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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Financial institution error supports IRA rollover waiver
An IRA owner tried to consolidate retirement accounts by sending a distribution check to a new financial institution for deposit into a new IRA. The institution mistakenly placed the money in a non-IR…
Death during rollover period supports IRA deadline waiver
An IRA owner withdrew funds intending to move them to another IRA and temporarily placed the distribution in a non-IRA account. Twelve days later he suffered a massive stroke, and he died before the 6…
Illness and death support retirement-plan rollover waiver
A retirement plan distributed funds to a participant who had suffered a stroke and who tried to establish a rollover IRA. He suffered another stroke and died within the 60-day rollover period, while a…
Stroke and bad advice support IRA rollover waiver
An IRA owner who had suffered a stroke relied on his spouse to manage their financial affairs. Acting on an accounting firm's advice, she withdrew both the IRA and qualified-plan required minimum dist…
Pension contribution may revert without harming plan qualification
A defined benefit pension plan requested disallowance of an employer-contribution deduction so the contribution could revert to the employer under Revenue Procedure 90-49. The IRS determined that the …
Foundation's biomedical research grant procedures approved
A private foundation proposed four grant and fellowship programs supporting early-stage biomedical research intended to benefit children in the United States. Participating institutions would nominate…
Farmers market denied business-league exemption
An organization whose earlier section 501(c)(5) exemption had been automatically revoked applied for reinstatement under section 501(c)(6) after its membership evolved to include both farmers and proc…
Short-week benefits remain wages when not tied to unemployment payments
A multiple-employer supplemental unemployment trust paid short-week benefits to employees who worked fewer than a redacted number of hours in the prior month. Although the plan description said employ…
Foreign-stock gain agreement terminates before partnership asset sale
A U.S. parent had entered into successive gain recognition agreements after transferring one foreign subsidiary to another, liquidating the transferred subsidiary, and later bringing the remaining for…
Foreign entity receives more time for disregarded-entity election
A foreign eligible entity intended to be treated as disregarded from its owner but did not timely file Form 8832. The entity represented that it acted reasonably and in good faith and that granting re…
S corporation receives relief for invalid trust and subsidiary elections
An S corporation's election was ineffective because multiple shareholder trusts lacked valid QSST or ESBT elections. That defect also invalidated elections to treat four subsidiaries as qualified subc…
S corporation preserves status after invalid trust elections
An S corporation's election was ineffective because shareholder trusts lacked valid QSST or ESBT elections. The same defect invalidated elections for two qualified subchapter S subsidiaries, and three…
S corporation receives coordinated relief for trust and QSub defects
An S corporation's election was ineffective because numerous shareholder trusts lacked valid QSST or ESBT elections. That defect also invalidated elections involving 18 qualified subchapter S subsidia…
Late success-fee safe-harbor election is denied
A corporate taxpayer incurred acquisition costs but did not account for them on its original return because its tax director believed the costs belonged to its parent. After later claiming additional …
Estate receives more time to elect portability
An estate missed the deadline to file Form 706 and elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount. The executrix represented that the estate was below the filing threshold and ther…
Taxpayer receives more time to complete success-fee election
A corporation paid success-based fees in an acquisition and timely reported 70 percent as deductible and 30 percent as capitalized, consistent with the Rev. Proc. 2011-29 safe harbor. Its return prepa…
Foreign entity receives more time for disregarded-entity election
A foreign eligible entity intended to be treated as disregarded from its owner but did not timely file Form 8832. The entity represented that it acted reasonably and in good faith and that granting re…
Foreign entity receives more time for disregarded-entity election
A foreign eligible entity intended to be treated as disregarded from its owner but did not timely file Form 8832. The entity represented that it acted reasonably and in good faith and that granting re…
Hedge fund receives more time for mixed-straddle elections
A hedge fund entered mixed-straddle transactions in two tax years but did not timely elect mixed-straddle account treatment. The fund had hired a CPA firm for tax and administration services, but the …
Taxpayer receives more time to allocate GST exemption to trust
A taxpayer made a gift to an irrevocable trust with generation-skipping transfer tax potential. Although she hired tax professionals to prepare the gift tax return, they inadvertently failed to alloca…
