19-20-212. General internal revenue service qualification rules. (1) The board shall distribute the corpus and income of the system to the members and their beneficiaries in accordance with the system's law. The corpus and income may not, at any time before the satisfaction of all liabilities with respect to members and their beneficiaries, 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, from death, or for any other reason may not be applied to increase the benefits that any member would otherwise receive under the state's law. However, forfeitures may be used to reduce the costs of administration.

(3) Distributions from the system may be made only upon retirement, separation from service, disability, or death.

(4) Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, contributions, benefits, and service credit with respect to qualified military service must be provided in accordance with section 414(u) of the Internal Revenue Code and the federal Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994, 38 U.S.C. 4301, et seq.

(5) (a) If at any time that the board finds that benefits payable or contributions required under this chapter would exceed the limits established under section 415 of the Internal Revenue Code, the board may establish a qualified governmental excess benefit arrangement and adopt rules for the necessary and appropriate procedures for the administration of the benefit arrangement in accordance with the Internal Revenue Code and this section.

(b) An excess benefit arrangement established pursuant to this section is subject to the following requirements:

(i) The amount of any annual benefit that would exceed the limitations imposed by section 415 of the Internal Revenue Code must be paid from the benefit arrangement.

(ii) The amount of a contribution that would exceed the limitation imposed by section 415 of the Internal Revenue Code must be credited to the benefit arrangement.

(iii) The benefit arrangement must be a separate part of the system.

(iv) The benefit arrangement must be maintained solely for the purpose of providing to members in the system that part of the member's annual benefit or contribution otherwise payable under the terms of this chapter that exceeds the limitations on benefits or contributions imposed by section 415 of the Internal Revenue Code.

(v) Members may not elect, directly or indirectly, to defer compensation to the benefit arrangement.

(6) The limitation year for purposes of section 415 of the Internal Revenue Code is the school year beginning September 1 and ending August 31.

(7) The plan year is the fiscal year beginning July 1 and ending June 30.