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IRS Shuts Down Email Questions to Employee Plans Office

Beginning Oct. 1, it’s back to the 20th century for anyone who used to ask a question of the IRS Employee Plans Office. The IRS announced on July 31 that as of that date, that office will no longer answer technical questions by email, nor will it accept forwarded messages from IRS Customer Account Services that had been sent to its personnel by email.

The IRS says that these changes are due to realignment of legal work and transfer of a number of Employee Plans employees to the Office of the Associate Chief Counsel in January 2015. It says that the Employee Plans Office no longer has the resources to do research and also provide answers for legal topics.

Alternatives

The IRS says that taxpayers may call Customer Account Services personnel at (877) 829-5500 for assistance concerning the following:


  • Account-specific questions

  • Basic information about EP forms

  • Status of pending applications


The IRS also suggests that those who need answers to retirement plan questions go to the Retirement Plans and Retirement Plan Forms and Publications portions of its website.

And the IRS suggests that those with legal questions that need to be addressed, may want to request a private letter ruling (PLR) and refer to Revenue Procedure 2015-1 regarding how to obtain a PLR and the applicable user fees.

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