Taxpayer receives more time to allocate GST exemption to trust
A taxpayer made a gift to an irrevocable trust with generation-skipping transfer tax potential. Although he hired tax professionals to prepare the gift tax return, they inadvertently failed to allocat…
Retiree medical premium reimbursements qualify for tax exclusions
A company proposed using excess assets in a qualified pension plan's separate IRC § 401(h) account to reimburse eligible retirees and their families for health-plan premiums through an unfunded retire…
Cottage association is denied social-club exemption
An organization appealed a proposed denial of tax-exempt status as a social club under IRC § 501(c)(7). Its members privately owned cottages on the organization's land, and the organization maintained…
Scholarship grant procedures receive advance approval
A private foundation requested advance approval of procedures for educational grants to people facing financial hardship or other barriers. The program would use objective, nondiscriminatory selection…
Volunteer scholarship procedures receive advance approval
A private foundation proposed one-time scholarships for high school seniors who volunteered and demonstrated social responsibility and civic engagement. Applicants also had to meet a minimum grade-poi…
Four scholarship programs receive advance approval
A private foundation proposed four scholarship programs for different groups of college and university students, including study-abroad participants and students at specified institutions. Outside org…
Cultural travel grant procedures receive advance approval
A private foundation proposed grants enabling students, faculty, and other qualified individuals to deepen their study of a foreign culture through travel. Faculty nominators would identify candidates…
Entity-return disclosure to individual bankruptcy trustee must be denied
Chief Counsel addressed whether an individual bankruptcy trustee could receive return information for a related entity. The trustee for the individual was not also the trustee for the entity. Counsel …
Industrial structures qualify as real property for production deduction
A national construction contractor substantially renovated or erected several types of large industrial units and asked whether receipts from those projects qualified as domestic production gross rece…
REIT and subsidiary receive more time for TRS election
A parent intended to elect REIT status and have a subsidiary that provided parking services treated as a taxable REIT subsidiary from the subsidiary's formation. The parent believed its tax adviser ha…
Estate receives more time to elect out of automatic GST allocation
A taxpayer funded a trust for his children and reported the transfer on a timely Form 709. The return did not include the written election needed to prevent automatic allocation of generation-skipping…
Extended term does not end liquidating trust treatment
A trust was created under a Chapter 11 reorganization plan to liquidate and distribute a debtor's estate. After an initial three-year term and a two-year extension, developments generally beyond the t…
Estate receives more time to elect portability
An estate missed the deadline to file Form 706 and elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount. The estate represented that its value, including the decedent's taxable gifts, wa…
Donor receives more time to allocate GST exemption to trust
A donor transferred an asset to a trust for his daughter and her descendants before 2001. His accountant mistakenly reported the transfer as an outright gift to the daughter and failed to allocate gen…
Couple receives more time to group rental real estate activities
A married couple represented that they qualified as taxpayers in a real property business but filed their joint return without electing to treat all rental real estate interests as one activity. Their…
Couple receives more time to group rental real estate activities
A married couple represented that they qualified as taxpayers in a real property business but filed their joint return without electing to treat all rental real estate interests as one activity. Their…
Couple receives more time to group rental real estate activities
A married couple represented that they qualified as taxpayers in a real property business but filed their joint return without electing to treat all rental real estate interests as one activity. Their…
Estate receives more time to elect portability
An estate missed the deadline to file Form 706 and elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount. The estate represented that its value, including the decedent's taxable gifts, wa…
Consolidated group may use tax book value for interest apportionment
A consolidated group historically used tax book value to apportion interest expense. It acquired another consolidated group that had used fair market value, causing the acquired corporations to join t…
S corporation receives more time for QSub election
An S corporation formed a wholly owned subsidiary and intended to elect qualified subchapter S subsidiary treatment from the subsidiary's formation date. It did not file Form 8869 because of inadverte…
