Governmental plans have been awaiting IRS guidance on distribution issues under the Pension Protection Act of 2006 ("PPA") for 2008.  Following are links to two very important documents that provide guidance on these issues:

1.                  2008 1099-R Instructions .  As governmental plans know, Form 1099-R is used to report an individual's distributions from annuities, profit-sharing plans, retirement plans, IRAs, insurance contracts, and/or pensions.  The 2008 instructions focus attention on certain new developments, which are of interest to governmental plans, including:  permissible withdrawals from eligible automatic contribution arrangements, reporting instructions for qualified rollover contributions, withholding, distribution codes, and the list of distributions that are not eligible rollover distributions.

2.                  Notice 2008-30 .  This guidance addresses certain distribution-related provisions of the PPA effective in 2008.  Of particular interest to governmental plans is Section II of the Notice concerning Section 824 of the PPA which amended the list of eligible retirement plans from which a Roth IRA may accept rollovers.  The Notice offers guidance, in a question and answer format, clarifying the provisions that concern qualified rollover contributions to Roth IRAs.

If you have questions or need more information regarding these recent developments, please contact Terry Mumford, Mary Beth Braitman, Lisa Harrison, or Katrina Clingerman, or any other member of the Ice Miller Employee Benefits team.