The Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service today issued two revenue procedures that update the correction program for employee retirement plans and create one for Individual Retirement Accounts.
“Hard working Americans will benefit from these procedures because they simplify and speed up how errors with certain retirement plans and IRAs can get corrected when there is a simple problem,” said IRS Chief Executive Officer Frank J. Bisignano. “These procedures are part of our effort to make complying with the nation’s tax laws easier and less burdensome for taxpayers.”
Revenue Procedure 2026-34 PDF expands the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System and replaces and restructures the Revenue Procedure 2021-30 previously used by employee plan sponsors to make plan corrections. The EPCRS revenue procedure is effective today.
EPCRS includes the Self-Correction Program, Voluntary Correction Program, and Audit Closing Agreement Program. Together, these programs allow sponsors of qualified plans, section 403(b) plans, SEP arrangements, and SIMPLE IRA plans to make corrections and continue providing retirement benefits on a tax-favored basis.
Modeled after the procedure for employee plans, Revenue Procedure 2026-33 PDF establishes the IRA Compliance Resolution System (ICRS), which is a correction program for IRAs. The new system, enacted as part of the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, permits IRA custodians and IRA owners to request correction of certain eligible inadvertent failures caused by service-provider errors.
ICRS also provides a process for retirement plan participants and IRA owners to request to waive the requirement that a rollover to another plan or IRA be made within 60 days of the distribution from the first plan or IRA. Currently, requests for these waivers must be submitted as private letter ruling requests. Over the course of 2027 and 2028, these requests will be transitioned to requests under ICRS.
Existing automatic waiver and self-certification procedures remain available, at no cost, for taxpayers who meet the requirements under Revenue Procedures 2020-46, 2016-47, and 2003-16.
The ICRS revenue procedure is effective May 1, 2027. Treasury and the IRS invite comments on both programs, and each revenue procedure identifies issues on which comments are particularly requested, provides submission instructions, and specifies when comments are due.