United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2001-03-21 monographic deposited born digital 7 p. GA 1.13:GAO-01-511R https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-511R P0b002ee1803953cb f:d01511r DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-511R machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-511R GAO-01-511R Administrative law Agency proceedings Discrimination Employee retirement plans Interagency relations Retirement pensions Tax law Administrative law Agency proceedings Discrimination Employee retirement plans Interagency relations Retirement pensions Tax law Correspondence A00710 This correspondence focuses on the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) inclusion of a statement in its final regulations on pensions that indicated that the IRS would not regard cash balance pension plans as age discriminatory. Specifically, GAO determined whether (1) the Department of the Treasury followed normal operating procedures in promulgating the regulations and (2) certain federal regulations were violated. GAO found nothing improper about the inclusion of the preamble sentence. Treasury followed its normal procedures and the sentence reflected the agency's views at the time. GAO also found that Treasury's addition of the sentence did not violate Administrative Procedure Act or Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986 requirements. Nevertheless, while the coordination requirement technically was inapplicable, the underlying expectation was for consistency among the three agencies having roles in administering statutes generally prohibiting pension plans from discriminating based on age. Under the circumstances, Treasury should not have opined on whether cash balance plans were age discriminatory in a public manner without having coordinated that position with the Department of Labor and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The preamble sentence may have misled the public and practitioners into believing that the sentence reflected the coordinated views of all three of the responsible agencies. Moreover, the statement may have limited the other agencies' policy options on this issue. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-511R/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-511R.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-511R/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-511R.pdf GAO-01-511R https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-511R Correspondence GAO-01-511R; Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service: Statement in Preamble to Regulations That Cash Balance Plans Are Not Age-Discriminatory; Administrative law Agency proceedings Discrimination Employee retirement plans Interagency relations Retirement pensions Tax law Administrative law Agency proceedings Discrimination Employee retirement plans Interagency relations Retirement pensions Tax law Public Law 99-509