SERVICE OPENS DETERMINATION LETTER PROCESS TO PENSION PLANS SEEKING QUALIFICATION UNDER RECENT LEGISLATION AND NEW PROPOSED REGULATIONS.

Rev. Proc. 88-42

SECTION 1. PURPOSE

01 The purpose of this revenue procedure is to set forth special procedures of the Internal Revenue Service pertaining to the issuance of determination and notification letters on the qualified status of pension, profit-sharing and stock bonus plans under section 401(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. Except in the case of terminating plans, these procedures apply when a plan sponsor requests that the determination of the qualified status of any newly adopted or amended plan reflect consideration of any provision of Title XI of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA '86). Pub. L. 99-514, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986 (OBRA '86), Pub. L. 99-509, or the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 (OBRA '87), Pub. L. 100-203, or of any requirement described in section 4.01 of this revenue procedure (other than a requirement of Rev. Rul. 86-74, 1986-1 C.B. 205), that is effective with respect to the plan for a plan year beginning before January 1, 1989 and for which a deferred date of plan amendment is available.

02 This procedure does not apply to requests for determination letters relating to terminating plans. For rules and procedures relating to the effect of TRA '86 on terminating plans and determination letters issued with respect to such plans, see Notice 87-57, 1987-2 C.B. 368, and Rev. Proc. 88-9, 1988-4 I.R.B. 28. This procedure also does not apply to requests for determination letters by adopters of master or prototype plans.

SEC. 2. BACKGROUND AND GENERAL INFORMATION

01 DETERMINATION AND NOTIFICATION LETTER PROCEDURES.

(1) Rev. Proc. 80-30, 1980-1 C.B. 685, sets for the general procedures of the Service relating to the issuance of determination letters on the qualification of pension, profit-sharing and stock- bonus plans.

(2) Rev. Proc. 84-86, 1984-2 C.B. 787, sets forth the procedures of the Service relating to the issuance of notification and determination letters on the qualification of uniform plans, as defined in section 3 of that revenue procedure.

(3) Rev. Proc. 88-8, 1988-4 I.R.B. 22, establishes a program for the payment of user fees for requests to the Service for determination and notification letters, rulings and similar requests. All determination letter applications postmarked, or if not mailed, received after January 31, 1988 must include remittance of the appropriate user fee. Form 8717 should be submitted with the application for this purpose. Form 8717 may be obtained by calling 1- 800-424-Form (a toll-free call).

02 CHANGES IN PLAN QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS.

(1) Title XI of TRA '86 revised many of the qualification requirements applicable to pension, profit-sharing and stock bonus plans. Some of the revised qualification requirements are effective for plan years beginning after December 31, 1987, some are effective for plan years beginning after December 31, 1988, and others are effective retroactively. Title XVIII of TRA '86 made technical corrections to the Tax Reform Act of 1984 (TRA '84), Pub. L. 98-369, and to the Retirement Equity Act of 1984 (REA), Pub. L. 98-397, that also affect the qualification requirements of plans, and some are effective retroactively.

(2) Subtitle C (Older Americans Pension Benefits) of Title IX of OBRA '86 amended sections 410 and 411 of the Code to prevent the exclusion from participation (on the basis of age) of any employee who has attained a specific age and to prohibit the cessation or reduction of benefit accruals and allocations on account of the attainment of any age. The amendments made by OBRA '86 are generally effective for plan years beginning after December 31, 1987.

(3) Section 9343(c) of OBRA '87 amended section 403(c)(2)(B) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), Pub. L. 93-406, to provide that the prohibition against the diversion of plan assets for purposes other than the exclusive benefit of plan participants and their beneficiaries does not prevent the return to the employer of a contribution conditioned on the initial qualification of a plan if the plan does not qualify initially, the application for determination relating to initial qualification is filed by the due date of the employer's return for the taxable year in which the plan is adopted, and the contribution is returned within one year of the denial of qualification. Prior to this amendment, section 403(c)(2)(B) of ERISA had not limited to return of contributions on denial of qualification to only initial qualification. Pursuant to section 9343(a) of OBRA '87, the Service will apply section 403(c)(2)(B) of ERISA, as amended, in determining whether a plan satisfies the nondiversion requirement of section 401(a)(2) of the Code. The amendment to section 403(c)(2)(B) of ERISA is effective as of December 22, 1987, the date of enactment of OBRA '87.

