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.
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Hospitalization justified a late IRA rollover
An individual withdrew three amounts from a Roth IRA and two traditional IRAs, then placed the money in a non-IRA account. A serious medical condition and hospitalization prevented completion of the…
Pension plan funding-extension conditions were modified
A pension plan had previously received a conditional ten-year extension for amortizing unfunded liabilities. After weak economic conditions and reduced construction activity prevented the plan's…
Family crisis justified IRA rollover waiver
A 77-year-old IRA owner intended to transfer a maturing annuity into another IRA. While caring for his terminally ill wife, he received a confusing surrender form and directed the proceeds to a…
Missed plan distribution justified rollover waiver
An employee participated in a qualified retirement plan that was terminated after her employer was sold. She did not receive the termination notice or the original distribution check, and she…
Husband’s death justified IRA rollover waiver
A surviving spouse requested relief after her husband withdrew funds from his IRA while hospitalized and died before completing a rollover. She represented that she did not know about the withdrawal…
Bank processing error justified IRA rollover waiver
A surviving spouse instructed a bank employee to roll distributions from two inherited IRAs into another IRA. The transfer failed because the bank employee did not provide a required letter of…
Bank’s Roth IRA error justified rollover waiver
A taxpayer instructed a bank to move a distribution from her section 403(b) annuity into a traditional IRA. The bank instead linked the funds to her existing Roth IRA, and the error was discovered…
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…
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…
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…
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…
IRA rollover waiver denied after funds paid personal expenses
An IRA owner withdrew money intending to move it to another IRA. During the 60-day rollover period, the taxpayer, a firefighter, suffered a work injury, went on medical leave, and was also caring…
Bank miscommunication justified late IRA rollover
An IRA owner received a distribution from a bank certificate of deposit and intended to roll part of it into an IRA at another bank. The taxpayer met with the second bank’s representative, received…
Rejected starter check justified late IRA rollover
An IRA owner sought to consolidate retirement savings in an employer plan. Within the 60-day rollover period, she sent the plan administrator a check for the full distribution, but the administrator…
Surviving spouse could roll plan proceeds through marital trust into IRA
A deceased plan participant named his surviving spouse and their joint living trust as equal beneficiaries of his 401(k) plan. After his death, the spouse became the trust’s sole trustor and trustee…
Mistaken non-IRA deposits received rollover deadline waiver
A retirement plan participant elected direct rollovers of distributions from a profit-sharing plan and a defined benefit plan. He mistakenly identified a financial account labeled as a retirement…
Adviser and custodian errors justified two rollover waivers
An IRA owner took one distribution after his longtime CPA incorrectly said an earlier rollover was an excess contribution. A financial institution separately ignored his direction to roll another…
Taxpayer with dementia received an IRA rollover deadline waiver
A taxpayer withdrew all funds from an IRA after misunderstanding a letter from the financial institution and deposited the distribution in a non-IRA account. The taxpayer missed the 60-day rollover…
IRA rollover deadline waived after deposit directive error
An IRA owner withdrew funds to change investments and obtain a better rate of return. After subtracting the required minimum distribution, the owner instructed a financial institution to place the…
Plan rollover deadline waived after payout paperwork error
A taxpayer intended to make direct rollovers from two retirement plans to an IRA. The financial institution prepared the requests as annuity transfer payouts instead, causing the two amounts to be…
Discounted stock option triggers section 409A income and additional tax
The IRS advised on the grant date, valuation, and tax consequences of a nonstatutory stock option. The grant date was the date the corporation completed the conditions necessary to create the…
Financial adviser error qualifies for IRA rollover relief
A taxpayer received an IRA distribution and instructed her financial adviser to place the money in a rollover IRA. The adviser instead deposited it into a non-IRA account without her knowledge, even…
False assurances about IRA status qualify for rollover relief
A taxpayer directed an IRA distribution into an investment fund after the fund's officer and financial institution assured him that the investment would be held as a new IRA. He raised the tax issue…
Misdirected custodian notices qualify for rollover relief
A taxpayer inherited an IRA holding interests in a private equity fund. After she moved, the IRA custodian mailed notices to her old address stating that it would stop serving as custodian, then…
Mental impairment qualifies for IRA rollover relief
An elderly widow withdrew money from a traditional IRA while experiencing anxiety, clinical depression, and impaired financial judgment. She mistakenly believed the account was a Roth IRA and relied…
Failed custodian notice qualifies for IRA rollover relief
An IRA custodian resigned and mailed notice to a taxpayer's former address. When she did not respond, the institution transferred the IRA assets to another financial institution, which placed them…
Nonreorganization stock conversion is an ISO disposition
An employee exercised an incentive stock option and later received acquiring-company stock plus cash in a merger before the incentive-stock holding period expired. Chief Counsel advised that a…
Hybrid annuity receives tax treatment for its fixed and public-fund accounts
A life insurance company proposed a nonqualified deferred annuity with a fixed account and a separate account holding publicly available mutual funds. The IRS ruled that the policyholder, not the…
Pension plan may change four non-prescribed actuarial assumptions
A defined benefit pension plan requested approval to change non-prescribed actuarial assumptions for a plan year beginning October 1, 2013. The changes covered retirement rates, disability rates,…
Same-year correction does not prevent section 409A income inclusion
A corporation promised an executive a retention bonus but reserved discretion to accelerate its payment, causing the arrangement to violate section 409A. The corporation removed that discretion…
Hybrid annuity receives detailed ownership and payment rulings
