IRS Written Determinations
Free IRS private letter rulings, technical advice memoranda, and Chief Counsel advice with plain-English summaries and the official IRS release on every page.
No determinations match these filters
Try fewer or different words, check the spelling, or clear the filters to browse everything.
Estate lacked proof that decedent intended an IRA rollover
An IRA owner withdrew funds into a checking account and died shortly afterward. His mother, acting as executrix, later moved the estate funds into her own checking account after a court-approved…
Bank’s duplicate IRA distribution justified rollover waiver
A taxpayer received scheduled substantially equal periodic payments from several IRAs. A computer error caused the financial institution to make an unauthorized duplicate distribution from one IRA,…
Delayed notice of reversed IRA deposit justified rollover waiver
A taxpayer deposited a distribution back into her IRA within 60 days and confirmed online that the redeposit had been accepted. The check was later returned because of confusion about the bank…
Foreign pension plan qualifies and later contributions remain deductible
A U.S.-owned foreign partnership assumed obligations under a foreign pension plan through a series of acquisitions and restructurings. The written plan held assets in an irrevocable trust for…
Governmental plan may pick up mandatory employee contributions
A government-owned medical center established a defined contribution plan for senior management employees. The plan required participating employees to contribute a fixed percentage of compensation…
Cancer treatment supports waiver of rollover deadline
A retirement-plan participant received a partial lump-sum distribution after recurrent cancer and aggressive treatment forced her to retire. A plan counselor did not explain the tax consequences,…
Disregarded LLC employees may join parent's 403(b) plan
A tax-exempt health system planned to convert a nonprofit hospital subsidiary into a single-member limited liability company. The LLC would not elect corporate status and therefore would be…
Governmental excess benefit arrangement qualified
A public authority adopted a separate plan to pay governmental pension benefits that could not be paid from its qualified plan because of section 415(b)'s limits. Participation was mandatory for…
Airline plan's revised actuarial assumptions approved
An employer with a frozen airline pension plan asked to change actuarial assumptions after federal law allowed pilots to continue flying until age 65 and later experience showed different retirement…
Caregiving duties excuse one-day-late IRA rollover
An IRA owner withdrew funds intending to return them within the 60-day rollover period. He was caring for his mother, whose deteriorating health required help with oxygen, medications, medical…
Church pension plan keeps church-plan status
A tax-exempt church asked whether its employee pension plan qualified as a church plan under section 414(e). The church was the plan's only employer, all participants were its employees, and none…
Church-affiliated nonprofit's pension plan qualifies as a church plan
A nonprofit residential treatment and educational organization asked whether its defined benefit pension plan qualified as a church plan under section 414(e). The organization was included in a…
Pension surplus returns without reversion excise tax
A section 501(c)(3) employer terminated its defined benefit pension plan and fully satisfied participant liabilities through lump sums and an annuity purchase. An excess remained because participant…
LLC unit shares qualify as ESOP employer securities
An LLC taxed as an association and S corporation planned to establish an employee stock ownership plan. Its ownership units carried identical dividend and distribution rights, and the operating…
Disregarded LLC employees may join parent's 403(b) plan
A section 501(c)(3) hospital system wholly owned a home-health LLC that had not elected corporate tax treatment. The parent asked whether the LLC's employees could participate in its section 403(b)…
Caregiving crisis supports late IRA rollover waiver
A married couple took money from the husband's IRA for a family home purchase and planned to replace it with insurance-policy loan proceeds. The proceeds reached their checking account within the…
Adviser and custodian errors support late Roth IRA rollover
A taxpayer tried to move a Roth IRA into a self-directed Roth IRA so it could invest in a limited liability company. His adviser misread the new custodian's forms and directed the funds into a…
Incorrect rollover instructions support waiver for withheld taxes
A former employee tried to roll her entire qualified-plan balance into a new employer's retirement plan by following the old plan administrator's online instructions. The administrator issued a…
Double bereavement supports late survivor rollover waiver
A surviving spouse was the sole beneficiary of her husband's profit-sharing plan account. Her husband died from a heart attack while traveling to her mother's funeral, leaving her to handle both…
Surgery and medication support late rollover waiver
A taxpayer received a retirement-plan distribution intending to roll it into another IRA. During the 60-day period, she underwent surgery, took prescription pain medication, and experienced vertigo…
Consumer-products company receives pension funding waiver