(4) Section 9346 of OBRA '87 amended section 411(c)(2) of the Code to provide that in determining the portion of a participant's accrued benefit in a defined benefit plan derived from mandatory contributions, a plan must credit such contributions with interest compounded annually at the rate of 120 percent of the Federal mid- term rate (as in effect under section 1274 for the first month of a plan year). This amendment is effective for plan years beginning after December 31, 1987.

(5) Final regulations pertaining to REA (final REA regulations) were published in the Federal Register on August 22, 1988 (T.D. 8219, 53 F.R. 31837). These regulations will relate to the survivor benefit requirements under sections 401(a)(11) and 417 of the Code and other plan qualification requirements under sections 401(a)(13), 410(a)(5), 411(a)(5), 411(a)(6), (7) and (11), 411(d)(4) and 414(p). These regulations also reflect amendments to sections 411(a)(11) and 417 of the Code made by section 1139 of TRA '86, relating to the valuation of certain benefits and the determination of the amount of certain distributions.

(6) Final regulations under sections 401(a)(4) and 411(d)(6) of the Code (Optional Form of Benefit Regulations) were published in the Federal Register on July 11, 1988. These regulations generally provide that optional forms of benefit may not be subject to employer discretion or consent or discriminatory conditions. They also set forth conditions under which benefits may be transferred from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan.

(7) Final regulations under section 401(k) of the Code and proposed regulations under section 401(k) and (m) were published in the Federal Register on August 8, 1988. These regulations relate to qualification requirements that pertain to cash or deferred arrangements and to plans that contain such arrangements and to new nondiscrimination requirements pertaining to employee and matching contributions that were enacted by TRA '86. The Notices of Proposed Rulemaking for the proposed regulations under section 401(k) and (m) provide that taxpayers may rely on the proposed regulations pending the issuance of final regulations and that if future guidance is more restrictive it will be applied without retroactive effect.

(8) Temporary regulations under section 411(q) and (s) of the Code were published in the Federal Register on February 19, 1988, and were amended in conjunction with the proposed section 401(k) and (m) regulations. These temporary regulations relate to the definitions of "highly compensated employee" and "compensation" which were added to the Code by TRA '86.

(9) Proposed regulations under sections 401(a)(9), 410 and 411 of the Code were published in the Federal Register on July 27, 1987 and April 11, 1988, respectively. These proposed regulations relate to required distributions from qualified plan (401(a)(9)) and changes to the minimum participation and vesting rules made by OBRA '86 (410 and 411). The Notices of Proposed Rulemaking for these proposed regulations provide that taxpayers may rely on the proposed regulations pending the issuance of final regulations and that if future guidance is more restrictive it will be applied without retroactive effect.

(10) Rev. Rul. 86-74 modified the guidelines for integrating plans with benefits provided by the Social Security Act (SSA) to reflect changes made by the Social Security Amendments of 1983, Pub. L. 98-21, relating to the inclusion of certain items of deferred compensation in the definition of taxable wages and the change in the age at which unreduced old-age insurance benefits under SSA commence for certain individuals. In the case of plans which were in existance on May 27, 1986 and in compliance with the integration requirements prior to Rev. Rul. 86-74, these modifications were effective as of the first day of the first plan year beginning after December 31, 1986, and amendments to comply with the modifications were required by the end of such plan year. In all other cases, the modifications were effective as of the first day of the first plan year beginning after May 27, 1986. Notice 88-9, 1988 I.R.B. 21, generally extended the time by which plans which were in existence on May 27, 1986 will be required to be amended to comply with the requirements of Rev. Rul. 86-74. See section 2.034, below.

03 DATES OF REQUIRED PLAN AMENDMENT AND SCOPE OF SERVICE DETERMINATIONS.

(1) Section 1140 of TRA '86 provides, in general, that if any provision of subtitles A or C of Title XI of TRA '86 that is effective before 1989 requires an amendment to any plan, such amendment need not be made until the last day of the first plan year beginning after December 31, 1988 ("1140 date") where such amendment is made effective retroactively to the date on which the provision became effective with respect to the plan and where the plan is operated in accordance with the requirements of such provision as of its effective date. The section 1140 deferred date for making required plan amendments provided by TRA '86 also applies to plans that were adopted or put into effect on or after the date of enactment of TRA '86, October 22, 1986.

