§ 1.501(c)(18)-1. Certain funded pension trusts.

¶(1) Local law. The trust must be a valid, existing trust under local law, and must be evidenced by an executed written document.

¶(2) Funding. The trust must be funded solely from contributions of employees who are members of the plan. For purposes of this section, the term contributions of employees shall include earnings on, and gains derived from, the assets of the trust which were contributed by employees.

¶(3) Creation before June 25, 1959—

¶(4) Payment of benefits. The trust must provide solely for the payment of pension or retirement benefits to its beneficiaries. For purposes of this section, the term retirement benefits is intended to include customary and incidental benefits, such as death benefits within the limits permissible under section 401.

¶(5) Diversion. The trust must be part of a plan which provides that, before the satisfaction of all liabilities to employees covered by the plan, the corpus and income of the trust cannot (within the taxable year and at any time thereafter) be used for, or diverted to, any purpose other than the providing of pension or retirement benefits. Payment of expenses in connection with the administration of a plan providing pension or retirement benefits shall be considered a payment to provide such benefits and shall not affect the qualification of the trust.

¶(6) Discrimination. The trust must be part of a plan whose eligibility conditions and benefits do not discriminate in favor of employees who are officers, shareholders, persons whose principal duties consist of supervising the work of other employees, or highly compensated employees. See sections 401(a)(3)(B) and 401(a)(4) and §§ 1.401-3 and 1.401(a)(4)-0 through 1.401(a)(4)-13. However, a plan is not discriminatory within the meaning of section 501(c)(18) merely because the benefits received under the plan bear a uniform relationship to the total compensation, or the basic or regular rate of compensation, of the employees covered by the plan. Accordingly, the benefits provided for highly paid employees may be greater than the benefits provided for lower paid employees if the benefits are determined by reference to their compensation; but, in such a case, the plan will not qualify if the benefits paid to the higher paid employees are a larger portion of compensation than the benefits paid to lower paid employees.

¶(7) Objective standards. The trust must be part of a plan which requires that benefits be determined according to objective standards. Thus, while a plan may provide similarly situated employees with benefits which differ in kind and amount, these benefits may not be determined solely in the discretion of the trustees.