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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Missed retirement distribution receives rollover waiver
A taxpayer was entitled to a former spouse's retirement-plan distribution under a court order after their divorce. Because she had moved, the plan's letter and first check went to her former address, …
Employer-related scholarship procedures are approved
A private foundation proposed scholarships for current, retired, and former employees of an employer and its affiliates, as well as their spouses, children, and grandchildren. An independent selection…
Environmental research grant procedures are approved
A private foundation proposed fellowship grants for individuals conducting academic research on environmental protection and sustainability. A committee of trustees and recognized environmental expert…
Franchisee association is denied business-league exemption
An association formed by owners of stores operating under one franchise sought exemption as a business league under section 501(c)(6). Its membership, revenue, educational work, dispute-resolution eff…
Incomplete organizational record prevents section 501(c)(3) exemption
An applicant sought recognition as a section 501(c)(3) organization but did not provide an organizing document or a sufficiently detailed description of its proposed operations. Its filings inconsiste…
Section 501(c)(3) status is revoked after no exempt activity
An organization had received recognition under section 501(c)(3), but its representative later stated that a scammer had induced the filing and that the organization never intended to apply for tax-ex…
Charity loses exemption after withholding examination records
The IRS examined a section 501(c)(3) grant-making organization after its return reported grants and little or no public support. The organization supplied some information but repeatedly withheld requ…
Foreign passive-income inclusions qualify for the REIT income test
A corporation planning to elect REIT status invested in foreign subsidiaries holding commercial timberland businesses. It expected Subpart F inclusions from controlled foreign corporations and inclusi…
Specified spin-off funding and debt steps receive favorable treatment
A publicly traded parent planned to separate three businesses into three publicly traded corporations. It would contribute two businesses to newly formed subsidiaries, receive stock, cash proceeds, as…
Late disregarded-entity election receives a 120-day extension
A foreign eligible entity failed to file Form 8832 on time to be treated as a disregarded entity from its intended effective date. It represented that it had acted reasonably and in good faith and tha…
Mortgage settlement payments preserve REMIC treatment
Two residential mortgage securitization trusts expected shares of a settlement resolving claims that mortgages had breached customary representations and warranties. The IRS ruled that entering the se…
Mortgage settlement payments preserve REMIC treatment
Residential mortgage securitization trusts expected shares of a settlement resolving claims that mortgages had breached customary representations and warranties. The IRS ruled that entering the settle…
Late disregarded-entity election receives a 120-day extension
A foreign eligible entity's owner intended the entity to be classified as a disregarded entity from its formation date, but the entity did not file Form 8832 on time. The IRS concluded that the entity…
Late partnership-classification election receives a 120-day extension
The owners of a foreign eligible entity intended it to be classified as a partnership from its formation date, but the entity did not file Form 8832 on time. The IRS concluded that the entity satisfie…
Mortgage settlement payments preserve REMIC treatment
Residential mortgage securitization trusts expected shares of a settlement resolving claims that mortgages had breached customary representations and warranties. The trusts used a separate trustee to …
Partnership receives 120 days to make a late section 754 election
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership timely filed its federal return but inadvertently omitted its intended section 754 election. The election would allow basis adjustments to partnershi…
Late IC-DISC election receives a 60-day extension
A corporation was formed to operate as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation. Its accounting firm prepared Form 4876-A, an officer signed it, and a copy was placed in the corpora…
Late section 754 election is approved after an owner's death
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership failed to make a section 754 election for the year in which an owner, who held an interest through a grantor trust, died. The partnership represented…
Late qualified subchapter S subsidiary election is approved
An S corporation wholly owned a domestic subsidiary and intended to treat it as a qualified subchapter S subsidiary from the subsidiary's incorporation date. The parent inadvertently failed to file Fo…
Late elections out of bonus depreciation receive 60 days
