The determination letter program (see Practice Note, Revised IRS Determination Letter Program for Qualified Plans).

The Voluntary Correction Program (VCP) submission fees (see Practice Note, Correcting Qualified Plan Errors Under EPCRS: Voluntary Correction with Service Approval Program: VCP).

General information about the types of advice provided by the IRS Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division, Employee Plans Rulings and Agreements Office (Employee Plans Rulings and Agreements).

General procedures for letter ruling and determination letter requests.

Specific procedures for determination letter requests.

The user fees for advice requested from Employee Plans Rulings and Agreements.

Section 3.04 has been revised to provide that a determination letter issued on the qualified status of a plan will include the status for exemption of any related trusts or custodial accounts under Code Section 501(a) (26 U.S.C. § 501(a)), except with respect to a determination letter submitted by an adopting employer of a pre-approved plan regarding the third (and subsequent) six-year remedial amendment cycles applicable to pre-approved plans, as described in Section 12B.

Section 6.02 has been modified to provide a list of applicable documents that should be submitted with determination letter request applications to enable the IRS to more efficiently process them.

Section 8.02 has been modified to:

Section 9.07 has been revised to delete a sentence that provided that a favorable determination letter does not constitute a determination with respect to the federal tax consequences of a lump sum risk transferring program. Under IRS Notice 2019-18, the IRS will no longer include a caveat in a determination letter expressing no opinion regarding the tax consequences of lump sum windows (see Legal Update, IRS Notice 2019-18 Allows for Lump Sum Risk Transferring Programs for Participants in Pay Status).

Section 10.06(2) has been added, and Section 11.01 has been revised, to provide that the IRS will accept determination letter applications for certain individually designed merged plans on an ongoing basis under Rev. Proc. 2019-20 (see Legal Update, IRS Rev. Proc. 2019-20 Expands Determination Letter Program). Section 11.01 has also been revised to provide that the IRS will accept determination letter applications for certain statutory hybrid plans from September 1, 2019, to August 31, 2020.

Section 12 has been reorganized into Section 12A and Section 12B to set forth procedures for an adopting employer of a pre-approved plan or the controlling member of a multiple employer plan to submit an application for a determination letter. Section 12A provides application procedures for defined benefit master and prototype (M&P) and volume submitter (VS) pre-approved plans regarding the second six-year remedial amendment cycle. Section 12B provides application procedures for determination letters regarding the third (and subsequent) six-year remedial amendment cycles.

Section 13 has been revised to provide procedures for an adopting employer of a pre-approved plan that is eligible to use Form 5307 to request a determination letter for the second and the third six-year remedial amendment cycles.

Sections 30.07 and 31.03 have been revised to reflect that VCP user fees must be paid using www.pay.gov and that the IRS no longer accepts paper VCP submissions (see Legal Update, Rev. Proc. 2018-52 Modifies EPCRS By Requiring Use of Pay.gov for VCP Submissions and Fee Payments).

Appendix A, which provides a schedule of user fees, has been modified to delete categories in .03 and .04 that applied to pre-approved plan sponsors and practitioners filing on-cycle during the second six-year remedial amendment cycle because that on-cycle period has expired.

Section 3.06(2) has been revised to replace "Appeals Office" with "Internal Revenue Service Office of Appeals (Independent Office of Appeals)." Corresponding name changes are made throughout Rev. Proc. 2020-4.

Section 31 has been revised to update mailing addresses.