§ 74-49,123 — Applicability of certain federal internal revenue code provisions to the Kansas public employees retirement system

(a) This section applies to the Kansas public employees retirement system and to all other public retirement plans administered by the board of trustees.
(b) As used in this section:
(1) "Federal internal revenue code" means the federal internal revenue code of 1954 or 1986, as amended and as applicable to a governmental plan as in effect on July 1, 2008; and
(2) "retirement plan" includes the Kansas public employees retirement system and all other Kansas public retirement plans and benefit structures, which are administered by the board.
(c) In addition to the federal internal revenue code provisions otherwise noted in each retirement plan's law, and in order to satisfy the applicable requirements under the federal internal revenue code, the retirement plans shall be subject to the following provisions, notwithstanding any other provision of the retirement plan's law:
(1) The board shall distribute the corpus and income of the retirement plan to the members and their beneficiaries in accordance with the retirement plan's law. At no time prior to the satisfaction of all liabilities with respect to members and their beneficiaries shall any part of the corpus and income be used for, or diverted to, purposes other than the exclusive benefit of the members and their beneficiaries.
(2) Forfeitures arising from severance of employment, death or for any other reason may not be applied to increase the benefits any member would otherwise receive under the retirement plan's law. However, forfeitures may be used to reduce an employer's contribution.
(3) All benefits paid from the retirement plan shall be distributed in accordance with a good faith interpretation of the requirements of section 401(a)(9) of the federal internal revenue code and the regulations under that section. Notwithstanding any other provision of these rules and regulations, effective on and after January 1, 2003, the retirement plan is subject to the following provisions:
(A) Benefits must begin by the required beginning date, which is the later of April 1 of the calendar year following the calendar year in which the member reaches 72 years of age, or 70 1 / 2 years of age if the member was born before July 1, 1949, or April 1 of the calendar year following the calendar year in which the member terminates employment. If a member fails to apply for retirement benefits by April 1 of the calendar year following the calendar year in which such member reaches 72 years of age, or 70 1 / 2 years of age if the member was born before July 1, 1949, or April 1 of the calendar year following the calendar year in which such member terminates employment, whichever is later, the board will begin distributing the benefit as required by this section.
(B) The member's entire interest must be distributed over the member's life or the lives of the member and a designated beneficiary, or over a period not extending beyond the life expectancy of the member or of the member and a designated beneficiary. Death benefits must be distributed in accordance with section 401(a)(9) of the federal internal revenue code, including the incidental death benefit requirement in section 401(a)(9)(G) of the federal internal revenue code, and the regulations implementing that section.
(C) The life expectancy of a member, the member's spouse or the member's beneficiary may not be recalculated after the initial determination for purposes of determining benefits.
(D) If a member dies after the required distribution of benefits has begun, the remaining portion of the member's interest must be distributed at least as rapidly as under the method of distribution before the member's death and no longer than the remaining period over which distributions commenced.
(E) If a member dies before required distribution of the member's benefits has begun, the member's entire interest must be either:
(i) In accordance with federal regulations, distributed over the life or life expectancy of the designated beneficiary, with the distributions beginning no later than December 31 of the calendar year immediately following the calendar year of the member's death; or
(ii) distributed by December 31 of the calendar year containing the fifth anniversary of the member's death.
(F) The amount of an annuity paid to a member's beneficiary may not exceed the maximum determined under the incidental death benefit requirement of the federal internal revenue code.
(G) The death and disability benefits provided by a retirement plan are limited by the incidental benefit rule set forth in section 401(a)(9)(G) of the federal internal revenue code and treasury regulation 1.401-1(b)(l)(i).
(4) Distributions from the retirement plans may be made only upon retirement, separation from service, disability or death.
(5) The board or its designee may not:
(A) Determine eligibility for benefits;
(B) compute rates of contribution; or
(C) compute benefits of members or beneficiaries, in a manner that discriminates in favor of members who are considered officers, supervisors or highly compensated, as prohibited under section 401(a)(4) of the federal internal revenue code.
(6) Subject to the provisions of this subsection, benefits paid from, and employee contributions made to, the retirement plans shall not exceed the maximum benefits and the maximum annual additions, respectively, permissible under section 415 of the federal internal revenue code.
