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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Revokes mutual water cooperative's tax exemption
A mutual water cooperative distributed water through a ditch system and had been exempt under section 501(c)(12). The IRS examination found that, in each of two years, less than 85 percent of the…
Denies chamber exemption because license bureaus were primary business
A local chamber of commerce reapplied for section 501(c)(6) exemption after a prior examination had revoked its status. The organization promoted local businesses and community development, but it…
Denies charity status to medical software support organization
An organization sought reinstatement of section 501(c)(3) status for its work supporting free, open-source electronic medical-record software. The software helped physicians operate medical…
Denies charity status to fee-based crowdfunding platform
An organization proposed to provide an online crowdfunding platform to high-profile individuals and organizations raising money for charitable causes. It would deduct a management fee and…
Grants 120 days to file omitted section 754 election
A foreign corporation treated as a partnership for U.S. tax purposes intended to make a section 754 basis-adjustment election with its return, but failed to file a properly executed election. The…
Grants 120 days for late disregarded-entity election
An eligible entity intended to be treated as a disregarded entity but did not timely file Form 8832. It and its members consistently filed returns treating it as disregarded while it had one owner…
Permits retroactive QEF election after adviser missed PFIC status
A U.S. shareholder indirectly owned shares of a foreign corporation that its accounting firm failed to identify as a passive foreign investment company. A law firm later identified the PFIC filing…
Trust modifications preserve GST status without gifts or gain
An irrevocable trust with a zero generation-skipping transfer tax inclusion ratio was modified to protect two beneficiaries with medical or capacity concerns. The changes replaced a grandchild's…
Grants 120 days for late farmland special-use valuation election
An estate included farmland, but the accountant preparing its timely Form 706 did not advise the co-executors to elect special-use valuation under section 2032A. An attorney later discovered that…
Grants late foreign disregarded-entity election
A foreign eligible entity intended to be treated as disregarded for U.S. federal tax purposes but did not timely file Form 8832. It represented that the omission was made despite reasonable,…
Trust construction excluding adoptees causes no transfer taxes or gain
A trust created before September 25, 1985, used the undefined terms “issue” and “children” to describe beneficiaries. After one child adopted two adults, the settlor attested that the trust had…
Blood-descendant trust construction preserves tax treatment
A trust created before September 25, 1985, used the undefined terms “issue,” “descendants,” and “children” to identify beneficiaries. After one child adopted two adults, the living settlor attested…
Approves scholarship contest and spiritual research grants
A private foundation proposed two individual grant programs. One was an essay or video contest for high school seniors and college undergraduates, with scholarships paid through accredited…
Approves scholarships for students connected to a community
A private foundation proposed scholarships for high school and college-age students who had a connection to a specified community. Applicants would submit an essay and transcripts, and trustees…
Approves cross-disciplinary research and leadership grants
A private foundation proposed grants for recent PhD recipients in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Recipients would conduct postdoctoral research outside their planned field and…
Approves photography grants for social-change projects
A private foundation proposed grants for working photographers and visual storytellers whose projects could promote positive social change. An open call and a nominating committee would identify…
Denies exemption for vague youth aid and training programs
An organization applied for section 501(c)(3) status to support young people through savings assistance, activities, scholarships, mentoring, and job training. The IRS found that its articles did…
Excludes a generator-funded utility intertie from income
A regulated electric utility asked how to treat an interconnection funded by an unrelated electricity generator. The generator needed the intertie to move power through the utility's system for sale…
Grants relief for an inadvertent S corporation termination
An S corporation's election terminated when a partnership acquired its stock because a partnership is not an eligible S corporation shareholder. The owners had formed the partnership to simplify…
Grants relief for an inadvertent S corporation termination
An S corporation's election terminated when a partnership acquired its stock because a partnership is not an eligible S corporation shareholder. The owners had formed the partnership to simplify…
Grants relief for an inadvertent S corporation termination
