IRS: Plan Sponsors Can Use Blended Mortality Tables

By Staff Writer

February 03, 2007 at 10:32 PM

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Employers can use mortality tables that blend data for annuitants and nonannuitants in 2007 calculations of current retirement plan obligations.

Internal Revenue Service officials have announced that decision today in final regulations that appear in the Federal Register.

Back in December 2005, when the IRS issued the proposed mortality tables regulations, officials talked about requiring sponsors of plans with 500 or more participants to use separate tables for annuitants and nonannuitants.

Two members of the public commented on the proposed regulation, and 1 of the 2 said using blended tables would reduce complexity without hurting accuracy.

IRS officials and officials at the U.S. Treasury Department decided to go with a blended table for 2007.

"The decision was made because of the sweeping changes made to the minimum funding requirements for single-employer plans by PPA that will generally become effective in 2008," officials write in a preamble to the regulations.

The IRS believes using separate tables produces more accurate results, and it plans to incorporate them in regulations that will take effect in 2008, but, for now, it has decided to let all plans use the simpler blended tables, officials write.

A copy of the final mortality table rule is on the Web at Document Link

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