A privately owned consumer-products company sought relief from its pension plan's required minimum contribution after management problems weakened product appeal, blurred major brand identities, and…
Consumer-products company receives pension funding waiver
A privately owned consumer-products company sought relief from its pension plan's required minimum contribution after management problems weakened product appeal, blurred major brand identities, and…
Religious elder-care facility's pension plan is a church plan
A tax-exempt elder-care facility served aged and infirm members of a religious order that was an integral part of a church. Members of the order controlled the facility through governance and…
City excess benefit plan qualifies under section 415(m)
A city pension board created a mandatory excess benefit plan to pay the portion of governmental defined benefit pensions barred from the qualified plan by section 415(b). The arrangement allowed no…
Mental impairment supports waiver of IRA rollover deadline
An IRA owner withdrew funds while experiencing mild cognitive impairment, moderate clinical depression, and emotional distress that impaired financial decision-making. The owner did not discover the…
Erroneous custodian advice supports IRA rollover waiver
An IRA owner withdrew funds to buy private-company stock after relying on a custodian's prior instructions for a similar investment. When the custodian refused the new stock, its adviser told the…
Financial-institution error supports inherited IRA rollover waiver
A decedent named a trust as IRA beneficiary, and the surviving spouse was the trust's sole trustee with power to distribute its assets to herself. A financial adviser intended to transfer the…
IRA rollover waiver denied for personally held precious-metal coins
An IRA owner withdrew funds to purchase physical Gold American Eagle and Silver American Eagle coins and kept personal possession of them. Her financial adviser had said the investment could not be…
Custodian error supports post-death plan rollover waiver
A retired plan participant elected a direct rollover to an IRA but died eleven days later. The plan custodian instead deposited funds into the personal representative's checking account, and the…
Financial institution error excused late inherited IRA rollover
A surviving spouse asked the IRS to waive the 60-day deadline for rolling over an IRA distribution received after her husband's death. She had requested a trustee-to-trustee transfer, but the…
Serious illness excused late rollovers from two IRAs
An individual withdrew amounts from two IRAs while suffering from a serious medical condition that impaired her ability to manage her finances. Her condition continued through the 60-day rollover…
Mental impairment excused late rollover of bullion coins
An IRA owner and her spouse both experienced serious mental conditions that impaired their financial decision-making. Acting under a power of attorney, the spouse withdrew bullion coins from the…
Using 401(k) funds to avoid foreclosure did not excuse late rollovers
An individual took distributions from two 401(k) accounts while she and her spouse faced medical and financial difficulties. She used the money to pay a second mortgage and avoid foreclosure, then…
Pension minimum-funding waiver approved with conditions
A privately owned battery and standby-power manufacturer sought a waiver of its pension plan's required minimum contribution for the 2014 plan year. The company reported a temporary substantial…
Bank errors justified a 60-day rollover waiver
A retirement-plan participant instructed her bank advisor to complete a direct rollover into an IRA. The advisor instead deposited the distribution into a non-IRA account and then moved part of it…
Financial-institution confusion justified an IRA rollover waiver
An IRA owner invested through annuity contracts that remained inside his IRA, but transfers among brokers and later financial-institution acquisitions changed the account naming and stopped the…
Care for terminally ill mother justified rollover waiver
A retirement-plan participant intended to roll a distribution into an IRA, but she spent the remainder of the 60-day rollover period caring for her terminally ill hospitalized mother. She kept vigil…
Confusion did not justify an IRA rollover waiver
An IRA owner withdrew Amount 1 and deposited it in her savings account, then used Amount 2 from savings to pay off her mortgage. More than a year later, her son discovered the IRA withdrawal and…
Adviser deposit error justified an IRA rollover waiver
After her husband, who had managed the couple's finances, died, an IRA owner met with an investment adviser to consolidate her retirement and taxable accounts. She deposited an IRA distribution into…
Pension elections impermissible, but mandatory pickups qualify
A state governmental defined-benefit plan asked about legislation offering Tier 1 members a one-time choice between different employee-contribution rates and benefit multipliers. The IRS concluded…
Beneficiary dispute does not extend annuity payout deadline
A nonspouse beneficiary timely chose ten-year payouts under two annuity contracts. Before either insurer made a distribution, another claimant's lawyer asked both companies to freeze payment while a…
Website redirection justified IRA rollover waiver
An IRA owner tried to move her account to a new rollover IRA offering a better interest rate. After becoming disconnected from one financial institution’s website, she was redirected to another…
