Funding Deficiency - Critical Status

[luissaha]

A plan in critical status adopted a rehabilitation plan to forestall insolvency (i.e., the plan is not reasonably expected to emerge from critical status). It is likely the plan will have a funding deficiency next year. It appears under IRC 412(b)(3) that if a plan is in critical status, has adopted a rehab plan, and complies with the rehab plan, the minimum funding rules of IRC 412 do not apply. Nevertheless, I have heard some practitioners take the position that IRC 412(b)(3) is only applicable for critical plans that have adopted a rehab plan that will get them out of critical status within the rehab period. To my knowledge there is no guidance from the IRS yet on this issue, but I imagine many plans are in a similar situation. Has anyone heard anything on this? Any help would be appreciated.