IRS Expected to Slash Part of Retirement Plan Determination Letter Process Due to Budget Constraints and Limited Resources

The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) has announced a dramatic change to its long-standing system of reviewing individually designed plans for periodic compliance reviews. Sunita B. Lough, Commissioner of the IRS’s Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division, has informed various professional groups that the determination letter system is expected to change as of 2017 (84 PBD, 5/1/15). In this article, SRZ special counsel Susan E. Bernstein discusses the anticipated changes to the plan determination letter system.