Ezel / IRS Rulings / 200908032

CCA 200908032: Unsold baseball tickets might be no-additional-cost fringe benefits

Number
200908032
Outcome
Advice
Document type
Chief Counsel Advice
IRS subject
No Additional Cost Service
Topics
Income and deductions
Code sections
§ 132
Ruling dated
November 7, 2008
Publicly released
February 20, 2009
Source
View Official PDF

Apply this to your situation

This page covers legal advice the IRS Office of Chief Counsel wrote for IRS staff, issued in 2009, which can't be cited as precedent. Ask about your situation and see what the current Code and IRS guidance say, with citations.

Currency note: this determination was released in 2009
Statutory amendments, regulation changes, court decisions, or later IRS guidance may have changed the analysis since then. Treat this page as historical context, not current tax advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, threshold, or position mentioned here.
Not precedent. Under 26 U.S.C. § 6110(k)(3), this written determination may not be used or cited as precedent. It is advice from the IRS Office of Chief Counsel to IRS personnel on the facts they presented, and identifying details were redacted by the IRS before release. The official IRS release (linked on this page as a PDF) is the authoritative source.
About this page: The plain-English summary and ruling snapshot below were written by Ezel based on the official IRS release. The full text is the IRS's own document.
View official IRS release (PDF)

Plain-English summary

Chief Counsel informally reviewed whether baseball tickets given to employees of a baseball organization could be excluded as no-additional-cost fringe benefits. The writer said that conclusion appeared reasonable if employees received only tickets for games that had not sold out. Reserving tickets well before a game, when the organization could not know whether they would sell, could undermine that treatment. The email did not give a final answer because the writer did not know the case's facts and offered to review the completed opinion afterward.

Ruling snapshot

  • Question: Could baseball tickets provided to team employees qualify as no-additional-cost fringe benefits?
  • Outcome: Advice given: possibly, if the tickets were limited to unsold games; advance reservations could create a problem.
  • Key authorities: IRC § 132.

Full text (IRS public release)

ID: CCA_2008110714214132 Number: 200908032
Release Date: 2/20/2009
Office: -----------------------------
UILC: 132.01-00

From: --------------------
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 2:21:49 PM
To: -----------------------
Cc: ------------------------
Subject: RE: no additional cost fringe benefit

-----------

If you are confident that your advice provides the right answer, then I don't think we need to pre-review it. If you think, for some reason, the opinion you are providing is controversial, questionable, or a "close call" (e.g. you could've gone either way with the conclusion), then I would like to pre-review.

I don't know the facts of your case, but it certainly seems reasonable to conclude that baseball tickets provided to employees of a baseball team/ organization could be excludable as no additional cost fringe benefits. The important issue, I think, is whether the employees were only provided tickets to games that had not been sold out. If the employees the reserved tickets well in advance of the games, when no one could be sure whether the tickets would sell out or not, then there might be a problem with concluding that the tickets are no additional cost fringe benefits.

I would be interested in post-reviewing the opinion. Thanks.

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