An S corporation's election terminated when a partnership acquired its stock because a partnership is not an eligible S corporation shareholder. The owners had formed the partnership to simplify…
Grants relief for an inadvertent S corporation termination
An S corporation's election terminated when a partnership acquired its stock because a partnership is not an eligible S corporation shareholder. The owners had formed the partnership to simplify…
Grants relief for an inadvertent S corporation termination
An S corporation's election terminated when a partnership acquired its stock because a partnership is not an eligible S corporation shareholder. The owners had formed the partnership to simplify…
Grants relief for an inadvertent S corporation termination
An S corporation's election terminated when a partnership acquired its stock because a partnership is not an eligible S corporation shareholder. The owners had formed the partnership to simplify…
Grants relief for an inadvertent S corporation termination
An S corporation's election terminated when a partnership acquired its stock because a partnership is not an eligible S corporation shareholder. The owners had formed the partnership to simplify…
Grants relief for an inadvertent S corporation termination
An S corporation's election terminated when a partnership acquired its stock because a partnership is not an eligible S corporation shareholder. The owners had formed the partnership to simplify…
Grants relief for an inadvertent S corporation termination
An S corporation's election terminated when a partnership acquired its stock because a partnership is not an eligible S corporation shareholder. The owners had formed the partnership to simplify…
Grants extra time to elect consolidated-return filing
A parent corporation and its affiliated subsidiaries failed to make a timely election to file a consolidated federal income tax return. The parent showed that it had reasonably relied on a qualified…
Grants extra time for a multiple-building housing-credit election
A taxpayer intended three low-income housing buildings to form one multiple-building project but inadvertently failed to make that election on the buildings' Forms 8609. Section 42 ordinarily treats…
Grants extra time to file a branch-profits-tax waiver
A foreign corporation had conducted a U.S. real-property leasing business through a partnership, then received and immediately sold the property and represented that it completely terminated its…
Grants relief after an equity agreement created a second stock class
An S corporation granted equity to a person under an agreement that provided different rights to distribution and liquidation proceeds from those held by the existing shareholders. The corporation…
Grants relief after two equity agreements created a second stock class
An S corporation granted equity to two people under separate agreements that gave them different distribution and liquidation rights from the existing shareholders. The corporation represented that…
Grants relief after an equity agreement created a second stock class
An S corporation granted equity to a person under an agreement that provided different rights to distribution and liquidation proceeds from those held by the existing shareholders. The corporation…
Treats apartment services as qualifying REIT rental activity
A real estate investment trust owned three luxury apartment properties and asked whether services provided there would create impermissible tenant service income. The services included leasing,…
Permits a related corporation to use tax book value for interest allocation
A domestic corporation asked to change from fair market value to tax book value when valuing assets to allocate and apportion interest expense. It was related to, but not included in, another…
Permits a consolidated group to use tax book value for interest allocation
A domestic parent asked for its consolidated group to change from fair market value to tax book value when valuing assets to allocate and apportion interest expense. A related domestic corporation…
Grants extra time for an IC-DISC election
A domestic corporation was formed to operate as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation for its parent. Its accounting firm prepared Form 4876-A on time, but the only staff…
Allows a RIC to revoke PFIC mark-to-market elections
A regulated investment company had made mark-to-market elections for stock in three passive foreign investment companies because those companies did not provide the annual information statements…
Grants extra time for a partnership's section 754 election
A partnership underwent a technical termination after an owner acquired an additional interest. The partnership intended to elect under section 754 to adjust the basis of partnership property for…
Treats managed farm leases as active and approves ESBT status
An S corporation farm owner asked whether income from four crop-share leases was passive investment income and whether a shareholder trust qualified as an electing small business trust. Under the…
Integrates contribution and merger steps in a proposed spin-off
A foreign parent proposed moving selected U.S. assets and subsidiaries from one U.S. consolidated group to another through contributions, two stock distributions, a contribution to the receiving…