(A) Before January 1, 1995, a member may not receive an annual benefit that exceeds the limits specified in section 415(b) of the federal internal revenue code, subject to the applicable adjustments in that section. Beginning January 1, 1995, a participant may not receive an annual benefit that exceeds the dollar amount specified in section 415(b)(1)(A) of the federal internal revenue code, subject to the applicable adjustments in section 415 of the federal internal revenue code.
(B) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, the board may modify a request by a participant to make a contribution to the retirement plans if the amount of the contribution would exceed the limits under section 415(c) or 415(n) of the federal internal revenue code subject to the following:
(i) Where the retirement plan's law requires a lump-sum payment, for the purchase of service credit, the board may establish a periodic payment plan in order to avoid a contribution in excess of the limits under section 415(c) or 415(n) of the federal internal revenue code.
(ii) If the board's option under clause (i) will not avoid a contribution in excess of the limits under section 415(c) or 415(n) of the federal internal revenue code, the board shall reduce or deny the contribution.
(C) Effective for permissive service credit contributions made in limitation years beginning after December 31, 1997, if an active member makes one or more contributions to purchase permissive service credit under a retirement plan, then the requirements of this section shall be treated as met only if:
(i) The requirements of section 415(b) of the federal internal revenue code are met, determined by treating the accrued benefit derived from all such contributions as an annual benefit for purposes of such section; or
(ii) the requirements of section 415(c) of the federal internal revenue code are met, determined by treating all such contributions as annual additions for purposes of such section. For purposes of applying clause (i) a retirement plan shall not fail to meet the reduced limit under section 415(b)(2)(C) of the federal internal revenue code solely by reason of this subparagraph (C), and for purposes of applying clause (ii), a retirement plan shall not fail to meet the percentage limitation under section 415(c)(1)(B) of the federal internal revenue code solely by reason of this paragraph.
(iii) For purposes of this clause, the term "permissive service credit" means service credit:
(a) Specifically recognized by a retirement plan's law for purposes of calculating a member's benefit under that retirement plan;
(b) that such member has not received under a retirement plan; and
(c) that such member may receive under a retirement plan's law only by making a voluntary additional contribution, in an amount determined under the retirement plan's law and procedures established by the board, that does not exceed the amount necessary to fund the benefit attributable to such service credit.
(iv) A retirement plan shall fail to meet the requirements of this clause if the retirement plan's law specifically provides for a purchase of nonqualified service purchase, and if:
(a) More than five years of nonqualified service credit are taken into account for purposes of this subclause; or
(b) any nonqualified service credit is taken into account under this subclause before the member has at least five years of participation under a retirement plan. For purposes of this subclause, effective for permissive service credit contributions made in limitation years beginning after December 31, 1997, the term "nonqualified service credit" means the same as provided in section 415(n)(3)(C) of the federal internal revenue code.
(v) In the case of a trustee-to-trustee transfer after December 31, 2001, to which section 403(b)(13)(A) or 457(e)(17)(A) of the federal internal revenue code applies, without regard to whether the transfer is made between plans maintained by the same employer:
(a) The limitations of clause (iv) shall not apply in determining whether the transfer is for the purchase of permissive service credit; and
(b) the distribution rules applicable under federal law to a retirement plan shall apply to such amounts and any benefits attributable to such amounts.
(vi) For an eligible member, the limitation of section 415(c)(1) of the federal internal revenue code shall not be applied to reduce the amount of permissive service credit which may be purchased to an amount less than the amount which was allowed to be purchased under the terms of the statute as in effect on August 5, 1997. For purposes of this clause, an eligible member is an individual who first became a member in the retirement plan before January 1, 1998.
(D) Subject to approval by the internal revenue service, the board shall maintain a qualified governmental excess benefit arrangement under section 415(m) of the federal internal revenue code. The board shall establish the necessary and appropriate procedures for the administration of such benefit arrangement under the federal internal revenue code. The amount of any annual benefit that would exceed the limitations imposed by section 415 of the federal internal revenue code shall be paid from this benefit arrangement. The amount of any contribution that would exceed the limitations imposed by section 415 of the federal internal revenue code shall be credited to this benefit arrangement. The qualified excess benefit arrangement shall be a separate portion of the retirement plan. The qualified excess benefit arrangement is subject to the following requirements:
(i) The benefit arrangement shall be maintained solely for the purpose of providing to participants in the retirement plans that part of the participant's annual benefit otherwise payable under the terms of the act that exceeds the limitations on benefits imposed by section 415 of the federal internal revenue code; and
(ii) participants do not have an election, directly or indirectly, to defer compensation to the excess benefit arrangement.
