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No Changes in 2018 Required Amendments List for Qualified Retirement Plans, IRS Says

Practice Management

The IRS has issued the required amendments (RA) list for qualified retirement plans for 2018. The IRS made the announcement — and said that there are no entries listing changes in qualification requirements on the 2018 RA List — in Notice 2018-91.

Section 5 of Revenue Procedure 2016-37, 2016-29 I.R.B. 136, says that for individually designed plans, the remedial amendment period for a disqualifying provision arising as a result of a change in qualification requirements generally is extended to the end of the second calendar year that begins after the issuance of the required amendments list in which the change in qualification requirements appears.

In general, an RA list includes statutory and administrative changes in qualification requirements that are first effective during the plan year in which the list is published. RA lists also may include changes in qualification requirements that were first effective in a prior year that were not included on a prior RA list under certain circumstances, such as changes in qualification requirements that were issued or enacted after the prior year’s RA list was prepared. 

However, an RA list does not include guidance issued or legislation enacted after the list has been prepared and also does not include:

  • statutory changes in qualification requirements for which the Treasury Department and the IRS expect to issue guidance (which would be included on an RA list issued in a future year);
  • changes in qualification requirements that permit, but do not require, optional plan provisions; or
  • changes in the tax laws affecting qualified plans that do not change the qualification requirements under Internal Revenue Code Section 401(a), such as changes to the tax treatment of plan distributions, or changes to the funding requirements for qualified plans.

Annual, monthly or other periodic changes to:

  1. the various dollar limits that are adjusted for cost of living increases as provided in § 415(d) or other Code provisions;
  2. the spot segment rates used to determine the applicable interest rate under § 417(e)(3); and
  3. the applicable mortality table under § 417(e)(3), are treated as included on the RA List for the year in which such changes are effective even though they are not directly referenced on that RA List.

The Treasury Department and the IRS anticipate that few plans have language that will need to be amended on account of these changes.