A consolidated corporate group consistently calculated depreciation as though it had elected out of additional first-year depreciation for specified property classes across seven taxable years. Its ti…
Private-home restoration organization is denied exemption
An organization sought section 501(c)(3) status to obtain donations and grants for restoring a historic landmark owned and occupied by its incorporator and director. The owner would select and supervi…
Single-beneficiary medical charity loses exemption
An organization was formed to raise money for one named individual's cancer-related medical care, transportation, hospice, home care, and other needs. The beneficiary's father served as trustee, the b…
Inactive and dissolved organization loses exemption
A public charity reported that it had never become operational and had conducted no activities since receiving exemption. State records also showed that its corporate status had been dissolved. The IR…
Employer STEM scholarship procedures are approved
A private foundation proposed two-year scholarships for children of a company's employees who were pursuing community or technical college training for middle-skill STEM careers. An independent schola…
Foreign insurance reserves may measure Subpart F income
A domestic insurance group owned a controlled foreign corporation conducting life, annuity, and specified accident and health insurance solely in its home country. The foreign insurer asked to use res…
Foreign life insurance reserves may measure Subpart F income
A U.S. corporate group asked whether a foreign life insurance subsidiary could use reserves reported to its home-country insurance regulator when calculating Subpart F income. The subsidiary issued li…
Late consolidated return election receives 60-day extension
A new corporate parent failed to timely elect to file a consolidated federal income tax return with its subsidiaries and members of an acquired group's former consolidated group. It requested discreti…
Intermediary may repay secured debt with exchange proceeds
A leasing business used a qualified intermediary for a program of deferred like-kind exchanges under IRC § 1031. The properties being sold secured loans, and the governing agreements required the inte…
Corporate group gets 45 days to make late consolidated election
A corporate parent failed to timely elect to file a consolidated federal income tax return with its affiliated group. The parent showed that it had reasonably relied on a qualified tax professional wh…
Estate gets 120 days to elect portability
A decedent's estate missed the deadline to file Form 706 and elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused estate tax exclusion for the surviving spouse. The estate represented that the gross esta…
Donor gets 120 days to allocate GST exemption
A donor transferred interests in real property to an irrevocable trust for a child, the child's spouse, and their descendants. The donor's enrolled agent timely filed Form 709 but reported the transfe…
Divorcing spouses may divide charitable remainder unitrust
A married couple planning to divorce proposed dividing one charitable remainder unitrust into two pro rata trusts. Each former spouse would be the sole noncharitable beneficiary of one new trust and c…
Divorce-related charitable trust division approved
A married couple planning to divorce proposed dividing one charitable remainder unitrust into two pro rata trusts. Each former spouse would hold the unitrust interest in one new trust and control that…
Charitable remainder trust may be split after divorce
A couple in divorce proceedings planned to divide a charitable remainder unitrust into two trusts holding pro rata shares of every asset. Each spouse would receive payments only from that spouse's new…
Inadvertent S corporation termination receives relief
An S corporation's stock was held by a revocable trust that became ineligible to remain an S corporation shareholder after the grantor's death. The trustee and estate executor had not timely elected u…
Partnership gets 120 days to make section 754 election
A limited partnership intended to elect under IRC § 754 to adjust the basis of partnership property but inadvertently omitted the election from its timely filed return. The partnership and all affecte…
Guaranty funds qualify as creditors in bankruptcy stock issuance
A bankrupt parent planned to end its existence while an insolvent subsidiary continued a court-supervised liquidation. State guaranty funds had paid claims against the subsidiary and, under state law,…
Late estate tax portability election receives relief
An estate failed to file Form 706 by the deadline needed to elect portability of the decedent's unused estate tax exclusion for the surviving spouse. The surviving spouse represented that the decedent…
Late success-fee safe harbor elections approved
An acquiring corporation and its target sought extra time to elect the safe harbor in Revenue Procedure 2011-29 for success-based transaction fees. Their return had allocated the fees under the safe h…
Fixed-term maintenance payments are not alimony
A divorced taxpayer asked whether court-ordered spousal maintenance payments were alimony under IRC § 71(b). The divorce terms removed the state court's power to modify the award and required payments…