(E) For purposes of applying these limits only and for no other purpose, the definition of compensation where applicable shall be compensation actually paid or made available during a limitation year, except as noted below and as permitted by treasury regulation section 1.415(c)-2. Specifically, compensation shall be defined as wages within the meaning of section 3401(a) of the federal internal revenue code and all other payments of compensation to an employee by an employer for which the employer is required to furnish the employee a written statement under sections 6041(d), 6051(a)(3) and 6052 of the federal internal revenue code. Compensation shall be determined without regard to any rules under section 3401(a) of the federal internal revenue code that limit the remuneration included in wages based on the nature or location of the employment or the services performed, such as the exception for agricultural labor in section 3401(a)(2) of the federal internal revenue code.
(i) However, for limitation years beginning after December 31, 1997, compensation shall also include amounts that would otherwise be included in compensation but for an election under sections 125(a), 402(e)(3), 402(h)(1)(B), 402(k) or 457(b) of the federal internal revenue code. For limitation years beginning after December 30, 2000, compensation shall also include any elective amounts that are not includable in the gross income of the employee by reason of section 132(f)(4) of the federal internal revenue code.
(ii) The definition of compensation shall exclude employee contributions picked up under section 414(h)(2) of the federal internal revenue code.
(iii) For limitation years beginning on and after January 1, 2007, compensation for the limitation year will also include compensation paid by the later of two and a half months after an employee's severance from employment or the end of the limitation year that includes the date of the employee's severance from employment if:
(a) The payment is regular compensation for services during the employee's regular working hours or compensation for services outside the employee's regular working hours, such as overtime or shift differential, commissions, bonuses or other similar payments, and absent a severance from employment, the payments would have been paid to the employee while the employee continues in employment with the employer;
(b) the payment is for unused accrued bona fide sick, vacation or other leave that the employee would have been able to use if employment had continued; or
(c) for limitation years beginning on and after January 1, 2012, the payment is made pursuant to a nonqualified unfunded deferred compensation plan, but only if the payment would have been paid to the member at the same time if the member had continued employment with the employer and only to the extent that the payment is includable in the member's gross income.
(iv) Any payments not described in clause (iii) are not considered compensation if paid after severance from employment, even if they are paid within two and a half months following severance from employment, except for payments to the individual who does not currently perform services for the employer by reason of qualified military service, within the meaning of section 414(u)(1) of the federal internal revenue code, to the extent these payments do not exceed the amounts the individual would have received if the individual had continued to perform services for the employer rather than entering qualified military service.
(v) An employee who is in qualified military service, within the meaning of section 414(u)(1) of the federal internal revenue code, shall be treated as receiving compensation from the employer during such period of qualified military service equal to: (a) The compensation the employee would have received during such period if the employee were not in qualified military service, determined based on the rate of pay the employee would have received from the employer but for the absence during the period of qualified military service; or (b) if the compensation the employee would have received during such period was not reasonably certain, the employee's average compensation from the employer during the 12-month period immediately preceding the qualified military service, or if shorter, the period of employment immediately preceding the qualified military service.
(vi) Back pay, within the meaning of treasury regulation section 1.415(c)-2(g)(8), shall be treated as compensation for the limitation year to which the back pay relates to the extent the back pay represents wages and compensation that would otherwise be included under this definition.
(7) On and after January 1, 2009, for purposes of applying the limits under section 415(b) of the federal internal revenue code, the following shall apply:
(A) A member's applicable limit shall be applied to the member's annual benefit in the first limitation year without regard to any automatic cost-of-living increases;
(B) to the extent the member's annual benefit equals or exceeds such limit, the member shall no longer be eligible for cost-of-living increases until such time as the benefit plus the accumulated increases are less than such limit;
(C) thereafter, in any subsequent limitation year, the member's annual benefit including any automatic cost-of-living increase applicable shall be tested under the then applicable benefit limit including any adjustment to the dollar limit under section 415(b)(1)(A) or 415(d) of the federal internal revenue code and the regulations thereunder; and
(D) in no event shall a member's annual benefit payable from a retirement plan in any limitation year be greater than the limit applicable at the annuity starting date, as increased in subsequent years pursuant to section 415(d) of the federal internal revenue code and the regulations thereunder. If the form of benefit without regard to the automatic benefit increase feature is not a straight life annuity, then the preceding sentence is applied by reducing the limit under section 415(b) of the federal internal revenue code applicable at the annuity starting date to an actuarially equivalent amount determined using the assumptions specified in treasury regulation section 1.415(b)-1(c)(2)(ii) that take into account the death benefits under the form of benefit. This subsection applies to distributions made on and after January 1, 1993. A distributee may elect to have any portion of an eligible rollover distribution paid directly to an eligible retirement plan specified by the distributee in a transfer made from the retirement system.
