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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IRS grants a foreign entity a 120-day extension to file a late election to be a disregarded entity
An eligible business entity can elect how it is classified for U.S. tax by filing Form 8832. Here a foreign entity was eligible to be treated as "disregarded" (ignored as separate from its owner)…
IRS grants a corporation reasonable-cause relief to file a late S corporation election
A small business corporation must file Form 2553 on time to be taxed as an S corporation. Here the company intended to be an S corporation as of a specific date but inadvertently failed to file the…
IRS grants a foreign entity a 120-day extension to file a late election to be a disregarded entity
An eligible business entity can elect how it is classified for U.S. tax by filing Form 8832. Here a foreign entity was eligible to be treated as "disregarded" (ignored as separate from its single…
IRS grants a limited partnership a 120-day extension to file a late election to be taxed as a corporation
A business can choose how it is taxed by filing an entity classification election (Form 8832), but the election must be filed on time. Here a limited partnership intended to be taxed as an…
IRS grants an estate a 120-day extension to make a late portability (DSUE) election
A surviving spouse can use the unused part of a deceased spouse's estate-tax exclusion (the DSUE amount), but only if the deceased spouse's estate makes a "portability" election on a timely filed…
IRS rules a foreign-government fund's non-U.S.-investment limited partnership with two owners is not classified as a corporation
This is another companion ruling in the same foreign-government investment structure. A foreign sovereign's global investment company built a new global credit fund through a chain of foreign…
IRS rules a foreign-government fund's U.S.-investment LLC with two owners is not classified as a corporation
This is another companion ruling in the same foreign-government investment structure. A foreign sovereign's global investment company built a new global credit fund through a chain of foreign…
IRS rules a foreign-government fund's master-fund limited partnership with two owners is not classified as a corporation
This is another companion ruling in the same foreign-government investment structure. A foreign sovereign's global investment company built a new global credit fund through a chain of foreign…
IRS rules a foreign-government fund company with two owners is not forced to be a corporation under the check-the-box foreign-government rule
This is another companion ruling in the same foreign-government investment structure. A foreign sovereign's global investment company built a new global credit fund through a chain of foreign…
IRS rules another foreign-government fund limited partnership with two owners is not forced to be a corporation under the check-the-box foreign-government rule
This is another companion ruling in the same foreign-government investment structure. A foreign sovereign's global investment company built a new global credit fund through a chain of foreign…
IRS rules another foreign-government fund limited partnership with two owners is not forced to be a corporation under the check-the-box foreign-government rule
This is another companion ruling in the same foreign-government investment structure. A foreign sovereign's global investment company built a new global credit fund through a chain of foreign…
IRS rules a foreign-government fund's limited partnership with two owners is not forced to be a corporation under the check-the-box foreign-government rule
This is a companion ruling in the same foreign-government investment structure as the one covering a sister entity. A foreign sovereign's global investment company built a new global credit fund…
IRS rules a foreign-government-owned fund entity with two owners is not forced to be a corporation under the check-the-box foreign-government rule
A foreign government's global investment company (a sovereign-wealth-style structure) set up a new global credit fund through a chain of foreign subsidiaries. One of the fund entities is owned by…
IRS grants an LLC a late Section 754 election to adjust the basis of partnership property
An LLC taxed as a partnership meant to make a Section 754 election but its tax advisors inadvertently failed to file it on time. A Section 754 election lets a partnership adjust the inside tax basis…
IRS rules a closely held S corporation's spin-off of a second business qualifies as a tax-free Section 355 distribution and Section 368(a)(1)(D) reorganization
A closely held S corporation owned equally by three related shareholders ran two separate businesses. It wanted to split them apart: it would drop one business into a newly formed corporation and…
IRS grants a consolidated group more time to make a late Section 362(e)(2)(C) election on a built-in-loss property transfer to a foreign subsidiary
A member of a consolidated corporate group transferred property to a foreign corporation in a Section 351 exchange, and the property's tax basis was higher than its value (a built-in loss). Section…
IRS grants a partnership more time to fix a Form 3115 and make a late election recognizing its full Section 481(a) adjustment in the year of an acquisition
A partnership (an LLC taxed as a partnership) was sold to a buyer. After the sale, a C corporation sat in its ownership chain and its receipts were too high to keep using the cash method under…
IRS rules a nuclear plant acquisition transfers the decommissioning trust funds tax-free with carryover basis under Section 468A
A company acquired the corporate owner of four nuclear power plants, and with them the qualified nuclear decommissioning funds set aside to pay for eventually dismantling those plants. Section 468A…
IRS approves a utility's revised schedule of ruling amounts for a nuclear decommissioning fund under Section 468A
A public utility that co-owns a nuclear generating unit set aside money in a nuclear decommissioning fund, the reserve used to pay for eventually dismantling the plant. Section 468A lets a utility…
IRS grants an LLC a late Section 754 election to adjust the basis of partnership property
An LLC taxed as a partnership meant to make a Section 754 election but inadvertently missed it. A Section 754 election lets a partnership adjust the tax basis of its assets when interests change…
