The IRS and the Treasury Department would like to issue guidance relating to the applicability of the normal retirement age rules to government plans. The agencies are inviting public comment on the guidance under consideration, which would clarify that governmental plans that do not provide for in-service distributions before age 62 do not need to have a definition of normal retirement age and would modify the age-50 safe harbor rule for qualified public safety employees.

The notice also provides that the IRS and Treasury Department intend to extend the effective date of the regulations relating to distributions from a pension plan upon attainment of normal retirement age for governmental plans.

The IRS and Treasury Department intend to modify provisions of the 2007 NRA regulations as applied to governmental plans in two ways. First, the regulations would be modified to clarify that a governmental plan that is not subject to 411(a) through (d) and does not provide for the payment of in-service distributions before age 62 will not fail to satisfy the requirement that the plan provide definitely determinable benefits to employees after retirement or attainment of normal retirement age merely because the pension plan does not have a definition of normal retirement age or does not have a definition of normal retirement age that satisfies the requirements of the 2007 NRA regulations.