(i) An eligible rollover distribution is any distribution of all or any portion of the balance to the credit of the distributee, except that an eligible rollover distribution does not include: (a) Any distribution that is one of a series of substantially equal periodic payments, not less frequently than annually, made for the life or the life expectancy of the distributee or the joint lives or joint life expectancies of the distributee and the distributee's designated beneficiary or for a specified period of 10 years or more; (b) any distribution to the extent such distribution is required under section 401(a)(9) of the federal internal revenue code; (c) the portion of any distribution that is not includable in gross income; and (d) any other distribution that is reasonably expected to total less than $200 during the year. Effective January 1, 2002, a portion of a distribution shall not fail to be an eligible rollover distribution merely because the portion consists of after-tax employee contributions that are not includable in gross income. However, such portion may be transferred only to an individual retirement account or annuity described in section 408(a) or (b) of the federal internal revenue code, or to a qualified defined contribution plan described in section 401(a) of the federal internal revenue code or to a qualified plan described in section 403(a) of the federal internal revenue code, that agrees to separately account for amounts so transferred and earnings on such amounts, including separately accounting for the portion of the distribution that is includable in gross income and the portion of the distribution that is not so includable, or on or after January 1, 2007, to a qualified defined benefit plan described in section 401(a) of the federal internal revenue code or to an annuity contract described in section 403(b) of the federal internal revenue code, that agrees to separately account for amounts so transferred and earnings thereon, including separately accounting for the portion of the distribution that is includable in gross income and the portion of the distribution that is not so includable.
(ii) An eligible retirement plan is any of the following that accepts the distributee's eligible rollover distribution:
(a) An individual retirement account described in section 408(a) of the federal internal revenue code;
(b) an individual retirement annuity described in section 408(b) of the federal internal revenue code;
(c) an annuity plan described in section 403(a) of the federal internal revenue code;
(d) a qualified trust described in section 401(a) of the federal internal revenue code;
(e) effective January 1, 2002, an annuity contract described in section 403(b) of the federal internal revenue code;
(f) effective January 1, 2002, a plan eligible under section 457(b) of the federal internal revenue code that is maintained by a state, political subdivision of a state or any agency or instrumentality of a state or a political subdivision of a state that agrees to separately account for amounts transferred into the plan from a retirement plan; or
(g) effective January 1, 2008, a roth IRA described in section 408(A) of the federal internal revenue code.
(iii) Effective January 1, 2002, the definition of eligible rollover distribution also includes a distribution to a surviving spouse, or to a spouse or former spouse who is an alternate payee under a domestic relations order, as defined in section 414(p) of the federal internal revenue code.
(iv) A distributee includes an employee or former employee. It also includes the employee's or former employee's surviving spouse and the employee's or former employee's spouse or former spouse who is the alternate payee under a qualified domestic relations order, as defined in section 414(p) of the federal internal revenue code. Effective July 1, 2007, a distributee further includes a nonspouse beneficiary who is a designated beneficiary as defined by section 401(a)(9)(E) of the federal internal revenue code. However, a nonspouse beneficiary may rollover the distribution only to an individual retirement account or individual retirement annuity established for the purpose of receiving the distribution and the account or annuity will be treated as an "inherited" individual retirement account or annuity.
(v) A direct rollover is a payment by the retirement system to the eligible retirement plan specified by the distributee.
(8) Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, the board may accept a direct or indirect eligible rollover distributions for the purpose of the purchase of service credit. In addition, the board may accept a direct trustee to trustee transfer from a deferred compensation plan under section 457(b) of the federal internal revenue code or a tax sheltered annuity under section 403(b) of the federal internal revenue code for: (A) The purchase of permissive service credit, as defined under section 415(n)(3)(A) of the federal internal revenue code; or (B) a repayment to which section 415 of the federal internal revenue code does not apply pursuant to section 415(k)(3) of the federal internal revenue code. Any such transfer shall be allowed as provided in this subsection to the extent permitted by law, subject to any conditions, proofs or acceptance established or required by the board or the board's designee.
