SECTION 15. APPROVED PLANS -

MAINTENANCE OF APPROVED STATUS

.01 Cumulative List in Six-Year Cycle

• Rev. Proc. 2007–44 provides that VS practitioners of pre-approved VS plans must submit requests for advisory letters during the applicable on-cycle submission period for a six-year cycle in order to continue to rely on their advisory letters. VS practitioners may apply for advisory letters at other times, but these filings will be “off-cycle” filings, as described in section 21.03 of this revenue procedure. The IRS will review the plans that have been submitted during the applicable on-cycle submission period for a six-year cycle taking into account the applicable Cumulative List that identifies changes in the qualification requirements of the Code as well as items of published guidance relating to the plan qualification requirements, such as regulations and revenue rulings. However, in order to be qualified, a plan must comply in operation with all relevant qualification requirements, not just those on the applicable Cumulative List.

.02 Subsequent Required Interim Amendments - Except as otherwise provided in future guidance, in the event of changes in qualification requirements resulting from future guidance, or other regulatory or statutory changes that were not taken into account in issuing the advisory letter, an approved VS plan must be

amended by the VS practitioner and, if necessary, the employer, to retain its approved status if any provisions therein fail to meet the requirements of law, regulations, or other issuances and guidelines affecting qualification. See section 5.01 of Rev. Proc. 2007–44 regarding the time by which such amendments must be adopted. Failure to so amend could result in the loss of a plan’s qualified status. This does not change the applicable on-cycle submission period for the six-year cycle when VS practitioners must request advisory letters, which will still occur only once every six years. VS practitioners are required to make reasonable and diligent efforts to ensure that each employer that, to the best of the VS practitioner’s knowledge, continues to maintain the plan as a VS plan amends its plan when necessary.

The plan must operationally comply with any changes in qualification requirements and the terms of the plan as ultimately amended to reflect the changes.

.03 Option to Permit VS Practitioner Amendment - A VS practitioner may amend its specimen plan. Ordinarily the amendments will apply only to the plans of employers who adopt the plan after it has been amended and will not apply to plans of employers who adopted the plan prior to the amendment. However, a VS plan may, but is not required to, include a provision that authorizes the VS practitioner to amend the plan on behalf of employers who have previously adopted the plan, so that changes in the Code, regulations, revenue rulings, other statements published by the IRS (including model and sample amendments that specifically provide that their adoption will not cause such plan to be individually designed), or corrections of prior approved plans may be applied to all employers who have adopted the plan. The provision for VS practitioner amendment must provide that, for purposes of reliance on the advisory letter, the VS practitioner will no longer have the authority to amend the plan on behalf of the adopting employer as of the date of the adoption of an employer amendment to the plan to incorporate a type of plan not allowable in the VS program described in section 16.03 (e.g., the addition enabling language for multiemployer plan features) or as of the date the IRS notifies the VS practitioner that the plan is being treated

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as an individually designed plan pursuant to section 24.03.

.04 Responsibilities of VS Practitioner

• A VS practitioner 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. 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.

.05 Loss of Qualified Status - If a VS practitioner reasonably concludes that an employer’s VS plan may no longer be a qualified plan and the VS practitioner does not or cannot submit a request to correct the qualification failure under EPCRS, it is incumbent on the VS 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. 2013–12.