IRA rollover waiver granted for one of two distributions
An IRA owner withdrew two amounts and deposited them into non-IRA accounts instead of completing rollovers within 60 days. The owner submitted medical documentation showing cognitive impairment, memor…
Teacher scholarship procedures receive advance approval
A private foundation requested advance approval of procedures for scholarships supporting college juniors, seniors, and graduate students majoring in elementary education. Applicants would be evaluate…
Employee children's scholarship program approved
A private foundation requested advance approval for scholarships offered worldwide to children of a company's employees. An independent third-party vendor would administer the program and select recip…
Sculptor conference grant procedures approved
A private foundation proposed grants for promising young sculptors to attend its annual conference. Each grant would cover a two-night hotel stay, waive the conference fee, and include a small stipend…
Inactive nursing home charity loses exemption
A tax-exempt organization had operated a nursing home for elderly residents. It sold all of its assets, stopped providing nursing home care, and ceased all activity. The examination report stated that…
Nursing home operator's exemption revoked after shutdown
A section 501(c)(3) organization had operated a nursing home for elderly residents. By the examined year, it had sold the nursing home and its other assets, stopped providing care, and ceased all acti…
Commingled funds and private benefit end exemption
A charity provided donated goods and social services, but its activities had declined substantially. Its president used a personal checking account as the organization's bank account, mixing charitabl…
Channel packages are not qualified films for section 199
A multichannel video distributor claimed that each package of television channels was a qualified film it produced for purposes of the domestic production activities deduction under IRC § 199. The IRS…
Revised nuclear decommissioning fund schedule approved
An investor-owned utility requested a mandatory revised schedule of deductible payments to its nuclear decommissioning fund after the plant's operating license was extended. The proposed amounts cover…
Integrated senior communities qualify as health care property
A real estate investment trust owned two integrated senior living communities containing independent-living and licensed assisted-living units. Residents could move to higher levels of care as their n…
Estate receives 120-day portability extension
An estate missed the deadline to file Form 706 and elect portability of the decedent's unused estate tax exclusion for the surviving spouse. The estate represented that the gross estate, including tax…
Late QSub election receives 120-day extension
An S corporation owned all the stock of a subsidiary and intended to elect qualified subchapter S subsidiary status effective when the subsidiary was formed. It failed to file Form 8869 because of ina…
Spouse gets 120 days to complete QDOT annuity transfers
A noncitizen surviving spouse received payments from a nonassignable pension annuity and later established a qualified domestic trust. She transferred the corpus portion of the payments to the QDOT, a…
Administrative trust changes avoid estate, gift, GST, and income tax consequences
Two grantors sought to modify an irrevocable grantor trust after paying its income taxes became unduly burdensome. A state court approved changes to trustee succession, administrative powers, a substi…
Jewish education scholarship procedures approved
A private foundation proposed a scholarship program to help converts to Judaism take college-level courses in Hebrew and Jewish studies. The awards would cover half of tuition and fees for up to four …
Volunteer fire department loses labor organization status
A volunteer fire department reported on Form 990 that it was exempt as a labor, agricultural, or horticultural organization under § 501(c)(5). The IRS found that its objectives did not concern betteri…
Charity loses exemption after withholding examination records
A recognized § 501(c)(3) organization did not provide records requested during an IRS examination. The IRS mailed an information request, visited the organization's facility, sent a second request by …
Member services cost business league its exemption
An organization had been recognized as a business league under § 501(c)(6). It later developed and expanded a strategic initiative that provided particular services to members and constituted a busine…
Channel packages are not qualified films for the domestic production deduction
A multichannel video programming distributor claimed former § 199 domestic production activities deductions based on subscription packages containing many television channels. It argued that each pack…
Taxpayers get 60 days for late investment income election
Married taxpayers had investment interest expense and carryovers that exceeded their net investment income. Their return preparer omitted earlier carryovers and failed to advise them that they could e…
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.