IRS grants a tax-exempt-owned LLC late elections to be taxed as a corporation and to opt out of tax-exempt controlled entity status
An LLC owned entirely by four Section 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations missed two related tax elections it needed for a building-rehabilitation investment. First, it was supposed to elect (on Form…
A large building-plus-cash bequest counts as an "unusual grant," so it will not cost a public charity its publicly supported status
A charity that is tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) and classified as a publicly supported organization under Section 509(a)(2) asked the IRS to treat a large incoming gift as an "unusual grant."…
A recreational sports club does not qualify as a 501(c)(6) business league
A nonprofit mutual-benefit corporation applied to be recognized as a tax-exempt business league under Section 501(c)(6). It was organized to promote recreational indoor and racquet sports (table…
A private road-maintenance homeowners association does not qualify for 501(c)(4) social-welfare exemption
A homeowners association applied to be recognized as a tax-exempt social-welfare organization under Section 501(c)(4). Its only activity was maintaining a private access road serving the lots of its…
A workplace social club for lab employees does not qualify for 501(c)(3) exemption
A group that describes itself as a social club supporting and celebrating the anatomic and clinical laboratories of an employer applied for tax-exempt charitable status under Section 501(c)(3) using…
IRS revoked a dormant supporting foundation's section 501(c)(3) exemption
The IRS revoked a foundation's recognition as a tax-exempt organization under IRC § 501(c)(3). The foundation had been classified as a Type III non-functionally integrated supporting organization,…
A rural tourism marketing group that promotes its members' attractions and businesses does not qualify for 501(c)(3) exemption
To be exempt under Section 501(c)(3), an organization must operate exclusively for charitable or educational purposes and serve the public, not the common business interests of its members. Here, a…
A members-only mutual aid society that pays funeral benefits to its dues-paying members does not qualify for 501(c)(3) exemption
To be exempt under Section 501(c)(3), an organization must operate exclusively for public charitable purposes and serve a broad public interest, not just the private interests of its own members.…
A homeowners' association that keeps its common areas members-only does not qualify as a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization
A civic or social welfare organization can be exempt under Section 501(c)(4) only if it is operated primarily to promote the common good and general welfare of a community, not just its own members.…
A property owners' association that maintains its own community's grounds for member fees does not qualify for 501(c)(3) exemption
To be exempt under Section 501(c)(3), an organization must operate exclusively for public purposes, not to serve the private interests of a limited group. Here, a property owners' association…
IRS grants advance approval of a foundation's scholarship-award procedures for high school students at three schools under 4945(g)(1)
A private foundation's grants directly to individuals for study are "taxable expenditures" subject to an excise tax under Section 4945 unless the IRS approves the foundation's award procedures in…
A church-affiliated school is excused from filing Form 990, but must file the annual Form 5578 racial-nondiscrimination certification instead
Most tax-exempt organizations must file an annual Form 990 information return, but there are exceptions. Treasury Regulation § 1.6033-2(g)(1)(vii) excuses a below-college educational organization…
IRS grants advance approval of a foundation's tiered scholarship-award procedures under 4945(g)(1)
When a private foundation makes grants directly to individuals for study, those payments are "taxable expenditures" subject to an excise tax under Section 4945 unless the IRS approves the…
IRS grants advance approval of a foundation's scholarship-award procedures under 4945(g)(1)
When a private foundation gives grants directly to individuals for study, the payments can be "taxable expenditures" that trigger an excise tax under Section 4945 unless the IRS approves the…
The IRS moves to revoke a charity's 501(c)(3) exemption after its officers refused the examination and it failed to keep or produce required records
A tax-exempt charity has to keep adequate books and records and file complete, accurate annual returns (Forms 990), and it must cooperate with an IRS examination so the IRS can confirm it still…
A nonprofit that sells discounted branding and marketing consulting to startups and nonprofits does not qualify for 501(c)(3) exemption
To be exempt under Section 501(c)(3), an organization must pass both an "organizational test" (its founding documents must limit it to exempt purposes) and an "operational test" (it must actually…
An organization that develops free open-source internet censorship-circumvention software does not qualify for 501(c)(3) exemption
To be tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3), an organization must be operated exclusively for exempt purposes (charitable, educational, scientific, and the like), and even one substantial non-exempt…
A dancing club that took in all of its money from nonmembers does not qualify as a tax-exempt 501(c)(7) social club
A social club can be exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)(7) only if substantially all of its activities are for the pleasure and recreation of its members, and it is largely…
A private foundation's 501(c)(3) exemption is revoked for distributing only a tiny fraction of the minimum charitable amount it was required to pay out
A private foundation must actually pay out money for charitable purposes each year: Section 4942 requires it to make "qualifying distributions" equal to roughly 5% of its non-charitable assets (its…
A parent corporation gets a 60-day extension to make a late election for its affiliated group to file a consolidated return
A group of affiliated corporations can elect to file one combined ("consolidated") federal income tax return, with the parent company as the common parent. That election is made by actually filing…