(2) Section 1.401(b)-1 of the regulations, as amended by T.D. 8217 (August 8, 1988), extended the time by which plans must be amended to comply with provisions of TRA '86 that are effective before the first day of the first plan year beginning after December 31, 1989. Thus, amendments required to comply with TRA '86 need not be made earlier than the end of the remedial amendment period described in regulations section 1.401(b)-1.

(3) Except as indicated below, plan sponsors generally may also defer the adoption of amendments to comply with the other requirements described in section 2.02 until the time described in paragraph (2) provided, in the case of requirements that are effective before the first day of the first plan year beginning after December 31, 1988, conditions similar to those set forth in section 1140 of TRA '86 are satisfied. See, e.g., sections 9204(c) of OBRA '86 and 9346(c) of OBRA '87. Plan sponsors may also defer adopting any plan amendment that may be required to satisfy section 401(a)(2) of the Code as a result of the amendment of section 403(c)(2)(B) of ERISA until the time described in paragraph (2) provided the plan is operated in accordance with the requirements of these sections and such amendment is made retroactive to December 22, 1987. For a more detailed explanation of these provisions, see sections 4.03 and 4.04.

(4) Under the Optional Form of Benefit Regulations, the effective dates and the dates by which plans must be amended to conform to the requirements of the regulations are determined with reference to whether a plan is a new plan or an existing plan within the meaning of the regulations. In the case of new plans, regulations sections 1.401(a)-4 and 1.411(d)-4 are effective January 30, 1986 and August 1, 1986, respectively, and a special delayed date of plan amendment is not available. In the case of existing plans, regulations sections 1.401(a)-4 and 1.411(d)-4 are generally effective as of the first day of the first plan year beginning on or after January 1, 1989, and required amendments may be deferred until the time described in paragraph (2). Under these regulations, a new plan is generally treated as an existing plan with respect to certain benefits where the provisions of the plan fail to satisfy the applicable requirements and the plan received a favorable determination letter that covered such provisions with respect to an application for determination submitted prior to July 11, 1988. Also, the regulations provide that where an existing plan has been amended to add certain benefits or conditions relating to the availability of such benefits, it may be treated as a new plan with respect to such benefits. (See regulations sections 1.401(a)-4 Q & A 5 and 6 and 1.411(d)-4 Q & A 8 and 9 or a more detailed discussion of these rules.)

(5) Notice 88-9, 1988-4 I.R.B. 21, provides that certain plans may also defer the adoption of amendments to comply with Rev. Rul 86- 74 and that, unless requested to do so, the Service will not consider whether the plan satisfies the requirements of Rev. Rul. 86-74. The notice further provides that a special deferred amendment date is not available to plans which were not in existence on May 27, 1986 and that such plans will be reviewed for compliance with the modifications contained in Rev. Rul. 86-74.

(6) Notice 86-13, 1986-2 C.B. 377, provides that, effective with the enactment of TRA '86, October 22, 1986, and until further notice, plans receiving determination and opinion letters from the Service will not be reviewed for the qualification requirements of the Code as amended by TRA '86 (other than the retroactively effective technical corrections in Title XVIII). Except in the case of determination letters issued after August 31, 1987 with respect to terminating plans, determination and opinion letters issued after the enactment of TRA '86 reflect the Service's approval of the plan's language with respect to the qualification requirements of the Code as they were in effect immediately before the enactment of TRA '86 (other than the retroctively effective technical corrections in Title XVIII) unless there is a specific statement to the contrary in the letter.

(7) Notice 87-57, 1987-2 C.B. 368 (as amended by Announcement 88-8, 1988-4 I.R.B. 32) provides that terminating plans must be amended to comply with the qualification requirements of the Code that are in effect at the date of the plan's termination in order for the termination of the plan not to affect its qualified status and that the Service will review such plans for compliance with all requirements in effect with respect to the plan on the date of its termination. Rev. Proc. 88-9, 1988-4 I.R.B. 28, contains special procedures that apply to determination letter applications relating to plans that terminate before the 1140 date.

