Historically, the IRS has required that plan documents for terminating retirement plans be amended to reflect all legal requirements enacted up through the plan termination date. However, there was some uncertainty as to whether the “new” 5- and 6- year plan restatement rules actually required plan sponsors to:
- Entirely restate the plan document upon plan termination; or
- Just amend the plan document upon plan termination.
The actual text in Revenue Procedure 2007-44 on restatement rules is a bit fuzzy, but there is a great blog post from Suzanne Wynn that helps clarify some of the technical aspects. Essentially, Revenue Procedure 2010-6 confirms that terminating plans still don’t have to be restated as long as they are amended with law changes up through the termination date.