Applications for exemption and miscellaneous determination requests are assigned to Exempt Organizations specialists for review. If additional information is necessary to make a determination, a specialist will contact the organization for the information. Here’s a list of questions that might be asked on this topic. Describe how you meet the requirement that membership in a Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA) is voluntary. Describe how you meet the requirement that a VEBA is controlled by: • Its membership • An independent trustee or trustees, or • Trustees or other fiduciaries, at least some of whom are designated by, or on behalf of, the membership Describe how you meet the requirement that criteria for eligibility for membership may not be selected or administered in a manner that limits membership or benefits to officers, shareholders or highly compensated employees of an employer contributing to or otherwise funding the VEBA. Describe how you meet the requirement that VEBA members must share an employment-related common bond. Describe how you meet the requirement that, generally, members of a VEBA must be employees. We consider a VEBA to be comprised of employees if the total membership on one day of each quarter in a tax year consists of at least 90% employees. Describe how you meet the requirement that a VEBA must provide for the payment of life, sick, accident or other similar benefits. Provide plan documents or insurance contracts showing benefits you provided. Describe how you meet the requirement that your VEBA benefits are only provided to your members, members' dependents and members' designated beneficiaries. Note: For purposes of IRC Section 501(c)(9), “dependent” means the member's spouse, any child of the member or member's spouse who is a minor or a student (within the meaning of IRC Section 152(f)(2)); any other minor child residing with the member, or any other individual who the association, relying on information from the member, in good faith believes is a person described in IRC Section 152(a). For purposes of providing for the payment of sick and accident benefits to members of the VEBA and their dependents, the term “dependent” includes any individual who is a member's child (as defined in IRC Section 152(f)(1)) and who is not age 27 by the end of the calendar year. A designated beneficiary can only receive life benefits and other similar benefits from a VEBA. Describe how you meet the requirement that a VEBA may not discriminate in favor of highly compensated employees. If your VEBA is part of a plan maintained under a collective bargaining agreement, provide a copy of the collective bargaining agreement. Additional information See the complete list of Applying for Exemption/Miscellaneous Determination Sample Questions by topic.