(8) The effective date of the final REA regulations is the first day of the first plan year beginning on or after January 1, 1989, and amendments to comply with the regulations may be deferred until the time described in paragraph (2). For plan years beginning before 1989, taxpayers may continue to rely on the guidance in Notice 87-28, 1987-1 C.B. 472, regarding compliance with the temporary REA regulations and the retroactive technical corrections in Title XVIII, and Notice 87-20, 1987-1 C.B. 456, regarding compliance with the amendments made by section 1139 of TRA '86 to sections 411(a)(11)(B) and 417(e)(3) of the Code. Until further notice, determination letters may not be relied on with respect to whether the form of a plan satisfies the requirements of the final REA regulations but may be relied on with respect to the temporary REA regulations and the retroactive technical corrections as provided in Notice 87-28.

04 MODEL AMENDMENTS.

(1) Notice 87-2, 1987-1 C.B. 396, provides model amendments that can be adopted by plan sponsors of individually designed plans to conform their plans with those provisions of Title XI of TRA '86 that relate to plan qualification and are effective for plan years beginning before January 1, 1989. See, also, Notice 87-72, 1987-2 C.B. 381, which describes certain permitted modifications to the model amendments contained in Notice 87-2.

(2) Notice 87-21, 1987-1 C.B. 458, describes the new limitations on plan contributions and benefits under section 415 of the Code as amended by TRA '86 and includes in Q & A 10 a simplified model amendment that implements these new limits.

SEC. 3. APPLICABILITY OF PROCEDURE

01 Effective September 12, 1988, plan sponsors of ongoing individually designed pension, profit-sharing and stock bonus plans (including sponsors and adopters of uniform plans described in Rev. Proc. 84-86, 1984-2 C.B. 787 may request that, pursuant to this revenue procedure, determination (and notification) letters issued with respect to new or amended plans reflect consideration of the qualification requirements as they are in effect for plan years beginning before January 1, 1989. Any such request will result in a review of the plan for compliance with all requirements of the laws, regulations, revenue ruling and notices described in section 4.01 that are effective before January 1, 1989. Therefore, except as provided in Notice 88-9 and section 3.04, below, a plan sponsor may not request that a determination reflect consideration of some, but not all, qualification requirements that are effective with respect to a plan before 1980. Requests for determination letters pursuant to this revenue procedure must be made in accordance with the requirements of section 5.

02 A plan which has been amended only by adoption of a model amendment as provided in Notice 87-2, or by the amendment provided in Q & A 10 of Notice 87-21, will not be issued a determination letter pursuant to this revenue procedure with respect to the adoption of such amendment, because such amendments will not adversely affect the qualified status of a plan.

03 Determination letter applications relating to ongoing plans that are not submitted pursuant to section 5 of this revenue procedure will be reviewed as described in Notices 86-13 and 88-9 and favorable determination letters issued as a result of such an application may be relied on the the extent described therein and in Notice 87-28. Thus, pursuant to Notice 88-9, the sponsor of a plan for which the adoption of amendments to comply with Rev. Rul. 86-74 may be deferred may, nonetheless, request the Service to consider whether the plan satisfies the requirements of that revenue ruling. Such a request will not result in the Service's consideration of whether the plan satisfies any other requirement for which a deferred date of plan amendment is available. For example, determination letters described in this paragraph may not be relied on with respect to whether the form of a plan satisfies the requirements of section 401(a)(2) of the Code in view of the amendment of section 403(c)(2)(B) of ERISA.

04 A favorable determination letter described in the preceding paragraph which relates to an application submitted on or after July 11, 1988 may be relied on as to whether the form of the plan satisfies those requirements of the Optional Form of Benefit Regulations that are in effect with respect to the plan for a plan year beginning before January 1, 1989. Thus, for example, a plan adopted on or after August 1, 1986, that did not receive a determination on initial qualification with respect to an application for determination submitted before July 11, 1988 is a new plan for purposes of section 1.411(d)-4 of the Optional Form of Benefit Regulations. Consequently, any determination letter issued with respect to an application for determination submitted on or after July 11, 1988 may be relied on as to whether the form of the plan satisfies the requirements of section 1.411(d)-4 of these regulations.

