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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Partner receives 45 days to make a late debt-discharge election
A partnership realized cancellation-of-debt income when a lender reduced debt secured by real property. Its accountant mistakenly made the IRC § 108(c)(3)(C) election on the partnership return, even t…
Partner receives 45 days to make a late debt-discharge election
A partnership realized cancellation-of-debt income after negotiating a reduction of debt secured by its real property. Its accountant mistakenly made the IRC § 108(c)(3)(C) election on the partnership…
Oilfield fluid and waste services produce qualifying partnership income
A publicly traded partnership provided water and chemical fluids for drilling and hydraulic fracturing, transported fluids between well sites, and treated or disposed of drilling and production waste.…
Work-related disability benefits are partly tax-free, but DRO payments are taxable
A governmental pension administrator asked how IRC § 104(a)(1) applied to industrial disability, survivor, death, cost-of-living, and supplemental benefits under three plans. The IRS ruled that disabi…
Foreign annuity reserves may measure a CFC's insurance income
A domestic financial-services group owned controlled foreign corporations that issued payout annuities for foreign pension plans. The foreign insurance regulator required audited annual statements and…
Foreign entity gets 120 days to elect partnership status
A foreign business entity with multiple owners intended from formation to be treated as a partnership for federal tax purposes. It failed to file Form 8832 on time to elect that classification effecti…
Consolidated group gets 60 days to waive its loss carryback
A newly combined consolidated group intended to waive the carryback period for its consolidated net operating loss but failed to attach a valid election statement to its return. The group consistently…
Consolidated group gets 60 days to waive its loss carryback
A consolidated group intended to waive the carryback period for a consolidated net operating loss but failed to attach a valid election statement to its return. Its prior and later returns were filed …
Restitution assessment is valid, but added late-payment penalties are not
A taxpayer argued that assessing court-ordered tax restitution under IRC § 6201(a)(4) violated the Constitution's Ex Post Facto Clause because the underlying tax offenses predated the statute. Chief C…
Prior IRA rollover prevents waiver for later distributions
A taxpayer moved money from one IRA into another account that she believed permitted self-directed real-estate investments. The new custodian did not offer self-directed IRAs and instead recorded chec…
Mental impairment supports an IRA rollover waiver
A taxpayer requested a full distribution when a long-term IRA certificate of deposit matured, then left the check in a savings account after depositing it outside the 60-day rollover period. He later …
Private foundation's scholarship procedures receive advance approval
A private foundation proposed annual scholarships for students in good standing at accredited higher-education institutions in the United States and abroad. Recipients would be chosen based on financi…
Local high-school scholarship procedures receive advance approval
A private foundation proposed ten one-time scholarships for high-school seniors from a specified city who planned to attend four-year colleges or universities. Schools would submit application package…
Member death benefits and investments defeat charitable exemption
A membership organization applied for exemption under IRC § 501(c)(3) while providing cash death benefits, support for arrests and medical or immigration issues, and investment opportunities to its me…
Public rentals and excess nonmember income revoke club exemption
A social club conducted community programs, hosted public speakers and classes, made its clubhouse available to outside groups, and awarded local scholarships. It also rented facilities to members and…
Condominium association serves owners, not public social welfare
A small condominium association sought exemption as a social-welfare organization under IRC § 501(c)(4). Owner dues paid for insurance on a retention pond, street-light electricity, pond cleaning, and…
Endowment units do not create unrelated business income for charitable trust
A charitable remainder unitrust proposed exchanging assets for contractual units tied to its charitable remainder beneficiary's diversified endowment. The trust would have no ownership or control over…
Cost-only endowment services do not create unrelated business income
A public charity proposed allowing a charitable remainder unitrust to participate indirectly in the charity's diversified endowment through contractual units. The charity would issue units for trust a…
Tribal refund waiver reaches both filing and look-back limits
Chief Counsel reconsidered earlier advice about refund claims under the Tribal General Welfare Exclusion Act of 2014. The Act created a one-year waiver for claims attributable to the new exclusion whe…
Estate gets 120 days to elect portability for surviving spouse
