Compliance March 6, 2004

IRS Tinkers with Compliance Resolution Program

June 27, 2002 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Officials at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) continue tinkering with the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS) with the release of minor changes further improving their 2001 system overhaul.

Reported by

Fred Schneyer

In Revenue Procedure 2002-47, the IRS allows plans acquired through an M&A transaction that are slated for a merger into the purchaser’s existing plan, to be brought into compliance under EPCRS.

Those programs with “significant operational compliance failures” now also have more time to fix the problems – until the last day of the first plan year after the M&A transaction.

The anonymous submission, or “John Doe,” component of EPCRS has been extended indefinitely following the December 31, 2002, cutoff set forth in earlier IRS pronouncements.

IRS also included de minimis rules for overpayments and underpayments such that plans do not have to notify a participant or beneficiary in order to collect an overpayment to the participant or beneficiary of $100 or less.

Also, plans do not have to recoup to a participant an underpayment of $50 or less if it is determined that the administrative costs of doing so would exceed the amount of the underpayment, according to the IRS.

Revenue Procedure 2002-47 also expands the range of corrections under various components of EPCRS.