The following exemptions apply to the user fee requirements. These are the only exemptions that apply:

(1) Departments, agencies, or instrumentalities of the United States that certify that they are seeking a letter ruling, determination letter, opinion letter or similar letter on behalf of a program or activity funded by federal appropriations. The fact that a user fee is not charged has no bearing on whether an applicant is treated as an agency or instrumentality of the United States for purposes of any provision of the Code except for § 7528.