An individual considered buying a deferred annuity combining a general-account fixed component, publicly available mutual funds held through a separate account, and lifetime income benefits after…
Caregiver duties justify late IRA rollover waiver
A taxpayer withdrew funds from an IRA intending to return them within 60 days, but his spouse’s serious medical problems required hospitalization, surgeries, and more than six weeks of…
Participant’s death supports late plan rollover relief
A plan participant elected a distribution and opened an IRA, but died before the plan issued its checks. The financial institution then refused to deposit the checks into the IRA because of the…
Hospital pension plan receives a conditional minimum-funding waiver
A nonprofit hospital requested a waiver of the minimum funding standard for its money purchase pension plan after a temporary business hardship. The IRS granted the waiver for the 2007 plan year on…
Automotive company receives a conditional minimum-funding waiver
An automotive-equipment manufacturer requested a waiver of its pension plan's required minimum contribution after the recession caused a temporary substantial business hardship. The IRS granted the…
Child-care nonprofit receives a conditional minimum-funding waiver
A nonprofit child-care provider sought a waiver of its pension plan's minimum funding standard for the 2011 plan year. Major state funding cuts and overspending by inexperienced successor managers…
Retiree welfare trust remains collectively bargained and its set-aside income is exempt
A section 501(c)(9) voluntary employees' beneficiary association held assets for health benefits promised to union retirees under a collectively bargained plan. After the employer shut down…
Lump-sum pension settlements do not end eligibility for retiree-benefit transfers
A company proposed offering lump-sum pension payments to retirees who were already receiving annuities, while its pension plans also funded retiree health and life insurance benefits through section…
Auto-parts manufacturer receives a conditional pension funding waiver
A privately held auto-parts manufacturer sought a waiver of its pension plan's remaining unpaid minimum funding contribution for the 2011 plan year. The company had experienced a temporary…
Minimum-funding waivers are denied because the hardship was not temporary
A company requested waivers of its pension plan's minimum funding standard for several redacted plan years. Its recovery plan depended in part on merging the plan into a multiemployer plan, but the…
Temporary lump-sum option does not violate a pension funding waiver
A company whose pension plan was operating under a minimum-funding waiver proposed a temporary lump-sum option for former participants with deferred vested benefits who had not begun receiving…
Lump-sum window does not violate an unfunded-liability extension
A pension plan with an existing extension of its unfunded-liability amortization period proposed a temporary lump-sum window. The option would cover terminated vested participants and current…
Foreign local-national employees may participate in the company's ESOP
An S corporation whose employee stock ownership plan owned all of its single class of stock amended the plan to cover certain nonresident-alien local-national staff employees working abroad. Those…
Financial stress does not justify late retirement-account rollovers
A taxpayer withdrew money from an IRA and an employer plan after losing her job and facing health, housing, vehicle, and family expenses. She did not roll the distributions into eligible retirement…
Care for an ill parent justifies a late IRA rollover
A taxpayer withdrew an amount from her IRA intending to roll it over to another financial institution that offered a higher interest rate. During the 60-day rollover period, her mother was ill, and…
Surviving spouse may roll trust-held IRA proceeds into her own IRAs
A decedent named his estate as beneficiary of ten IRAs, and the residue of his estate passed through one trust to another trust for his surviving spouse. The spouse was the sole trustee and could…
Adviser errors justify late IRA rollovers into self-directed accounts
A married couple directed four IRA distributions into a partnership investment after an adviser represented that the investment firm could preserve the funds' IRA status. The adviser failed to…
Married taxpayers get 60 days to recharacterize excess Roth IRA contributions
A married couple made monthly contributions to several Roth IRAs, then learned that their income had exceeded the eligibility limits in multiple years and that one earlier contribution exceeded the…
Bereaved taxpayer receives a waiver for a late IRA rollover
A taxpayer received a distribution from his deceased wife’s IRA but did not complete the rollover within 60 days. His father had died three days before his wife, and his mother died six days after…
Minimum funding waiver approved with contribution and amendment conditions
A retirement plan sponsor requested a waiver of its minimum required contribution after suffering substantial business hardship. The company’s largest customer changed its business model, forcing…
Bank error does not break a taxpayer’s substantially equal IRA payment series
A taxpayer was taking monthly substantially equal periodic payments from an IRA using the fixed annuitization method. After one financial institution acquired another and moved the IRA’s bank and…
Mandatory public-plan contributions qualify as employer pick-ups
A state created a governmental defined contribution plan requiring covered employees to contribute 8 percent of compensation through salary reduction, alongside a 6 percent employer contribution.…
Pension plan receives a conditional funding waiver
A company sought a waiver of its pension plan's minimum required contribution after a temporary substantial business hardship reduced cash flow. The IRS approved the waiver but imposed continuing…
Pension plan receives a conditional funding waiver
A company sought a waiver of its pension plan's minimum required contribution after a temporary substantial business hardship reduced cash flow. The IRS approved the waiver but imposed continuing…
Caregiving and incomplete advice support an IRA rollover waiver
A taxpayer withdrew funds from two IRAs and tried to reinvest them through a trust, believing the transaction would remain an IRA rollover. He missed the 60-day deadline after receiving incomplete…
Family emergency and incomplete advice support a rollover waiver
A taxpayer withdrew money from an IRA after an advisor did not explain the additional tax consequences associated with the account's equal annuity payments. He kept the money unused in his bank…
IRS waives IRA rollover deadline after erroneous financial advice
An IRA owner received several checks while closing an account for a rollover, but a financial advisor incorrectly said the process would take two to three months. The owner held the checks until the…
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.