Saving Your Qualified Plan From CCH Details Latest Compliance Programs

(RIVERWOODS, ILL., August 8, 2001) – The IRS is trying to make it easier for retirement plans to correct qualification problems that could lead to the loss of valuable tax benefits by the plan and the plan’s participants – but only those practitioners who understand what the IRS is trying to do are in a good position to take advantage of these programs, according to CCH INCORPORATED (CCH), a leading provider of tax, pension and business law information and software.

To bring those involved with retirement plans up to date with the totally revamped correction programs issued in 2001 and show them how to take advantage of the latest IRS initiatives, CCH has published a new edition of Saving Your Qualified Plan: IRS Employee Plan Administrative Enforcement and Voluntary Compliance Programs for Pension Plans, TSAs and SEPs, by Steven Leventhal, JD, LLM, (641 pages, $89. For more information or to order, call 800-248-3248 or visit http://hr.cch.com/onlinestore).

Saving Your Qualified Plan squarely addresses how to return previously qualified plans to compliance by using IRS correction programs under the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS) as set forth in Rev. Proc. 2001-7, issued in February of this year.

Practical Courses of Action

The current version of the EPCRS is the third official IRS restatement of the voluntary compliance system. It renames and reorganizes previous programs and adds new ones. Author Leventhal is the first to parse this massive document into usable parts and draw from them practical courses of action for plan sponsor and administrators, and their legal advisors.

The opening chapters of Saving Your Qualified Plan discuss the historical development of IRS compliance programs, explore the consequences of disqualification, outline the key concepts and provisions of the EPCRS, examine failures relating to qualified and 403(b) plans and show how established practices and procedures can prevent problems. Leventhal then focuses on what happens when problems are discovered "on examination" and just what "correction" may and may not entail. This includes summaries of over 150 actual corrections that have been made under the various programs from 1996-2000, along with a listing of the most common operational defects that affect retirement plans.

Choosing the Right Program

In an especially useful chapter, Leventhal walks the reader through the process of choosing the right correction program. He then provides chapter-length explanations of each of the 10 new or revised programs that make up EPCRS: the Self-Correction Program (SCP), the Voluntary Correction Program (VCP), Voluntary Correction of Operational Failures (VCO), Voluntary Correction of Operational Failures Standardized (VCS), Tax-Sheltered Annuities (VCT and more), Simplified Employee Pensions (VCSEPs and more), Voluntary Correction of Group Failures (VCGroup), the Anonymous Submission Procedure, Audit CAP and the Discrepancy Adjustment Program (DAP). Leventhal also shows how to use the protections afforded by the remedial amendment period set forth in Code Sec. 401(b) and favorable determination letters under Code Sec. 7805(b).

Two valuable appendices round out the coverage of the book. The first appendix comprises 21 IRS and other agency documents, including the full text of Rev. Proc. 2001-17, sections from the Internal Revenue Manual Handbook and a recently-produced IRS checklist of items on a Form 5500 return that may trigger an examination. The second appendix contains nine interviews with IRS personnel conducted by CCH over the years that provide unique and valuable insight into the thinking of the Service on a wide variety of issues.

About the Author

Steven J. Leventhal, JD, LL.M. Taxation, is an executive editor for CCH INCORPORATED and a nationally recognized expert in the area of qualified plans and plan compliance. He is a frequent speaker before employee benefits groups on qualified plan compliance and all aspects of tax-sheltered annuities.

As a former senior attorney and Group Chief with the IRS National Office Employee Plans Division, Leventhal developed and wrote the IRS's first voluntary compliance programs for employee plans.

Leventhal was granted exclusive interview privileges with the IRS on the Tax-Sheltered Annuity Voluntary Correction (TVC) Program, as well as on all the EPCRS programs.

Availability and Pricing

For more information or to order the 641-page Saving Your Qualified Plan, contact CCH at 1-800-248-3248 or visit http://hr.cch.com/onlinestore. Single copy price is $89 plus applicable tax, shipping and handling. Quantity discounts and school adoption pricing are available.

About CCH INCORPORATED

CCH INCORPORATED, headquartered in Riverwoods, Ill., was founded in 1913 and has served four generations of business professionals and their clients. The company produces more than 700 electronic and print products for the tax, legal, securities, insurance, human resources, health care and small business markets. CCH is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wolters Kluwer North America. The CCH web site can be accessed at www.cch.com. The CCH Human Resources Group web site can be accessed at http://hr.cch.com.

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