Determination Letter Application Procedures

Summary

This practice note discusses Internal Revenue Service determination letters on the qualified status of pension, profit sharing, stock bonus, annuity, and employee stock ownership plans, and their related trust and custodial accounts. See Rev. Proc. 2025-4, updated annually. Since the elimination of the five-year remedial amendment cycle for determination letters in 2017, determination letter submissions are now generally only accepted for new individually designed plans (or one that has not received a prior determination letter), individually designed plans at the time of their termination, and nonstandardized preapproved plans that are modified from the preapproved form. Rev. Proc. 2016-37 and IRS website. As of September 1, 2019, the IRS began accepting submissions for plans constituting a merger of predecessor plans in the context of a corporate transaction. Rev. Proc. 2019-20; Rev. Proc. 2021-4, § 2.