SECTION 9. PAYMENT OF FEE

.01 Method of payment . Except as provided in sections 9.04 and 9.05, each request to the Service for a letter ruling, determination letter, opinion letter, or VCP compliance statement, must be accompanied by a check, payable to the United States Treasury, in the appropriate amount. Taxpayers should not send cash.

The check may be converted to an electronic fund transfer. “Electronic fund transfer” is the term used to refer to the process in which the Service electronically instructs the financial institution holding the funds to transfer funds from the account named on the check to the U.S. Treasury account, rather than processing your check. By sending a completed, signed check to the Service, the Service is authorized to copy the check and to use the account information from the check to make an electronic fund transfer from the account for the same amount as the check. If the electronic fund transfer cannot be processed for technical reasons, the Service is authorized to process the copy of the check.

The electronic fund transfer from an account will usually occur within 24 hours, which is faster than a check is normally processed. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure there are sufficient funds available in the checking account when the check is sent to the Service. The check will not be returned from your financial institution.

.02 Transmittal forms . (1) Form 8717, User Fee for Employee Plan Determina- tion Letter Request (or a payment confirmation from pay.gov as described in section 9.04) , Form 8717–A, User Fee for Employee Plan Opinion or Advisory Let- ter Request and Form 8718, User Fee for Exempt Organization Determination Let- ter Request, are intended to be used as attachments to certain determination letter, opinion letter and advisory letter applications. Space is reserved for the attachment of the applicable user fee check. No similar form has been designed to be used in connection with requests for letter rulings. Do not use Form 8717 for VCP submissions. Instead, see paragraph 9.02(2) of this revenue procedure. (Form

8717, User Fee for Employee Plan Deter- mination Letter Request (Rev. August 2014) and Form 8717–A, User Fee for Employee Opinion or Advisory Letter Re- quest (August 2014) are currently being revised. Until such revised forms are published, taxpayers should continue to use the existing forms. However, when completing the forms, taxpayers should refer to the applicable Employee Plans user fees listed in section 6 of this revenue procedure.)

(2) Form 8950, Application for Volun- tary Correction Program (VCP) Submis- sion under the Employee Plans Compli- ance Resolution System (EPCRS) and Form 8951, Compliance Fee for Applica- tion for Voluntary Correction Program (VCP), must be included with VCP submissions. A check for the amount of the user fee must be attached to Form 8951. (Form 8951, Compliance Fee for Applica- tion for Voluntary Correction Program (VCP) (Rev. September 2015) is currently being revised. Until such revised form is published, taxpayers should continue to use the existing form. However, when completing line 7, taxpayers should refer to the fees listed in section 6.08(1) of this revenue procedure.)

.03 Effect of nonpayment or payment of incorrect amount .

Except as provided in Rev. Proc. 2016–6, it will be the general practice of the Service that:

(1) The respective offices within the Service that are responsible for issuing letter ruling or determination letters will exercise discretion in deciding whether to immediately return submissions that are not accompanied by a properly completed check or that are accompanied by a check for less than the correct amount. In those instances where the submission is not immediately returned, the requester will be contacted and given a reasonable amount of time to submit the proper fee. If the proper fee is not received within a reasonable amount of time, the entire submission will then be returned. However, the respective offices of the Service, in their discretion, may defer substantive consideration of a submission until proper payment has been received.

(2) An application for a determination or opinion or advisory letter will not be returned merely because Form 8717,

Form 8717–A or Form 8718 was not attached.

(3) The return of a submission to the requester may adversely affect substantive rights if the submission is not perfected and resubmitted to the Service within 30 days of the date of the cover letter returning the submission. An example of this is where an application for exemption under § 501(c)(3) is submitted before expiration of the period provided by § 1.508–1(a)(2) and is returned because no user fee was attached, the submission will be timely if it is resubmitted before expiration of the period provided by § 1.508–1(a)(2) or within 30 days, whichever is later.

(4) If a check is for more than the correct amount, the submission will be accepted and the amount of the excess payment will be returned to the requester.

(5) If the user fee included with the VCP submission is less than the user fee required under section 6.08, the submission may be returned.

.04 Payment of user fees for Employee Plan Determination applications.

User fees for Employee Plan Determination applications (Form 5300 series only) may be paid by credit or direct debit from a checking or savings account through www.pay.gov . Payment confirmations are provided through the www.pay- .gov portal and must be submitted in lieu of the paper Form 8717. Additional information can be found at Frequently Asked Questions at www.pay.gov .

.05 Payment of user fees for applica- tions of recognition of exemption on Form 1023–EZ. User fees for applications for recognition of exemption on Form 1023–EZ must be paid through www.pay.gov .