SEC. 4. REQUIRED AMENDMENTS AND SCOPE OF DETERMINATION

01 Determination letter applications submitted pursuant to this revenue procedure will result in the Service's review of the plan for compliance with the requirements of each of the following that are effective with respect to the plan for a plan year beginning before January 1, 1989:

(1) Titles XI and XVIII of TRA '86;

(2) Subtitle C of Title IX of OBRA '86;

(3) Sections 9343(c) and 9346 of OBRA '87;

(4) Optional Form of Benefit Regulations;

(5) Final and proposed regulations under section 401(k) and proposed regulations under section 401(m);

(6) Temporary regulations under section 414(q) and (s);

(7) Proposed regulations under sections 401(a)(9), 410 and 411;

(8) Notice 87-20, regarding amendments to sections 411(a)(11)(B) and 417(e)(3) of the Code made by section 1139 of TRA '86;

(9) Notice 87-21, regarding changes to section 415 of the Code made by TRA '86;

(10) Rev. Rul. 86-74, regarding changes to the plan integration rules resulting from the Social Security Amendments of 1983.

02 Except as provided in section 4.04, below, amendments to conform plans to the requirements described in section 4.01, above, must be made effective no later than the applicable effective dates described in the laws, regulations, revenue ruling and notices.

03 Under section 1.401(b)-1 of the regulations, a plan provision (or the absence of a required plan provision) which results in the failure of the plan to satisfy the qualification requirements because of a change in the requirements made by provisions of TRA '86, OBRA '86, or OBRA '87 that are effective before the first day of the first plan year beginning before December 31, 1989 is a disqualifying provision. For this purpose, a disqualifying provision includes any plan provision that is integral to a qualification requirement changed by TRA '86, OBRA '86, or OBRA '87 or any requirement treated by the Commissioner, directly or indirectly, as if section 1140 of TRA '86 applied to it, to the extent such provision is effective before the first day of the first plan year beginning after December 31, 1989. In the case of a disqualifying provision described in this paragraph which is effective before the first plan year beginning after December 31, 1988, there must be compliance with the conditions of section 1140 of TRA '86, other than the condition describing when required plan amendments must be adopted. (In the case of a changed plan provision that is integral to a qualification requirement as described above, the plan will not be treated as not being in compliance with the conditions of section 1140 if the plan operates in compliance with such provision as of the effective date of such change under the plan.) A plan amendment to correct a disqualifying provision does not have to be adopted earlier than the end of the remedial amendment period described in section 1.401(b)-1 of the regulations if the conditions therein are satisfied.

04 Neither section 1140 of TRA '86 nor the remedial amendment period described in section 401(b) of the Code and the regulations thereunder apply in the case of amendments which are not described in the preceding paragraph. (See, for example, Q&A 10 of Notice 87-21 regarding plan amendments incorporating the increased section 415 limitations under TRA '86 that apply in certain situations.) Such amendments may not be made effective earlier than the first day of the plan year during which they are adopted.

05 A determination letter that is issued in response to an application submitted and reviewed pursuant to this revenue procedure will contain a statement to the effect that the laws, regulations, revenue ruling and notices described in section 4.01, above, have been considered in determining the qualified status of the plan. Plan sponsors may not rely on such determination letters with respect to whether the form of a plan satisfies any qualification requirement that is not effective with respect to the plan before the first plan year beginning on or after January 1, 1989, including requirements of the final REA regulations and the Optional Form of Benefit Regulations.

SEC. 5. INSTRUCTIONS TO SPONSORS

01 Plan sponsors who request determination letters pursuant to this revenue procedure must specify that they want their plan reviewed for the qualification requirements described in section 4.01 by printing the term "Rev. Proc. 88-42" in bold letters on the the top right corner of the first page of the applicable application form and by completing any supplemental application form which the Service may in the future require.

02 An application for a determination letter pursuant to this revenue procedure is to be made on the appropriate Form 5300 series described in section 4 of Rev. Proc. 80-30. Schedule T (Form 5300) must also be included with the application unless the plan has previously received a favorable determination letter that considered REA, in which case a photocopy of the previously submitted Schedule T must be included. Application under this revenue procedure may not be made on Form 6406.

03 Form 5301 generally requires applicants who request a determination of the qualified status of a plan that includes a cash or deferred arrangement to submit a demonstration of how the discrimination tests in sections 401(a)(4) and 410(b) will be satisfied. In view of the changes to section 401(k) made by TRA '86 and the final and proposed regulations under section 401(k), this requirement should be met by setting forth in an explanation how the arrangement satisfies the coverage requirements of section 410(b), as described in section 1.401(k)-1(b)(1)(i) of the regulations, and by indicating the location of plan provisions that comply with each of the following requirements:

(1) The plan must provide that the actual deferral percentage (ADP) test described in section 401(k)(3) of the Code will be met (see regulation section 1.401(k)-1(b)(4)).