Financial institution error justified rollover waiver
A retirement-plan participant intended to roll an entire distribution into an IRA. He mailed the financial institution both the net distribution check and a personal check replacing the 20 percent…
Frozen pilot pension could suspend benefits after retirement age
An employer sponsored a frozen defined benefit pension plan for union pilots with a normal retirement age of 60. After federal law raised the pilots’ mandatory retirement age to 65, pilots could…
Bank deposit error justified IRA rollover waiver
An IRA owner intended to roll over the proceeds of a matured certificate of deposit into a new IRA at the same bank. A bank representative mistakenly deposited the funds into a non-IRA account…
Misleading bank information justified IRA rollover waiver
An IRA owner responded to an online bank’s newspaper advertisement for a higher interest rate and deposited an IRA distribution into what he believed was a rollover IRA. Shortly after the 60-day…
Unauthorized SEP distributions receive 60-day rollover waiver
A bank resigned as custodian of two simplified employee pension accounts and issued distribution checks without the taxpayer's knowledge. Because the taxpayer was newly married, preparing to move,…
Financial institution error receives 60-day IRA rollover waiver
An IRA owner instructed a financial institution to buy an annuity inside the IRA, then canceled the investment and directed that the funds remain in the traditional IRA. After an account discrepancy…
Widow's medical condition supports 60-day rollover waiver
A widow received an eligible rollover distribution of employer stock from her late spouse's employee stock ownership plan. Her medical and emotional condition following his death impaired her…
Municipal retirement contributions qualify as employer pick-ups
A municipal employer adopted ordinances requiring specified employees to contribute to its governmental defined benefit and defined contribution plans. The ordinances provided that the employer…
Plan mishandling supports waiver of the 60-day rollover deadline
A retirement-plan participant instructed his plan to roll an investment fund interest into a traditional IRA. The plan's administrator told his bookkeeper to request a change in the account title,…
Mistaken deposit into a taxable account receives rollover relief
A former employee asked to move his employer-plan balance into a rollover IRA at a new financial institution. The distributing institution issued a check payable to the receiving institution for an…
Multiemployer plan receives five-year funding amortization extension
A multiemployer pension plan requested an automatic five-year extension for amortizing specified unfunded liabilities. Its actuary certified that without relief the plan would have an accumulated…
Multiemployer plan receives five-year funding amortization extension
A multiemployer pension plan requested an automatic five-year extension for amortizing specified unfunded liabilities. Its actuary certified that without relief the plan would have an accumulated…
Bank's business-day advice justified IRA rollover waiver
An IRA owner received a distribution when a certificate of deposit matured and asked a bank manager how long she had to complete a rollover. The manager incorrectly told her the deadline was 60…
Governmental plan transfer qualifies as direct rollover
A county proposed allowing former employees to make a one-time election to move their account balances from its governmental defined contribution plan to its governmental defined benefit plan. The…
Misleading fund communications justify late IRA rollover
An IRA owner directed retirement funds into an investment fund after communications led him to believe the investment would remain inside an IRA. The fund was not an IRA custodian, but its…
Bank error and illness justify late IRA rollover
An IRA owner's certificate of deposit matured, and she instructed her financial institution to move the money to a money market fund inside the IRA. The institution instead placed the funds in a…
Multiemployer plan receives five-year funding extension
A multiemployer pension plan requested a five-year extension of the period for amortizing specified unfunded liabilities. The plan submitted an actuary's certification that it otherwise would face…
Multiemployer plan receives five-year funding extension
A multiemployer pension plan requested a five-year extension of the period for amortizing specified unfunded liabilities. The plan submitted an actuary's certification that it otherwise would face…
What these documents are
- Private letter rulings (PLRs): A taxpayer asked the IRS to rule on a planned transaction before doing it. The ruling shows exactly how the IRS applied the Code to those facts.
- Technical advice memoranda (TAMs): The IRS National Office answering a question raised during an audit or other proceeding.
- Chief Counsel advice (CCAs): IRS lawyers advising their own field staff on how to apply the law.
- Determination letters: Rulings on exempt-organization matters, such as whether an organization qualifies under § 501(c)(3) or a foundation's grant procedures pass § 4945.
- Not precedent, still useful: Under 26 U.S.C. § 6110(k)(3) none of these can be cited as precedent. They remain the best public window into how the IRS actually rules on facts like yours, and practitioners read them for exactly that.