Form 5310 Line 3c Determination Letter Issue

[chris]

Anyone filed Form 5310 answering Line 3c in the affirmative for a volume submitter plan and attaching a copy of the volume submitter specimen plan's opinion letter? Not technically a "determination letter" but per Ann. 2001-77 it serves the same purpose.

[AlbanyConsultant]

Not meaning to drudge up an old thread, but...

I have the same issue w/ a prototype plan, so I actually called the IRS yesterday (!) and got someone who was very clued-in as to what I was talking about (!!). He said that since technically opinion letters are NOT determination letters, 3c on the 5310 must be answered "no", and you are required to send copies of all plan documents/amendments/whatever back to plan inception. That being said, he noted that it is up to the individual reviewers, and proof of a valid GUST document is probably all that will be looked at.

We're going to take the policy of sending GUST and subsequent amendments only (along w/ the opinion letter), and we can discuss what else the reviewer will actually look at when he requests more information. The plan I'm working on is over 25 years old, and finding/pulling documents from that far back is a can of worms I don't want to open if I can avoid it!

[Guest merlin]

As part of the GUST restatement process the IRS issued a Quality Assurance Bulletin on 7/18/01 that basically said that if a plan could demonstrate timely adoption of a TRA86 amendment, no further verification of pre-TRA86 documentation was necessary. The QAB was applicable to 5300, 5303, 5307, and 5310 submissions.

If you can't find it I'll be happy to send it to you.