Is there any definition of when an extended “leave of absence” would be considered a termination of employment for purposes of RMD?

Clearly, it seems reasonable to require that there be a real expectation by both the employee and the employer that the employee will resume working. However, is that sufficient?

I note that there are several discussion of the opposite problem of “sham terminations” relating to the problem of in-service distributions, but I did not find any discussion of the problem of “sham continuations” with respect to required minimum distributions.

Do you have anything in writing from the employer stating the member is officially on a Leave of Absence? I know in the plan I work with, it has to be in writing. Also, the termination has to be in writing, too. So, either way, LOA or Term has to be in writing and documented.

Since I don't know the background, I'm only throwing out what our plan does. This way there is no doubt as to what is going on with the employee.

You might look to other areas to see how long they let LOAs go. Loan rules 1 year. New 409A nonqualified deferred compensation default appears to be 6 months unless participant legally entitled to get job back because of medical or military leave like FMLA or USERRA.