Restating Two Plans

[BFree]

If an employer sponsors two plans, and one is individually-designed, while the other is a prototype:

Does the employer get to rely on Rev. Proc 2000-20, Section 19.05 where it says -

"An employer that adopts, before the end of the remedial amendment period (determined without regard to the extension provided by this section), any M&P plan or volume submitter specimen plan of a sponsor or practitioner will, for purposes of this section, be deemed to have adopted each other M&P plan or volume submitter specimen plan of that sponsor or practitioner."

- and extend the deadline for restating the individually-designed plan past Feb 28? Assume the individually-designed plan will be restated to a prototype.

What if the individually-designed plan was not restated to a protoype, but merged into the existing prototype plan?

Thanks.

[Mike Preston]

I think you are confusing apples with oranges. Go the simple route, have the employer execute two certifications, one for each plan, on or before 2/28/2002.

The purpose of the language you have cited is solely to determine the filing deadline associated with the executed certification. It doesn't create a certification (and hence an extention) for a plan that doesn't execute a certification.

I can understand the confusion, though, because the original language of the "sample" certification doesn't identify the plan. In the more recent version, published in the IRS newsletter, they display a certification that identifies the plan.

Now, in retrosepect, upon submission, or on audit, if I run into one of these, I'll most assuredly pull out the original notice and try to get the IRS to buy off on the concept that a single certification applied to all plans of the employer.

In advance, though, it is just as simple to avoid the issue.