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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Employer-related scholarship procedures received advance approval
A private foundation proposed scholarships for children, dependents, and grandchildren of employees of a related employer. An independent committee would select recipients using academic…
Refugee and immigrant scholarship procedures received approval
A private foundation proposed nonrenewable scholarships for current or former refugee and immigrant clients of a charitable organization and members of their families. Applicants had to fall within…
International student grant procedures received advance approval
A private foundation proposed scholarships for highly capable students at an institution in another country to pursue post-secondary education or training in the United States or, in some cases,…
REIT received 90 days to elect taxable subsidiary status
A real estate investment trust indirectly owned a corporation that leased qualified health-care property from the REIT and used eligible independent contractors to operate it. The sponsor intended…
Partnership received 120 days to make a section 754 election
A partnership admitted a purchaser of a membership interest but did not make a section 754 election with its timely return for that year. The partnership relied on a tax professional, was unaware…
Regulatory business separation qualified as a tax-free spin-off
A privately held corporate group operated two active businesses and wanted to separate one business to satisfy regulatory requirements for the other. Subsidiaries would distribute two…
Public-company segment spin-off qualified as a D reorganization
A publicly traded company planned to contribute one business segment to a newly formed controlled corporation and distribute all controlled shares pro rata to its shareholders. After the…
Foreign entity received late disregarded-entity election relief
A foreign eligible entity became wholly owned through a disregarded entity and intended to elect treatment as disregarded from its owner. It inadvertently failed to file Form 8832 by the required…
Partnership could reverse bonus depreciation after discovering state tax costs
A partnership claimed additional first-year depreciation on qualified property placed in service during a tax year. After the federal return deadline, the partnership and its return preparer…
Consolidated group could cure an omitted Form 3115 attachment
A consolidated corporate group changed depreciation methods to claim bonus depreciation and shorten the recovery period for computer software. Its adviser prepared Form 3115 and the group timely…
REIT received late taxable-subsidiary election relief
A real estate investment trust indirectly owned a corporation that leased qualified health-care property from the REIT and used eligible independent contractors to operate it. The sponsor intended…
Court reformation preserved limited powers and GST allocation
A grantor created three irrevocable trusts for grandchildren, but drafting errors gave beneficiaries powers broad enough to risk estate inclusion and gift tax on lapsing withdrawal rights. A state…
Court reformation preserved limited powers and GST allocation
A grantor created three irrevocable trusts for grandchildren, but drafting errors gave beneficiaries powers broad enough to risk estate inclusion and gift tax on lapsing withdrawal rights. A state…
Court reformation preserved limited powers and GST allocation
A grantor created three irrevocable trusts for grandchildren, but drafting errors gave beneficiaries powers broad enough to risk estate inclusion and gift tax on lapsing withdrawal rights. A state…
Scholarship procedures for association members’ descendants approved
A private foundation proposed scholarships for children and grandchildren of association members who had maintained membership for at least three years and were current on dues. Applicants had to be…
Museum construction set-aside received advance approval
A private foundation planned to build and operate a museum devoted to a continent’s culture and history. It requested approval to set aside funds because the multi-year design and construction work…
Learning-disability scholarship procedures received advance approval
A private foundation proposed scholarships for students with documented learning disabilities to attend private high schools in a metropolitan area. Awards would cover tuition, books, school fees,…
Family genealogy organization denied charitable exemption
An organization formed to collect and preserve one family’s genealogy, connect relatives, maintain a family-history website, and produce a family cookbook applied for recognition under section…
Bank account was not exempt from levy
In a brief email responding to an informal section 6334 question, Chief Counsel confirmed that the bank account at issue was not exempt from levy. The public release contains only that conclusion…
Tax matters partner designation applied year by year
Chief Counsel advised that the person designated as tax matters partner for 2015 should sign the requested extension even though that person was no longer a partner, because TMP status is determined…
Late NOL carryback waiver could not be made after automatic extension
Section 172(b)(3) permits a taxpayer to make an irrevocable election to forgo the net operating loss carryback period by the return’s due date, including extensions. Treasury Regulation section…
