SECTION 4. ELIMINATION OF

FIVE-YEAR REMEDIAL AMENDMENT CYCLE SYSTEM; OTHER MODIFICATIONS

.01 Effective January 1, 2017, the staggered five-year remedial amendment cycle system for individually designed plans is eliminated. As of that date, the IRS will no longer accept determination letter applications based on the five-year remedial amendment cycle system. However, sponsors of Cycle A plans (that is, generally, plan sponsors with employer identification numbers ending in 1 or 6) will continue to be permitted to submit determination letter applications during the period beginning February 1, 2016, and ending January 31, 2017. For this purpose, controlled groups and affiliated service groups that maintain more than one plan are permitted to submit determination letter applications during the Cycle A submission period beginning February 1, 2016, and ending January 31, 2017, provided that a prior Cycle A election with respect to the controlled group or affiliated service group had been made by January 31, 2012 (the last day of the previous Cycle A submission period) and any new member of the controlled group or affiliated service group made a timely election to join the group in accordance with section 10.08(1) of Rev. Proc. 2007–44, if applicable. See section 10.06 of Rev. Proc. 2007–44.

.02 Effective January 1, 2017, plan sponsors of individually designed plans will no longer be required to adopt interim amendments, as required by section 5.04 of Rev. Proc. 2007–44. This change applies with respect to interim amendments that would have had an adoption deadline on or after January 1, 2017, had the interim amendment requirement remained in effect. The interim amendment requirement continues to apply to individually designed plans with respect to interim amendments with an adoption deadline prior to January 1, 2017.

.03 Effective January 1, 2017, a sponsor of an individually designed plan will be permitted to submit a determination letter application for initial plan qualification, for qualification upon termination,

Bulletin No. 2016–29 139 July 18, 2016

and in other circumstances, as described in section 4.03(1), (2), and (3) of this revenue procedure.

(1) Initial plan qualification . An employer may submit a plan for initial plan qualification on a Form 5300 ( Application for Determination for Employee Benefit Plan ) as long as a favorable determination letter has never been issued with respect to the plan. Thus, for example, an employer that maintains a plan for which a determination letter has been issued as a result of filing a Form 5300 or Form 5307 ( Application for Determination for Adopt- ers of Modified Volume Submitter Plans ) is not eligible to submit that plan for a determination letter for initial qualification.

(2) Qualification upon plan termina- tion . An application is filed in connection with plan termination only if it is filed no later than the later of (i) one year from the effective date of the termination, or (ii) one year from the date on which the action terminating the plan is taken. However, in no event may the application be filed later than 12 months from the date of distribution of substantially all plan assets in connection with the plan termination.

(3) Other circumstances . Consideration will be given annually to whether determination letter applications will be accepted for individually designed plans in specified circumstances other than for initial qualification and qualification upon plan termination. Circumstances that will be considered when evaluating whether to accept determination letter applications for certain amended plans or types of amendments in plans in certain future years, include, for example, significant law changes, new approaches to plan design, and the inability of certain types of plans to convert to pre-approved (that is, M&P and VS) plan documents. In addition, the IRS’s current case load and resources available to process determination letter applications will be significant factors in deciding if and when to consider certain amended plans or types of amendments in plans under the determination letter program. Additional situations in which plan sponsors will be permitted to request determination letters will be an

nounced in guidance published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin. Treasury and the IRS intend to request, on a periodic basis, comments on the additional situations in which the submission of a determination letter application may be appropriate. Based on an analysis of the factors listed in this section 4.03(3), including the IRS’s current resources and case load, the only determination letter applications for individually designed plans that will be accepted during calendar year 2017 (other than for Cycle A plans as described in section 4.01) are applications for initial plan qualification and qualification upon plan termination.