Request to IRS for Permanent Relief for Retirement Plan Remote Witnessing Procedures

Internal Revenue Service
Attn: CC:PA:LPD:PR (Notice 2021-03)
Room 5203
P.O. Box 7604
Ben Franklin Station
Washington, DC 20044

In response to the request for comments included in Notice 2021-03, the undersigned organizations write to reiterate our request for the Internal Revenue Service (“Service”) to make permanent its temporary relief from the physical presence requirement for spousal consents, as originally announced in Notice 2020-42 and extended by Notice 2021-03. We were extremely pleased to see Commissioner Charles Rettig express his strong support for this in his testimony during the March 18, 2021 hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Last fall, through our enclosed letter dated October 1, 2020, the undersigned organizations urged the Service to make permanent its temporary remote witnessing rules for spousal consents or, at a minimum, extend that relief through the end of the pandemic. The undersigned organizations very much appreciate the six-month extension already announced by the Service through Notice 2021-03.

Nevertheless, the Service’s temporary relief is set to expire on June 30, 2021, notwithstanding the fact that it has made the spousal consent process more secure and more convenient for interested stakeholders. Based on these demonstrated benefits, the Service should make its remote witnessing rules permanent and, without delay, announce a permanent extension of the relief described in Notice 2020-42 and Notice 2021-03. If the Service believes that, as part of a regulatory amendment, additional requirements may be appropriate for remote witnessing, we believe it would be appropriate to consider those additional conditions as part of a notice and comment rulemaking. In the meantime, however, the Service should not permit its current relief to expire.

Download the comment letter to read the full text.