Bush Moratorium

Steve Leimberg's Employee Benefits and Retirement Planning Newsletter

Subject:BUSH MORATORIUM CASTS ECLIPSE ON PROPOSED REGS

Per the recently published memorandum of Andrew H. Card, Jr., the new Assistant to the President and White House Chief of Staff, there will be a 60-day moratorium on final IRS regulations, which have not taken effect as of January 20, 2001, as well as the IRS proposed regulations, which have not been finalized by January 20, 2001. The memorandum was published in the Federal Register on January 24, 2001.

While it appears from the memorandum that such a moratorium is now in effect, the National Office of the Internal Revenue Service, along with the rest of us, are not certain of that exactly what this means.

Specifically, the memorandum states in part: "with respect to regulations that have been published in the [Office of the Federal Register (OFR)] but have not taken effect, temporarily postpone the effective date of the regulations for 60 days". It further states that no proposed or final regulation shall be sent "to the [OFR] unless and until a department or agency head appointed by the President after noon on January 20, 2001, reviews and approves the regulatory action".

In addition, any regulations that have already been published in the OFR but have not taken effect, the memorandum directs that the effective date is temporarily postponed for 60 days. Depending on how you calculate it, 60 days from January 24 is March 25, 2001 or 60 days from January 24, 2001, counting January 24 as the first day, is March 24, 2001.

It appears that this memorandum will stop the proposed regulations of January 11, 2001 from being immediately effective as we had otherwise believed. It may also prevent them from being applied retroactively to January 1, 2001.

It is my hope and opinion and that of many estate planning professionals that I have spoken with, that we can reasonably rely on President Bush accepting these regulations.

In light of this memorandum, however, we must be especially careful to make sure that our clients have Designated Beneficiary Forms in place as of April 1, 2001, and that any required distributions are taken in a timely fashion.

HOPE THIS HELPS YOU HELP OTHERS!

Bob Keebler

Edited by Steve Leimberg for

Steve Leimberg's Employee Benefits and Retirement Planning Newsletter

http://www.leimbergservices.com

P.S. Bob Keebler can be reached at rkeebler@virchowkrause.com For more information regarding his tapes, books or speaking engagements, please contact Ms. Helen Dombeck at (920) 490-5607 or hdombeck@virchowkrause.com

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