Recent IRS response time on Form 5310s?

[kmhaab]

Can anyone comment on how long the IRS has been taking to issue plan termination favorable determination letters following submission of a 5310 in the past few years? Are ESOPs taking longer? 

TIA!

[CuseFan]

I only deal with DBP termination submissions. The last three were:

Submitted 9/30/2021 - D-Letter 4/13/2022, so 6 1/2 months with some questions/responses in between.

Submitted 4/25/2022 - confirmation of receipt then nothing but crickets.

Submitted 10/18/2022 - confirmation of receipt but still too early to expect anything.

All were individually designed, long frozen, timely restated last applicable cycle, timely interim amendments, excess assets - so no differentiating factor to highlight timing, maybe just the (un)luck of the draw or one time of year is more favorable?

ESOPs can be complex animals with their own issue, especially if not a publicly traded security, so I can see those taking longer especially if individually designed.

I usually tell clients that 12-18 months is not unheard of and that anything less than 12 is a blessing. We'll see if the new House is able to strip IRS funding and if so, if it has any impact on employee plans - not one of the positives for a resource-constrained IRS.

You (if POA) or employer can call IRS and check the status. The first key is whether it's been assigned as sometimes these sit for months before they get assigned to an agent.

Good luck.

[A Shot in the Dark]

Looking at CuseFan timeline it looks like ESOP's and pensions seem to be going about the same time frame.

Submitted ESOP 5310 package Septembetr 2021 - Received Determination Letter May 2022 - Questions Responses 60 days before determination letter received

 

Submitted ESOP 5310 Package December 2021 - Received Determination Letter August 2022 - Questions Responses 45 days before determination letter received

[RayRay]

This isn't entirely on point, but a large part of our practice is along the gulf coast and we experienced a large number of delayed filings due to Hurricane Ida in 2021. We received a few dozen notices from the IRS regarding the late filings, and while we responded to all of them in the 1st half of 2022, we are STILL waiting for responses from the IRS to let us know if the late filing penalties have been removed. So who knows how long it may take for what you're doing.