ERISA Benefits Law Desk ReferenceERISA Benefits Tech, LLC

Part 2 · Chapter 3

The Determination Letter Program

Law stated as of October 3, 2026 · Plan Documents, Amendments, Mergers, and Terminations

Scope and status

This chapter covers who may request an IRS determination letter on the form of a retirement plan, when, on what form, and what the letter is worth — the post-2017 contraction of the program, the four surviving categories of eligibility, the filing mechanics (the Form 5300 series, mandatory Pay.gov submission, user fees, notice to interested parties), the scope of IRS review, the reliance a letter confers, and the §7476 declaratory-judgment backstop. The annual determination-letter revenue procedure is reissued every January and the user fees change with it — confirm the current-year procedure and Appendix A before quoting any fee. Related questions are treated elsewhere: the pre-approved plan program and opinion letters in Pre-Approved Plans, Opinion Letters, and the Six-Year Cycles; remedial amendment periods, the Required Amendments List, and amendment deadlines in Remedial Amendment Periods, the Required Amendments List, and Amendment Deadlines; substantive termination law, §411(d)(6), §204(h), and §414(l) merger mechanics in this Part's Plan Amendments, Mergers, and Terminations; EPCRS correction of a nonamender failure in Part 21 (Plan Corrections: EPCRS, VFCP, and DFVCP); and IRS examination process in Part 22 (Government Audits and Investigations).

Sections

Part A is shown in full. The other sections are listed by title; their text is available to subscribers.

Part A — What the Program Is, and What Happened in 2017

A1.What a determination letter is

Part 2, ch. 3, § A1

A determination letter (DL) is a written IRS ruling that the form of a specific retirement plan document — as submitted, and on the facts represented in the application — satisfies the qualification requirements of Code §401(a) (or the requirements of §403(b), for a 403(b) individually designed plan), and that a related trust is exempt under §501(a). Rev. Proc.: the annual Employee Plans procedure, currently Rev. Proc. 2026-4. A DL is not a ruling that the plan is operated in accordance with its terms, and it is subject to the caveats printed in the letter itself. Rev. Proc.: annual procedure.

A2.The 2017 contraction: the five-year cycle is gone

Part 2, ch. 3, § A2

Effective January 1, 2017, the IRS eliminated the staggered five-year remedial amendment cycle for individually designed plans (IDPs) that had operated under Rev. Proc. 2007-44, and closed the corresponding periodic determination-letter filing windows. An IDP sponsor may now request a DL only on initial qualification, on plan termination, and in other circumstances the IRS announces in published guidance. Rev. Proc.: Rev. Proc. 2016-37 (as subsequently modified, principally by Rev. Proc. 2019-20 and Rev. Proc. 2022-40); Statute: Code §401(b); Final reg: Treas. Reg. §1.401(b)-1.

A3.What the sponsor now carries instead

Part 2, ch. 3, § A3

In place of periodic IRS review, the sponsor bears three continuing obligations: track the annual Required Amendments List and amend by its deadline; adopt discretionary amendments by the end of the plan year in which they are operationally effective; and adopt statutory amendments by the deadlines Congress and the IRS set for specific legislation. Rev. Proc.: Rev. Proc. 2022-40; Rev. Proc. 2023-37; IRS Notice: annual RA List notices; see the remedial-amendment chapter.

A4.A determination letter is never required

Part 2, ch. 3, § A4

Nothing in the Code or regulations requires a plan to obtain a DL. Qualification is a matter of statutory compliance, not IRS blessing; a plan that satisfies §401(a) in form and operation is qualified whether or not a letter was ever issued. Statute: Code §401(a); Rev. Proc.: annual procedure (the DL program is voluntary); IRS Instructions for Form 5310 ("You are not required to have your plan's qualification status determined by the IRS").

Part B — When a Determination Letter May Be Requested

  1. B1Initial qualificationSubscribers
  2. B2Plan terminationSubscribers
  3. B3Merged PlansSubscribers
  4. B4403(b) individually designed plansSubscribers
  5. B5Other categories the IRS has opened, and one that closedSubscribers
  6. B6Multiple employer plans and governmental plansSubscribers

Part C — Filing Mechanics

  1. C1The Form 5300 series and mandatory electronic filingSubscribers
  2. C2User feesSubscribers
  3. C3Notice to interested partiesSubscribers
  4. C4Processing, additional information, and an adverse determinationSubscribers
  5. C5The §7476 declaratory-judgment backstopSubscribers
  6. C6Related filings that are not determination-letter requestsSubscribers

Part D — Scope of Review and What Reliance Is Worth

  1. D1The scope-of-review ruleSubscribers
  2. D2What the letter does and does not coverSubscribers
  3. D3The audit and correction value of holding a letterSubscribers
  4. D4Merged Plan sanction relief — the real incentive to fileSubscribers
  5. D5Whether to file at all — the decision frameworkSubscribers

The first Part of each chapter is open to everyone. The remaining sections, with their authority and practice points, are available to subscribers and to clients of ERISA Benefits Law Group, PLLC whose engagement includes access.

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