Part 7. Rulings and Agreements

Chapter 13. Employee Plans Automated Processing Procedures

Section 1. Determination Letter Applications

7.13.1  Determination Letter Applications

7.13.1.1  (04-01-2006)
Overview

  1. The current versions of applications that are available when requesting favorable determination or opinion letters are as follows:

    Form Revision Date
    5300 Application for Determination for Employee Benefit Plan 9/2001
    5307 Application for Determination for Adopters of Master or Prototype or Volume Submitter Plans 9/2001
    5309 Application for Determination of Employee Stock Ownership Plan 12/2004
    5310 Application for Determination for Terminating Plan 11/2002
    5310-A Notice of Plan Merger, Consolidation, Spinoff or Transfer of Plan Assets or Liabilities - Notice of Qualified Separate Lines of Business
    NOTE: The filing of Form 5310-A will not result in the issuance of a determination letter.     		5/2003
    4461, 4461-A, 4461-B Applications for Approval of Master or Prototype Plans 11/2003
    6406 Short Form Application for Minor Amendment of Employee Benefit Plan 9/2001

    Note:

    As of June 2005, forms 5300, 5307, 5310, 5310-A, and 6406 are being undated and revised. The 4461 series forms are being revised to allow submission of volume submitter specimen plan applications.

  2. These procedures apply to all Tax Exempt and Government Entities (TE/GE) employees and Cincinnati Service Center (CSC) that process determination applications.

7.13.1.2  (04-01-2006)
Systems

  1. The Letter Information Network User Fee System (LINUS) is used to process the determination letter application upon receipt in the CSC. The initial input data for user fee is transmitted to the EP/EO Determination System (EDS). Form 2221, acknowledgment letters and the EP Determination Input Sheet are generated from LINUS.

  2. EDS is an automated system for processing determination application. EDS is a menu-driven system with four available subsystems.

    1. Data Transcription Subsystem (DTS) is used to establish the application information on the EDS database.

    2. Inventory Control Subsystem (ICS) replaces EACS as the system which tracks cases from opening to closing. EACS continues to function in the CSC as the link between EDS and the Employee Plans Master File (EPMF).

    3. Letter Generation Subsystem (LGS) provides a means to automatically generate additional information and closing letters.

    4. Management Information Subsystem (MIS) generates inventory reports and employee roster reports.

  3. The use of DTS and LGS are mandatory. DTS creates records for all documents entered and stores the records for later use in LGS. EDS creates action history records which identify each action taken and identifies the employee who took the action. In order to detect security breaches, local letter generation systems are not permitted for the determination letter. The exceptions to the use of LGS are as follows:

    1. If a letter does not exist for a specific situation or the existing letters are inappropriate, a manually prepared letter may be used. See (4) below for instructions regarding the use of locally developed letters.

    2. If the automated letter generation system is non-operational for a period of time that would hamper the normal workflow, the EP Determinations Manager, may authorize the use of manually prepared letters. The letters exhibited in IRM 7.13.5, Letter Generation, will be used as pattern letters when the system is non-operational.

  4. Locally developed letters must meet national standards for letter format, content, and style. This includes, if applicable, the printing of the appropriate OMB approval number and the letter number according to the printing specification used by the Tax Forms and Publications Division in the Washington D.C. office. EP Determinations must request Washington approval for any locally developed letters and local changes made to letters approved for national use.

  5. Applications received during periods when the system is non-operational must be controlled on ICS (through LINUS or DTS) as soon as the system is operational. During down periods, EP Determinations should concentrate on processing cases that are already in inventory. The status of these cases should be updated as soon as the system is operational.

  6. Correspondex and the Centralized Authorization File (CAF) are no longer used for EP determination letter cases.


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