DIF examination score could be withheld under section 6103
Chief Counsel advised that the IRS did not need to invoke a common-law privilege to withhold information protected by federal statute. Section 6103(b)(2)(A) expressly provides that no law requires…
Partnership received 120 days to make late section 754 election
A partnership had made a section 754 election before a technical termination but failed to make a valid election for the post-termination period. Although it attached a statement showing section…
Partnership received late section 754 election relief after partner’s death
After a partner died and an heir inherited the partnership interest, the partnership inadvertently failed to make a timely section 754 election for the year of death. It represented that it had…
Retained spin-off shares did not evidence a tax-avoidance plan
A public company proposed separating businesses into a controlled corporation, distributing at least 80 percent of the controlled stock, and combining the separated business with an acquiring…
Lower-tier partnership received late section 754 election relief
An upper-tier partnership had a section 754 election in effect when one of its partners sold an interest to a new partner. The lower-tier partnership, in which the upper-tier partnership held an…
Taxpayer received 60 days to file repair-cost capitalization election
A taxpayer historically deducted repair and maintenance costs for tax purposes while capitalizing them for book purposes. For the year at issue, it intended to elect under Treasury Regulation…
Shareholder agreement caused inadvertent S election termination
An S corporation had voting and nonvoting common shares with otherwise identical rights. Its shareholders later entered an agreement that could alter their relative rights to distributable earnings…
LLC received late corporate-classification election relief
A limited liability company intended to be classified as a corporation for federal tax purposes from its formation date but failed to timely file Form 8832. It represented that it acted reasonably…
Insurance-trustee structure avoided incidents of ownership
An irrevocable trust beneficiary also served as trustee, creating a risk that any policy on the beneficiary’s life would be included in the beneficiary’s estate because the original trust granted…
Insurance-trustee structure avoided incidents of ownership
An irrevocable trust beneficiary also served as trustee, creating a risk that any policy on the beneficiary’s life would be included in the beneficiary’s estate because the original trust granted…
Late ESBT election preserved S corporation and QSub status
A trust acquired shares of one S corporation but its trustee failed to make a timely electing small business trust election, terminating that corporation’s S status. Later, when the corporation…
Historic housing cooperative denied charitable exemption
A nonprofit housing cooperative owned and maintained a residential complex designated as a National Historic Landmark. Members bought shares tied to occupancy rights, paid assessments covering…
Blockchain and token enterprise denied charitable exemption
An organization applied for section 501(c)(3) status claiming that it would research rising healthcare costs and publish information for consumers, providers, and policymakers. Its websites and…
Recreational roller derby team denied charitable exemption
A roller derby organization promoted women’s health, social interaction, community service, and participation in the sport. Most of its time was devoted to practices and recreational competition,…
Round-up donation app failed to establish charitable operation
An organization proposed an app and website that would link to users’ payment cards, round purchases up to the next dollar, hold the added amounts in organization-owned accounts, and later…
Refundable arena membership amounts were not income on receipt
A professional sports franchise planned to finance a new arena by selling non-equity memberships. Members would receive special access and ticket-purchase rights and would be required to buy season…
Upstream merger satisfied business-continuity requirement
A holding company owned several classes of stock in an operating company, and the operating company itself held an interest in the holding company. The parties proposed a two-step merger in which an…
Corporation received 60 days to file late IC-DISC election
A corporation was formed to act as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation for a related company’s export sales. Its law firm prepared Form 4876-A, but responsibility for filing…
Employee-share repurchase terms did not create second stock class
An S corporation's equity compensation plan allowed employees to acquire shares, while restricting transfers and permitting the corporation to repurchase shares after employment ended. The…
LLC gets relief to make both a late corporate classification election and a late S corporation election
An LLC with more than one owner intended to be taxed as an S corporation. To get there it needed two elections effective on the same date: first, Form 8832 to be treated as a corporation (an…
Partnership gets extra time to make a missed Section 754 election after a partner's death split the owner trust