An estate missed the deadline to file Form 706 and elect portability of the decedent's unused estate-and-gift-tax exclusion for the surviving spouse. The surviving spouse, acting as personal represent…
Interest-rate hedging produces qualifying partnership income
A publicly traded partnership used interest-rate swaps, caps, forward locks, and Treasury locks to manage borrowing costs for its pipeline, transportation, marketing, and terminal operations. Ordinary…
Taxpayer gets 60 days to file omitted accounting-method form
A taxpayer changed its accounting for advance payments to the deferral method described in Rev. Proc. 2004-34. Its return reflected the change, and its accounting firm timely sent the duplicate Form 3…
Merger-based dividend waiver creates no income for waiving owners
A merger assigned zero value to an uncertain debt instrument owned by one merging corporation and required the new large shareholder to waive any later distribution of sale proceeds from that instrume…
Merger-based dividend waiver creates no income for waiving owners
A merger assigned zero value to an uncertain debt instrument owned by one merging corporation and required the new large shareholder to waive any later distribution of sale proceeds from that instrume…
Corporation receives relief for an invalid S election
A corporation's S election was invalid because it had an ineligible shareholder when the election took effect. The corporation transferred the shares to eligible shareholders and represented that the …
Water reclamation upgrades qualify as replacement property
A water utility received compensation after a city condemned one of its potable water facilities. It planned to defer the resulting gain under section 1033 by using the proceeds for improvements to ex…
Corporation cannot reelect S status before five years
An individual sold all the stock of an S corporation to a C corporation, which terminated the target's S election. The same individual later repurchased the corporation and asked to make a new S elect…
Trust powers produce mixed income, gift, and estate tax results
A grantor created an irrevocable trust whose distributions could be directed through several powers held by the grantor and a nonfiduciary power-of-appointment committee. While the committee remained …
Trust powers produce mixed income, gift, and estate tax results
A grantor created an irrevocable trust whose distributions could be directed through several powers held by the grantor and a nonfiduciary power-of-appointment committee. While the committee remained …
Trust powers produce mixed income, gift, and estate tax results
A grantor created an irrevocable trust whose distributions could be directed through several powers held by the grantor and a nonfiduciary power-of-appointment committee. While the committee remained …
Trust powers produce mixed income, gift, and estate tax results
A grantor created an irrevocable trust whose distributions could be directed through several powers held by the grantor and a nonfiduciary power-of-appointment committee. While the committee remained …
Trust powers produce mixed income, gift, and estate tax results
A grantor created an irrevocable trust whose distributions could be directed through several powers held by the grantor and a nonfiduciary power-of-appointment committee. While the committee remained …
Trust powers produce mixed income, gift, and estate tax results
A grantor created an irrevocable trust whose distributions could be directed through several powers held by the grantor and a nonfiduciary power-of-appointment committee. While the committee remained …
Estate receives more time to make a QTIP election
A decedent's trust created a marital trust that paid all net income to the surviving spouse and allowed certain principal distributions. The spouse, acting as executor, hired a law firm to prepare the…
LNG regasification fees are qualifying partnership income
A publicly traded partnership indirectly owned a liquefied natural gas receiving and regasification terminal through a disregarded entity. Suppliers retained title to the natural gas but transferred p…
Foreign entity receives late classification election relief
A single-owner foreign eligible entity intended to be treated as an association taxable as a corporation from its formation date but did not timely file Form 8832. The IRS found that the entity satisf…
Corporation receives late S election relief
A corporation intended to be treated as an S corporation from a specified effective date but did not timely file the required election. Section 1362(b)(5) permits the IRS to treat a late election as t…
Estate receives reverse QTIP and GST allocation relief
A decedent's estate made a QTIP election for marital-trust property but failed to show the trust's intended division, make a reverse QTIP election, or allocate the decedent's generation-skipping trans…
Foundation receives five more years to sell business holdings
A private foundation inherited all the stock of a company whose interests in development joint ventures became excess business holdings. The foundation tried to dispose of the company during the initi…
Donor and spouse may elect out of automatic GST allocation