Integrates contribution and merger steps in a proposed spin-off
A foreign parent proposed moving selected U.S. assets and subsidiaries from one U.S. consolidated group to another through contributions, two stock distributions, a contribution to the receiving…
Conditionally approves revised pension-plan actuarial assumptions
A pension plan sponsor asked to change non-prescribed assumptions used to calculate the plan's funding target. The sponsor said participants were retiring later and cash-balance participants were…
Employer-related scholarship procedures receive advance approval
A private foundation proposed scholarships for children and other relatives of employees of a company and its subsidiaries. An independent organization and its selection committees would choose…
Scholarship procedures for graduates of two schools receive approval
A private foundation proposed a scholarship for students who graduated from two specified schools and met stated grade and course-completion requirements. Every qualifying eighth grader at one…
Trade association denied Section 501(c)(6) exemption because it primarily advertised members
An association of businesses along a scenic highway sought exemption as a business league under section 501(c)(6). Its members included galleries, lodging providers, restaurants, fishing lodges, and…
Section 6901 generally does not reach employment taxes or trust fund recovery penalties
Chief Counsel advised that section 6901(a)(1) and (2) generally does not provide a collection route for employment taxes or the trust fund recovery penalty. Employment taxes arise under subtitle C,…
CFC debts do not offset a related U.S. person's obligation without actual extinguishment
Chief Counsel considered how to measure a controlled foreign corporation's investment in U.S. property under section 956 when the CFC held an obligation of a U.S. person and owed money to another…
Section 6503(a) rarely adds to the collection-statute suspension for a pending installment agreement
Chief Counsel considered when the collection statute expiration date could be suspended simultaneously under sections 6503(a) and 6331(k). Section 6503(a) concerns deficiencies and deficiency…
Partnership receives 120 days to make a late Section 754 election
A lower-tier partnership sought extra time to make a section 754 election after a partner in its upper-tier partnership died. Both partnerships timely filed their returns, but an adviser…
Upper-tier partnership receives 120 days to make a late Section 754 election
An upper-tier partnership sought extra time to make a section 754 election after one of its partners died. The upper-tier partnership and a lower-tier partnership timely filed their returns, but an…
REIT group receives 90 days to make late taxable REIT subsidiary elections
A company planning to qualify as a REIT acquired interests in six health care companies that had previously been taxable REIT subsidiaries of another REIT. New joint elections on Form 8875 were…
Medical center bonds avoid advance-refunding bar because buyer and university are unrelated
A tax-exempt buyer acquired an academic medical center from a university using taxable debt, and the university used part of the proceeds to defease previously advance-refunded tax-exempt bonds. The…
Church-controlled social-service ministry's pension plan qualifies as a church plan
A nonprofit social-service ministry asked whether its frozen defined benefit pension plan qualified as a church plan under section 414(e). A church official was the ministry's sole member, appointed…
Late return still makes timely election out of bonus depreciation after filing-extension error
A corporate group decided not to claim additional first-year depreciation on seven-year property placed in service during a short tax year. Its return preparer believed it had timely filed Form…
Subsidiaries receive relief for late elections out of bonus depreciation
Two subsidiaries decided not to claim additional first-year depreciation on five-year and seven-year property placed in service during a short tax year. Their corporate parent's return preparer…
S corporation keeps status after shares briefly pass to an ineligible shareholder
An S corporation's election terminated when all of its shares were transferred to an ineligible shareholder. After discovering the problem, the ineligible shareholder transferred the shares in equal…
Foreign entity receives 120 days to elect partnership classification
A foreign eligible entity intended to be treated as a partnership for U.S. federal tax purposes but inadvertently failed to file Form 8832 on time. Under the entity-classification regulations, a…
Estate receives 120 days to allocate GST exemption after incorrect gift-splitting returns
A husband funded four trusts for his children, and the spouses elected to split their gifts equally under section 2513. Their gift tax returns mistakenly reported three-fourths of the total gift to…
Expired limitations period fixes incorrect gift split but not the husband's GST share
A husband funded four trusts for his children, and the spouses elected to split their gifts equally under section 2513. Their gift tax returns mistakenly reported three-fourths of the total gift to…
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.