An LLC taxed as a partnership had one interest held through a revocable living trust treated as owned by a married couple. When one spouse died, that trust split into several successor trusts, an…
Foreign LLC gets extra time to elect partnership treatment via a late Form 8832
A foreign limited liability company, owned by a U.S. citizen living abroad and a foreign entity, wanted to be treated as a partnership for U.S. federal tax purposes, which it elects by filing Form…
Stock buyback from one shareholder qualifies as a sale, not a dividend, under Section 302(b)(1)
A privately held corporation with voting (Class A) and nonvoting (Class B) common stock redeemed some shares of both classes from one shareholder for cash. The tax question was whether that payment…
IRS blesses a port's method for measuring bond-financed property's economic life under the dock-and-wharf bond safe harbor
A public port authority financed dock and wharf improvements with tax-exempt "exempt facility" bonds. Interest on those bonds stays tax-free only if the financed property is government-owned, and a…
Small insurer gets IRS consent to revoke its Section 831(b) election to avoid captive-insurance reporting
A small insurance company, formed as a risk retention group by a trade association to insure its members, had elected under Section 831(b) to be taxed only on its investment income rather than on…
Homeowners association gets late-filing relief to elect Section 528 treatment for several years
A residential real estate management association can elect, year by year, to be taxed under Section 528, which lets a qualifying homeowners association be taxed only on its non-exempt-function…
Eligible entity gets extra time to file the Form 8832 electing to be taxed as a corporation
A business entity that was eligible to choose its own federal tax classification wanted to be treated as an association taxable as a corporation, which it does by filing Form 8832 (the…
Operating-agreement clause created a second class of stock, but inadvertent-termination relief keeps S status
An LLC elected to be taxed as an S corporation, but its operating agreement contained a liquidation clause that allowed distributions to be made partly by capital-account balances rather than…
S election restored after stock passed to two trusts that were later reformed into QSSTs
An S corporation's shares were transferred to two trusts that, as written, did not qualify as eligible S corporation shareholders, which automatically terminated the company's S election. The intent…
S election saved after three shareholder trusts failed to make timely ESBT elections
A corporation elected S status, but three trusts that held its stock never filed the Electing Small Business Trust (ESBT) elections they needed to be eligible shareholders. Because those trusts were…
S corporation status restored after a shareholder trust missed its ESBT election following the owner's death
An S corporation had a shareholder that was a grantor trust, which is a permitted S corporation shareholder while the grantor is alive. When the grantor (the deemed owner) died, the trust stayed…
IRS pre-approves a community foundation's scholarship-grant procedures under Section 4945(g)
A private foundation asked the IRS to approve, in advance, the way it will run a scholarship program so that the grants do not count as "taxable expenditures" under Section 4945. Private foundations…
501(c)(3) denied to a group subsidizing THC/CBD-medication patients because its purpose furthers a federally illegal activity
An organization applied for 501(c)(3) charity status to give financial help (living and other expenses) to financially disadvantaged patients who use THC and CBD (cannabis-derived) medications, plus…
Partnership anti-abuse rule lets the IRS collapse a partnership to tax an offshore IP transfer under Section 367(d)
When a U.S. company moves intangible property (like patents) to a foreign corporation, Section 367(d) makes it pay U.S. tax on that value, either as a deemed royalty spread over the property's life…
Real estate company gets late-filing relief to elect REIT status after its manager missed the extension
A real estate company had been a wholly owned subsidiary of a publicly traded REIT, but after an outside investor bought into its parent it stopped qualifying as a "qualified REIT subsidiary" and…
Exporter's corporation gets extra time to file its lost IC-DISC election form
A domestic corporation was set up to act as an interest-charge domestic international sales corporation (IC-DISC), a special export-incentive entity that earns commissions on a related company's…
Consolidated group gets relief after a blown extension made its accounting-method Forms 3115 late
A parent company filing a consolidated return for itself and five subsidiaries decided to change three accounting methods (for software costs, certain leasehold-improvement depreciation, and…
Partnership gets extra time to make a missed Section 754 basis-adjustment election
A partnership meant to make a Section 754 election, which lets it adjust the inside basis of its assets when interests change hands or property is distributed, so that later gain or loss lines up…
A service company that finances its own customers need not file 1099-C cancellation-of-debt forms
A company whose main business is providing (non-financial) services also lets its customers finance the cost of those services. It asked the IRS whether it has to send Forms 1099-C, 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.