(2) Each employee's right to the amount attributable to elective contributions and other amounts treated as elective contributions must be immediately nonforfeitable (see regulation sections 1.401(k)- 1(c) and 1.401(k)-1(g)(7)).

(3) Distributions of amounts attributable to elective contributions and other amounts treated as elective contributions may be allowed only upon one of the events set forth in section 401(k)(2)(B) of the Code and hardship distributions, if permitted, must satisfy the requirements described in final regulations (see regulation sections 1.401(k)-1(d)(2) and (3), 1.401(k)-1(g)(7) and proposed regulation section 1.401(k)-1(d)(1)).

(4) The opportunity to make elective contributions must be made available to employees on a nondiscriminatory basis (see regulation section 1.401(k)-1(e)(1)).

(5) If, under the plan, excess contributions will be recharacterized or distributed, the amount of each individual's excess contributions to be so treated must be determined by leveling the highest deferral ratios until the ADP test is satisfied (see regulation section 1.401(k)-1(f)(2)).

(6) Income must be properly allocated to any distributions of excess contributions (see proposed regulation section 1.401(k)- 1(f)(4)(ii) and Notice 88-33, 1988-13 I.R.B. 17).

(7) For purposes of the arrangement, the plan must define highly compensated employee and compensation in accordance with sections 414(q) and 414(s) of the Code and the temporary regulations thereunder (see regulation sections 1.414(q)-1T Q&A 1 and 15 and 1.414(s)-1T Q&A 1 and 4).

04 In the case of a plan which provides for matching contributions or employee contributions that are subject to the nondiscrimination requirements of section 401(m), an application submitted under this revenue procedure should indicate the location of plan provisions that comply with those sections of the proposed regulations under section 401(m) that set forth requirements similar to the ones described in paragraphs (1), (4), (5), (6) and (7) of section 5.03, above. (See proposed regulation sections 1.401(m)- 1(b)(3), (c)(1), (e)(2) and (3).)

05 Applications which are not identified in the manner described in section 5.01 will be reviewed as described in section 3.04 until further notice. Applications made under this revenue procedure which do not meet the requirements of section 5.02 or, if applicable, section 5.03 or 5.04 may, in the discretion of the Key District Director, be considered incomplete and returned to the applicant in accordance with section 4.02 of Rev. Proc. 80-30.

06 Sponsors who have determination letter applications pending with the Service as of the effective date of this revenue procedure must submit new applications in order to obtain a determination letter pursuant to this revenue procedure. However, payment of the user fee described in Rev. Proc. 88-8 will not be required provided the new application is filed before December 13, 1988. The sponsor must certify that the earlier application was pending with the Service on the effective date of this revenue procedure by printing "Rev. Proc. 88-42: Prior Application Pending on 9/12/88" in bold letters on the top of the first page of the application form.

07 Except to the extent otherwise required by this section, the requirements of Rev. Proc. 80-30, Rev. Proc. 84-86, and Rev. Proc. 88-8 are to be followed in requesting determination letters pursuant to this revenue procedure.

SEC. 6. EFFECT ON OTHER DOCUMENTS

01 Notice 86-13 is modified.

02 Section 4.02 of Rev. Proc. 80-30 and sections 5.05 and 7.02 of Rev. Proc. 84-86 are modified as described in section 5.01 of this revenue procedure with respect to a determination letter application relating to an ongoing plan which requests that such plan be reviewed for the qualification requirements described in section 4.01.

03 Section 4.01 of Rev. Proc. 88-8 is modified to provide that payment of a user fee will not be required in connection with an application submitted pursuant to this revenue procedure before December 13, 1988 if an earlier application relating to the same plan was pending with the Service on September 1, 1988.

SEC. 7. EFFECTIVE DATE

This revenue procedure is effective with respect to applications for determination letters submitted to the Service on or after September 12, 1988.

SEC. 8. DRAFTING INFORMATION

The principal author of this revenue procedure is James Flannery of the Employee Plans Technical and Actuarial Division. For further information regarding this revenue procedure, call (202) 566-6783 between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. Eastern time (not a toll-free call). Mr. Flannery's telephone number is (202) 566-3148 (also not a toll-free call).