Remedial Amendment Period

This document contains final and temporary regulations relating to the remedial amendment period, during which a sponsor of a qualified retirement plan or an employer that maintains a qualified retirement plan can make retroactive amendments to the plan to eliminate certain qualification defects for the entire period. These final and temporary regulations clarify the scope of the Commissioner's authority to provide relief from plan disqualification under the regulations, to enable the Commissioner to provide appropriate relief for plan amendments relating to changes to the plan qualification rules made in the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996 and the Uruguay Round Agreements Act of 1994. These final and temporary regulations affect sponsors of qualified retirement plans, and employers that maintain qualified retirement plans. The text of the temporary regulations also serves as the text of the proposed regulations set forth in the notice of proposed rulemaking on this subject in the Proposed Rules section of this issue of the Federal Register.