REIT and hotel subsidiary receive more time for TRS election
A newly formed parent intended to elect REIT status and treat a wholly owned subsidiary as a taxable REIT subsidiary from formation so the structure could comply with the lodging exception for rents f…
Partnership receives more time for section 754 election
A partner died, and the partner's interest moved through the estate to a trust. The partnership's tax advisers neither explained the availability of an IRC § 754 election nor made the election on the …
Corporation receives more time to elect IC-DISC status
A foreign owner formed a domestic corporation to operate as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation for products made by affiliated U.S. companies. The corporation relied on its at…
Foreign entity receives more time for disregarded-entity election
A wholly owned foreign eligible entity intended to be treated as disregarded from its owner but failed to timely file a valid Form 8832. The IRS concluded that the entity satisfied the requirements fo…
Foreign entity receives more time for disregarded-entity election
A wholly owned foreign eligible entity intended to be treated as disregarded from its owner but failed to timely file a valid Form 8832. The IRS concluded that the entity satisfied the requirements fo…
Estate receives more time to elect portability
An estate missed the deadline to file Form 706 and elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount. The executrix represented that the estate, including the decedent's taxable gifts…
S corporation election continues through restructuring steps
An S corporation with two business groups proposed inserting a new parent, becoming disregarded or a QSub, moving one business to the parent, and then separating the other business through a new subsi…
S corporation receives relief for ineligible trust shareholders
An S corporation shareholder was a grantor trust that remained eligible for two years after its owner's death but did not transfer its shares or make an ESBT election before that period expired. The s…
Organ-recovery charter flights qualify for medical-service tax exemption
A federally designated organ procurement organization chartered aircraft on short notice to carry transplant teams to donor hospitals and return recovered organs to transplant centers. The flights als…
Airline group receives more time to elect out of bonus depreciation
An airline consolidated group decided not to claim 50 percent additional first-year depreciation for specified five-year and seven-year property. Its timely return consistently omitted the bonus depre…
Adviser error qualifies for IRA rollover deadline waiver
A retiring taxpayer intended to move retirement assets through an IRA into an investment fund held by a new IRA custodian. Her financial advisers failed to establish the new IRA, so the investment was…
Custodian error qualifies for rollover deadline waiver
A taxpayer directed that a distribution from her employer's 401(k) plan be deposited into an IRA. Although the check was payable for her benefit as an IRA rollover, the receiving company deposited it …
Family medical charity is denied exemption for private benefit
An organization formed to assist children and families with serious medical conditions primarily raised and distributed funds for the minor child of its founders. Almost all distributions during its f…
Inactive organization loses tax-exempt status
The IRS revoked an organization's tax-exempt status under IRC § 501(c)(3) because it had been inactive for years and was not operating exclusively for exempt purposes. Its returns reported no revenues…
Form 8928 excise tax waiver was appropriate
Chief Counsel agreed that the IRS should waive an excise tax reported in Part II of Form 8928. The form instructions permit the Secretary to waive some or all of that tax when payment would be excessi…
Form 8928 excise tax waiver was appropriate
Chief Counsel agreed that the IRS should waive an excise tax reported in Part II of Form 8928. The form instructions permit the Secretary to waive some or all of that tax when payment would be excessi…
Business separations and related distributions receive favorable tax treatment
A public company proposed a series of internal and external distributions to separate three businesses, exchange securities of one controlled company for parent-company debt, and later convert one dis…
Dementia may support reasonable cause for late filing and payment
A taxpayer sought abatement of late-filing and late-payment additions to tax, claiming that dementia prevented her from managing her financial affairs. Chief Counsel advised the IRS to consider first-…
Late mixed straddle account elections receive a 30-day extension
A corporate taxpayer failed to renew its mixed straddle account election for two tax years after an acquisition transferred responsibility to a tax department unfamiliar with the annual filing require…
REIT spillover distributions take priority over stock repurchases
A real estate investment trust planned to issue a new class of stock, make spillover distributions treated as paid in the preceding tax year, and repurchase common or new shares. The REIT represented …
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.