When two shareholder trusts stopped being grantor trusts and missed their QSST elections, the S corporation's termination was inadvertent and its status is restored
An S corporation can only have certain kinds of shareholders. A trust qualifies if it is a grantor trust (treated as owned by an individual) or if its beneficiary files a "Qualified Subchapter S…
An estate too small to require an estate tax return gets a 120-day extension to make a late portability election, preserving the decedent's unused exclusion for the surviving spouse
When someone dies without using their full estate-tax exclusion, the leftover ("deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) can transfer to the surviving spouse, but only if the estate makes a…
A private foundation that inherited a hotel-owning company gets a second five-year period to sell the excess business holdings without triggering the excise tax
A private foundation generally cannot hold more than a small stake in a business (its "permitted holdings"); anything above that is "excess business holdings" and gets taxed under Section 4943…
Surplus from a terminated pension plan can be moved into the employer's two 401(k) profit-sharing plans as a single "qualified replacement plan," avoiding the reversion excise tax
When an employer shuts down an overfunded traditional (defined benefit) pension plan, any leftover money that comes back to the employer is a "reversion" and gets hit with a steep excise tax under…
An estate that was not required to file an estate tax return gets a 120-day extension to make a late portability election, letting the surviving spouse use the decedent's unused exclusion
When someone dies without using up their full estate-tax exclusion, the leftover amount (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) can be passed to the surviving spouse, but only if the…
An S corporation's election terminated when the trustee of a shareholder trust missed the ESBT election, but the lapse was inadvertent and S status is restored
An S corporation can only have certain kinds of shareholders. A trust can qualify if it makes an "Electing Small Business Trust" (ESBT) election, but that election must be filed on time by the…
9100 extension to make a late section 754 partnership basis-adjustment election (754)
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership had a new buyer acquire interests in it. The partnership wanted to make a section 754 election, which lets a partnership adjust the tax basis of…
9100 extension to make a late section 754 partnership basis-adjustment election (754)
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership had a new buyer acquire interests in it. The partnership wanted to make a section 754 election, which lets a partnership adjust the tax basis of…
9100 extension to make a late section 754 partnership basis-adjustment election (754)
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership had a new buyer acquire interests in it. The partnership wanted to make a section 754 election, which lets a partnership adjust the tax basis of…
9100 extension to make a late section 754 partnership basis-adjustment election (754)
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership had a new buyer acquire interests in it. The partnership wanted to make a section 754 election, which lets a partnership adjust the tax basis of…
9100 extension to make a late check-the-box election for an LLC to be a disregarded entity (7701-3)
A limited liability company had elected to be taxed as a corporation. Its sole owner later became an S corporation and elected to treat the LLC as a qualified subchapter S subsidiary (QSub), a…
Inadvertent S-corp termination relief after subtrust beneficiaries missed their QSST elections (1362(f))
An S corporation's stock was held in a trust that was treated as owned by one individual, which made it an eligible S corporation shareholder. That trust later split into six subtrusts, and the…
Income from selling an affordable-housing zoning-density certificate is qualifying REIT income under 856(c)(5)(J)
A REIT owns a mixed-income apartment building through subsidiaries. To get a low-income housing tax credit allocation, it agreed to permanently set aside some units as affordable. In exchange for…
Storage-business fees qualify as REIT rents from real property, with container-overuse payments treated as non-qualifying income (856)
A company that plans to be taxed as a real estate investment trust (REIT) runs a household-goods storage business: tenants load their belongings into company-provided containers, which are stacked…
9100 extension to file a late section 336(e) election on the sale of an S corporation's stock (336)
An S corporation was owned by a single shareholder who sold all of its stock to a corporate buyer. A section 336(e) election lets a qualifying stock sale be treated, for tax purposes, as if the…
9100 extension to elect that an acquired subsidiary's loss carryovers expire on joining a consolidated group (1502)
A parent company heads a consolidated group (a set of affiliated corporations that file one combined federal return). Its subsidiary acquired a target company that carried old net operating losses…
9100 relief lets an LLC self-certify late as a qualified opportunity fund (1400Z-2)
An LLC taxed as a partnership was set up to be a qualified opportunity fund (QOF), a vehicle that lets investors defer and reduce capital-gains tax by investing in designated low-income "opportunity…
9100 extension to deliver the U.S.-shareholder notice for a section 338 election on a foreign acquisition (338)
A foreign company bought all the stock of another foreign company (and, through it, several foreign subsidiaries), all of which were controlled foreign corporations. The buyer wanted to make a…
9100 extension to apply late for FIRPTA withholding certificates on U.S. real property sales (1445)
A U.S. corporation bought interests in three limited liability companies from foreign sellers. Because the interests counted as "United States real property interests," the FIRPTA rules in IRC §…
IRS approves a revised schedule of nuclear decommissioning fund contributions under § 468A
A public utility that owns part of a nuclear power plant set aside money each year in a special fund to pay for eventually decommissioning (safely dismantling) the plant. Under IRC § 468A, a utility…
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.