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CCH® PENSION AND BENEFITS — 4/16/08

Update of model 402(f) notice included in forthcoming IRS guidance

An update of the model notice under Code Sec. 402(f) is among the items of pending guidance expected from the IRS, according to Martin Pippins, manager EP Technical Guidance and Quality Assurance at the IRS. Pippins spoke at the Great Lakes Employee Benefits Conference, co-sponsored by the IRS and the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries (ASPPA) in Chicago on April 3, 2008.

The model notice provides a safe harbor explanation that plan administrators may provide to recipients of eligible rollover distributions from employer plans in order to satisfy the notice requirements of Code Sec. 402(f) . Pippins said that the updated model notice will incorporate the rollover provisions of Notice 2008-30 (CCH Pension Plan Guide ¶17,138X), which reflect new rules added by the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA; P.L. 109-280).

Pippins said that the IRS has issued 17 of 26 benefit-related guidance items contained in the IRS’s 2007-8 guidance priority list. In addition to the updated 402(f) model notice, Pippins said that the IRS plans to issue:

• proposed regulations under Code Sec. 411(a)(11) , reflecting the PPA requirement that employers notify plan participants of the consequences of failing to defer a distribution;
• guidance on quarterly contributions to defined benefit plans; and
• more proposed rules on cash balance plans, defining “market rate of return.”

On the last item, Pippins said that the IRS is “working on it,” but that issuance is “not imminent.”