Title 26, United States Code Section 401(a)(9)(C)

Compiled February, 2023

Our review of the annotated history for Title 26, United States Code section 401(a)(9)(C) reveals the following legislative history.  Each public law (hereinafter referred to as Pub.L.) represents a separate congressional enactment or bill.

•  1962 – Subsec. (a)(7) to (10). Pub. L. 87–792, § 2(2), added pars. (7) to (10).
•  1982 – Subsec. (a)(9). Pub. L. 97–248, § 242(a), which was repealed by Pub. L. 98–369, §521(a)(2), had amended par. (9) generally, redesignating existing provisions as subpar. (A), in subpar. (A), as so redesignated, struck out preliminary provision which limited the application of this paragraph to plans providing contributions or benefits for employees some or all of whom were employees within the meaning of subsec. (c)(1), redesignated former subpars. (A) and (B) as cls. (i) and (ii) of subpar. (A), in cl. (i), as so redesignated, substituted reference to a key employee who is a participant in a top-heavy plan for former reference to owner-employees (within the meaning of subsec. (c)(3)), redesignated former cls. (i) and (ii) of subpar. (B) as subcls. (I) and (II) of cl. (ii), struck out former provision that a trust would not be disqualified under this paragraph by reason of distributions under a designation, prior to the date of the enactment of this paragraph, by any employee under the plan of which such trust was a part, of a method of distribution which did not meet the terms of this paragraph, and adding subpar. (B).
•  1984 – Subsec. (a)(9). Pub. L. 98–369, § 521(a)(1), amended par. (9) generally, redesignating existing provisions as subpar. (A) and in subpar. (A) as so redesignated struck out “In the case of a plan which provides contributions or benefits for employees some or all of whom are employees within the meaning of subsection (c)(1)” before “a trust forming part of such plan”, substituted “the plan provides that the entire interest of each employee-” for “, under the plan, the entire interest of each employee-“, redesignated subpars. (A) and (B) as cls. (i) and (ii), respectively, in cl. (i) as so redesignated substituted provisions stating that a qualified plan provides that the entire interest will be distributed to the employee not later than the beginning date for former provisions which provided alternative dates for providing interest, in cl. (ii) as so redesignated substituted alternate distribution dates to be set in accordance with regulations for former provisions stating that a qualified plan shall be distributed not later than the taxable year in which the taxpayer attains age 70½, and struck out the par. following cl. (ii) which provided “A trust shall not be disqualified under this paragraph by reason of distributions under a designation, prior to the date of the enactment of this paragraph, by any employee under the plan of which such trust is a part, of a method of distribution which does not meet the terms of the preceding sentence.”, and added subpars. (B) to (F).

Specifically (a)(9)(C) was added to read:
•  1986 – Subsec. (a)(9)(C). Pub. L. 99–514, § 1121(b), amended subpar. (C) generally
•  1988 – Subsec. (a)(9)(C). Pub. L. 100–647, § 6053(a), inserted at end “In the case of a governmental plan or church plan (as defined in section 89(i)(4)), the required beginning date shall be the later of the date determined under the preceding sentence or April 1 of the calendar year following the calendar year in which the employee retires.”
•  1989 – Subsec. (a)(9)(C). Pub. L. 101–140 struck out “(as defined in section 89(i)(4))” after “governmental or church plan” and inserted at end “For purposes of this subparagraph, the term ‘church plan’ means a plan maintained by a church for church employees, and the term ‘church’ means any church (as defined in section 3121(w)(3)(A)) or qualified church-controlled organization (as defined in section 3121(w)(3)(B)).”
•  1996 – Subsec. (a)(9)(C). Pub. L. 104–188, § 1404(a), reenacted heading without change and amended text generally.
•  2019 – Subsec. (a)(9)(C)(i)(I). Pub. L. 116–94, § 114(a), substituted “age 72” for “age 70½”; Subsec. (a)(9)(C)(ii)(I). Pub. L. 116–94, § 114(b), substituted “age 72” for “age 70½”.

Eight public laws affected your section.

Tracing Statutory Language:

  • Research fees can be minimized by ordering only the bills that affected specific subdivisions or phrases of interest to you.
  • Changes to statutes can sometimes be determined by annotations.
  • If annotations are not available, one strategy is to look at each public law noted above to observe the changes.   Another strategy is to retain us to trace your language and report our findings back to you.  We charge a research fee to trace.  Please contact our office to learn about our fees.

We appreciate the opportunity to provide this assistance.  If you would like to order the legislative history of this or any other federal statute, please feel free to Contact us.

Since 1974, Legislative Intent Service, Inc. has provided the legislative and regulatory history for all federal bills and regulations.