IRS Extends Public Plan Deadline

The Internal Revenue Service will be giving government employer pension plans more time to comply with new normal retirement age regulations.

The regulations, published in May 2007, will let government employees who have reached the “normal retirement age” start collecting pension benefits while continuing to work for their employers, officials write in IRS Notice 2008-98.

From the perspective of the IRS, the usual normal retirement age is 62 for most public employees, but government employers can set the normal retirement age as low as 55, or even lower, if they can show that the earlier retirement age is justified.