IRS Shares Voluntary Correction Program Updates & Tips


The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) issued a series of updates and tips on the use of the Voluntary Correction Program (“VCP”) to correct eligible defects in qualified employee benefit plans.

Check the Status of your VCP Submission

VCP applicants frequently wonder about the status of their VCP Submission. Applicants may not check if their VCP submission has been assigned to a specialist by comparing the date of the submitter’s confirmation email to the date of the most recent VCP submissions that have been assigned to a specialist at at IRS.gov/VCPstatus.

Revised VCP Model Compliance Statement and Schedules

The IRS updated several fill-in VCP forms to revise outdated information, provide clarity, and make it easier to present some late amender failures that impact 401(a) and 403(b) retirement plans.

Plan sponsors can use the model compliance statement and schedules to make an IRS Voluntary Correction Program (VCP) submission. The model schedules (Forms 14568- A to 14568-I) contain standardized methods plan sponsors can use to correct common mistakes using VCP. 

The IRS recently changed the following fill-in forms:

  • Form 14568, Model VCP Compliance Statement to update enforcement section language;
  • Form 14568-A, Model VCP Compliance Statement – Schedule 1: Plan Document Failures for 403(b) Plans for late amender failures only to provide a framework to present late amender failures that involve IRC 403 plans and standardized descriptions for some very common 403(b) plan document failures;
  • Form 14568-B, Model VCP Compliance Statement – Schedule 2: Nonamender Failures for 401(a) Plans for use only for late amendment failures to group failures pre-approved plans vs individually designed plans and failure descriptions for pre-approved plans to include the latest failures; to provide a framework to present failures involving individually designed plans not timely to comply with the Required Amendments List, or the Cumulative List (prior to 2017) and to allow for legit late interim amendment failures affecting a pre-approved plan to be presented as an “Other” failure in Section I C;
  • Form 14568-C, Model VCP Compliance Statement – Schedule 3: SEPs and SARSEPs is updated to include a direct link to the DOL VFCP calculator and increased to $250 the standardized narrative involving small excess amounts;
  • Form 14568-D, Model VCP Compliance Statement – Schedule 4: SIMPLE IRAs includes an pdated direct link to the DOL’s VFCP calculator and increased to $250 the standardized narrative involving small excess amounts.

No changes have been made to the other forms in the Form 14568 series (Form 14568-E through Form 14568-I).

Interim Guidance on EPCRS: Notice 2023-43

The IRS released guidance in the form of Q&A’s on changes made by the SECURE 2.0 Act to the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System of voluntary correction programs for retirement plans. Notice 2023-43 provides interim guidance for taxpayers in advance of an update to EPCRS as outlined in Revenue Procedure 2021-30.

For more information on the correction programs available to correct mistakes in your retirement plan, go to IRS.gov/FixMyPlan. 

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 2nd, 2023 at 1:19 PM and is filed under Claims, Claims Administration, compliance, Corporate Compliance, Disability, employee, Employee Benefits, Employer, Employers, ERISA, Fiduciary Responsibility, health plan, Health Plans, HIPAA, Human Resources, Internal Investigations, Professional Liability, Reporting & Disclosure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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