A donor transferred cash and marketable securities to an irrevocable trust for descendants and intended to split the gift with his spouse without allocating generation-skipping transfer tax exemption.…
Estate receives late QTIP election relief
A decedent's revocable trust directed property to a QTIP trust for the surviving spouse, with all net income payable at least quarterly and principal available for specified needs. The spouse, acting …
School district plan qualifies under section 457(b)
A school district adopted a nonqualified deferred-compensation plan for its employees and asked whether the plan qualified under section 457(b). The plan limited deferrals, allowed statutory catch-up …
Corporation receives relief for an invalid S election
A corporation intended to begin S corporation treatment after an ineligible shareholder transferred its interest to an eligible shareholder. The parties intended the transfer to occur before the elect…
Parent may make a late CNOL carryback waiver
A consolidated group incurred a consolidated net operating loss and intended to waive the entire carryback period, but it did not file a valid election with the loss-year return. The group filed its o…
Late QSST elections do not end S corporation status
Two shareholders transferred S corporation stock to six trusts that represented they qualified as qualified subchapter S trusts, but no beneficiary made a timely QSST election. The missing elections c…
Missing QSST election receives inadvertent termination relief
A trust held S corporation stock and was a grantor trust until its owner died. Within two years, the trust was reformed to have one current income beneficiary and became eligible to elect qualified su…
Late ESBT election does not end S corporation status
An irrevocable trust held S corporation shares and initially qualified as a grantor trust. When the grantor relinquished retained powers, the trust ceased being a grantor trust but otherwise represent…
LLC may change classification and file a late election
A domestic limited liability company had elected corporate tax treatment and was later acquired entirely by an unrelated corporate owner. The acquisition changed more than 50 percent of the LLC's owne…
S corporation receives late section 336(e) election relief
A partnership acquired all the stock of an S corporation from its shareholders in a transaction represented to be a qualified stock disposition. The shareholders and target timely entered a binding ag…
Trust may make a late charitable-payment election
A trust made a charitable contribution in one tax year that could have been treated as paid in the preceding year under section 642(c)(1), but it failed to make the required election. The IRS found th…
Trust may make a late charitable-payment election
A trust made a charitable contribution in one tax year that could have been treated as paid in the preceding year under section 642(c)(1), but it failed to make the required election. The IRS found th…
Trust may make a late charitable-payment election
A trust made a charitable contribution in one tax year that could have been treated as paid in the preceding year under section 642(c)(1), but it failed to make the required election. The IRS found th…
Trust may make a late charitable-payment election
A trust made a charitable contribution in one tax year that could have been treated as paid in the preceding year under section 642(c)(1), but it failed to make the required election. The IRS found th…
Trust may make a late charitable-payment election
A trust made a charitable contribution in one tax year that could have been treated as paid in the preceding year under section 642(c)(1), but it failed to make the required election. The IRS found th…
Trust may make a late charitable-payment election
A trust made a charitable contribution in one tax year that could have been treated as paid in the preceding year under section 642(c)(1), but it failed to make the required election. The IRS found th…
Trust may make a late charitable-payment election
A trust made a charitable contribution in one tax year that could have been treated as paid in the preceding year under section 642(c)(1), but it failed to make the required election. The IRS found th…
Stock retains qualified small business status through conversions
Taxpayers originally formed a C corporation, later changed its name, converted it to a limited liability company that elected C corporation treatment, and then converted it back to corporate form. The…
Foreign entity receives late disregarded-entity election relief
A taxpayer wholly owned a foreign eligible entity but mistakenly believed an S corporation subsidiary owned it. The foreign entity intended to be treated as disregarded from its formation date but did…
Consolidated group may revoke bonus depreciation opt-out
A consolidated group engaged in the coal business placed five-year and seven-year qualified property in service. On its timely return, it elected not to claim the 50 percent additional first-year depr…
IRS denies late Roth IRA recharacterization relief
A taxpayer converted a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA and later tried to recharacterize it after an adviser raised the conversion's cost. The financial institution did not complete the request, and 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.