(9) Where required by the act, an employer shall pick up and pay contributions that would otherwise be payable by members of a retirement plan in accordance with section 414(h)(2) of the federal internal revenue code as follows:
(A) The contributions, although designated as employee contributions, are being paid by the employer in lieu of contributions by the employee;
(B) the employee must not have been given the option of receiving the amounts directly instead of having them paid to the retirement plan; and
(C) the pickup shall apply to amounts that a member elects to contribute to receive credit for prior or participating service if the election is irrevocable and applies to amounts contributed before retirement.
(10) (A) Notwithstanding any provision of this plan to the contrary, contributions, benefits and service credit with respect to qualified military service will be provided in accordance with section 414(u) of the federal internal revenue code and the uniformed services employment and reemployment rights act of 1994.
(B) Effective with respect to deaths occurring on or after January 1, 2007, while a member is performing qualified military service, as defined in chapter 43 of title 38, United States code, to the extent required by section 401(a)(37) of the federal internal revenue code, survivors of a member in the system, are entitled to any additional benefits that the system would provide if the member had resumed employment and then died, such as accelerated vesting or survivor benefits that are contingent on the member's death while employed. A deceased member's period of qualified military service must be counted for vesting purposes.
(C) Effective with respect to deaths or disabilities, or both, occurring on or after January 1, 2007, while a member is performing qualified military service, as defined in chapter 43 of title 38, United States code, to the extent permitted by section 414(u)(9) of the federal internal revenue code, for the benefit accrual purposes and in the case of death, for vesting purposes, the member will be treated as having earned years of service for the period of qualified military service, having returned to employment on the day before the death or disability, or both, and then having terminated on the date of death or disability. This provision shall be applied to all similarly situated individuals in a reasonably equivalent manner.
(D) Beginning January 1, 2009, to the extent required by section 414(u)(12) of the federal internal revenue code, an individual receiving differential wage payments, as defined under section 3401(h)(2) of the federal internal revenue code, from an employer shall be treated as employed by that employer, and the differential wage payment shall be treated as compensation for purposes of applying the limits on annual additions under section 415(c) of the federal internal revenue code. This provision shall be applied to all similarly situated individuals in a reasonably equivalent manner.
(11) Upon the complete or partial termination of a retirement plan, the rights of members to benefits accrued to the date of termination, to the extent funded, or to the amounts in their accounts are nonforfeitable, and amounts in their accounts may be distributed to them.
(d) The plan year for the retirement plan begins on July 1.
(e) The limitation year for purposes of section 415 of the federal internal revenue code is the calendar year.
(f) The board may not engage in a transaction prohibited by section 503(b) of the federal internal revenue code.
(g) (1) For purposes of determining an "actuarial equivalent" or of an "actuarial computation" for members hired prior to July 1, 2009, the board shall use the following:
(A) The applicable mortality table is specified in revenue ruling 2001-62 or revenue ruling 2007-67, as applicable; and
(B) the applicable interest factor is the actuarially assumed rate of return established by the board.
(2) For purposes of determining an "actuarial equivalent" or an "actuarial computation" for members hired on or after July 1, 2009, the board shall use the following:
(A) The applicable mortality table is the 50 / 50 male/female blend of the RP 2000 health annuitant mortality table, projected to 2025; and
(B) the applicable interest factor is the actuarially assumed rate of return established by the board.
(3) For converting amounts payable under the partial lump sum option, the board shall use the following:
(A) The applicable mortality table is a 50 / 50 male/female blend of the 1983 group annuity mortality table; and
(B) the applicable interest factor is the actuarially assumed rate of return established by the board.
(4) For benefit testing under section 415(b) of the federal internal revenue code, the factors required by treasury regulations shall be used. The applicable mortality table is specified in revenue ruling 2001-62 for years prior to January 1, 2009, and notice 2008-85 for years after December 31, 2008.

Legislative History

L. 1998, ch. 64, § 83; L. 2002, ch. 116, § 9; L. 2008, ch. 113, § 19; L. 2012, ch. 11, § 3; L. 2017, ch. 68, § 5; L. 2021, ch. 75, § 6; July 1.