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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Caregiving crisis supports waiver of the 60-day IRA rollover deadline
An IRA owner took a distribution intending to roll it into another IRA. During the rollover period, his mother-in-law suffered a serious automobile accident, remained hospitalized, and later died whil…
Dementia supports waiver of the 60-day IRA rollover deadline
An IRA owner received a distribution but did not complete a rollover within 60 days. Medical records showed that she had dementia, needed help managing finances and records, and was impaired in her ab…
Pension funding extension ends after a condition failure
A pension plan had received conditional approval in 2005 to extend the period for amortizing unfunded liabilities by ten years. The IRS modified that ruling so a failure to meet a condition would end …
School-based scholarship procedures receive advance approval
A nonexempt charitable trust asked the IRS to approve procedures for scholarships benefiting graduates of two schools who would attend one of two designated post-secondary schools. Applicants had to m…
Missing records and private inurement end charitable exemption
The IRS revoked a charitable organization's exemption effective January 1, 2012. The organization did not provide records needed to verify its activities, receipts, expenditures, or continued operatio…
Public-facing business becomes the organization's primary activity
A section 501(c)(4) social welfare organization operated a public-facing business that generated 92.56 percent of its income. Although the organization made grants and provided some social welfare ben…
Sports broadcast contract receipts are not domestic production gross receipts
A sports organization granted a television network rights to produce and broadcast games and asked whether its contract receipts qualified for the former domestic production activities deduction under…
Foreign partnership receives 120 days to make a late section 754 election
A foreign entity classified as a partnership for U.S. federal tax purposes experienced transfers of ownership interests during a taxable year. It intended to make an IRC § 754 election but failed to f…
Foreign partnership receives late section 754 election relief
A foreign entity classified as a partnership for U.S. federal tax purposes failed to file an intended IRC § 754 election after ownership interests were transferred. It nevertheless adjusted partnershi…
Estate receives 120 days to make an unknown portability election
An estate did not file Form 706 by the deadline because it was unaware that a return was required to transfer the decedent's unused estate and gift tax exclusion to the surviving spouse. The estate re…
Government utility's shared generating facility avoids private business use
A city planned to issue bonds so its utility authority could buy an undivided interest in a new electric generating facility from a private company. The authority and company would form a tax partners…
Estate receives portability relief after the surviving spouse's death
A decedent left the entire estate to the surviving spouse, but no Form 706 was filed to elect portability of the decedent's unused estate and gift tax exclusion. The surviving spouse later died, and a…
Inherited rental properties avoid UBIT and private-foundation excise taxes
A private foundation expected to inherit commercial rental properties through single-member limited liability companies and planned to use another disregarded LLC to manage them. The IRS ruled that qu…
Spouse may revoke U.S. residency election and amend related returns
One spouse was a U.S. resident under the substantial presence test, while the other elected to be treated as a resident for the same year so they could file jointly. Their combined ownership caused a …
Estate receives additional time for an unknown portability election
An estate did not file Form 706 by the deadline because it was unaware that a return was necessary to transfer the decedent's unused estate and gift tax exclusion to the surviving spouse. The estate r…
Shareholder may make retroactive QEF elections for two PFICs
A U.S. shareholder owned one foreign corporation directly and another indirectly, but an experienced accounting firm failed to identify either corporation as a passive foreign investment company or ad…
Estate receives 120 days to make a late portability election
An estate failed to file Form 706 by the deadline and later discovered that a return was necessary to transfer the decedent's unused estate and gift tax exclusion to the surviving spouse. The executri…
Consolidated group receives 60 days to waive its CNOL carryback period
A consolidated corporate group intended to waive the entire carryback period for a consolidated net operating loss but failed to attach the required election statement to its return. The group filed a…
Consolidated group receives late CNOL carryback waiver relief
A consolidated corporate group intended to waive the entire carryback period for a consolidated net operating loss but omitted the required election statement from its return. Its returns were otherwi…
Tribal casino offices do not house gaming
A tribal political subdivision planned to issue tribal economic development bonds to finance an office and conference facility. Casino executives would work there and oversee casino operations, but no…
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 for the surviving spouse. The estate represented that its value, including the dec…
IRS waives IRA rollover deadline after bank error
A taxpayer received an IRA distribution after a bank representative moved funds from her maturing IRA certificate of deposit into a non-IRA money market account. The taxpayer had medical conditions th…
IRS waives two IRA rollover deadlines for elderly couple
An elderly husband withdrew funds from his IRA and his wife's IRA and deposited them into non-IRA accounts. The husband had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and the wife relied on him to handl…
IRS waives rollover deadline after IRA transfer error
A taxpayer requested a trustee-to-trustee IRA transfer, and the original financial institution issued a check payable to the receiving institution for the taxpayer's benefit. The receiving institution…
IRS approves artist residency grant procedures
A private operating foundation sought advance approval for grants and stipends paid to participants in its arts, literature, and science residency program. Residents are selected nationally by an exte…
IRS approves employee-child scholarship procedures
A private foundation proposed six one-time college scholarships for children of its employees and subsidiaries' employees. An independent organization would select recipients through a national academ…
IRS approves scholarship and fellowship procedures
A private foundation proposed scholarships based on financial need or academic excellence and fellowships supporting academic, literary, artistic, and related work. Scholarship applicants could attend…
Social club denied exemption for recurring oil and gas income
A hunting, fishing, shooting, and boating club sought recognition as a tax-exempt social club under IRC § 501(c)(7). The club regularly received most of its revenue from nonmember sources, including o…
Form W-2c penalties apply only after the filing and furnishing deadlines
An IRS employee asked whether penalties under IRC §§ 6721 and 6722 could be imposed when an employer did not file corrected wage statements at the end of an audit. Chief Counsel advised that the emplo…
Deferred revenue obligations do not increase built-in gain after an ownership change
A loss corporation received prepaid income before an ownership change for services it would perform afterward. It treated the related deferred revenue obligations as increasing its net unrealized buil…
Corporation receives more time to elect IC-DISC status
A domestic corporation intended to be treated as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation from its formation. Its accounting firm failed to prepare or file Form 4876-A because of an…
Investors may make a retroactive qualified electing fund election
A married couple acquired shares in a passive foreign investment company and relied on their tax accountant to prepare their joint return. Although the accountant knew about the investment, the accoun…
Investment fund receives more time to make foreign-tax election
A regulated investment company intended to elect under IRC § 853 so its shareholders would be treated as paying their shares of foreign taxes withheld from the fund's dividends. Its adviser resigned a…
REIT's elective cash-and-stock distributions receive property-distribution treatment
A publicly traded corporation planning to elect real estate investment trust status proposed distributions in which shareholders could choose cash or common stock. Cash would equal at least 20 percent…
Partnership receives more time to make a section 754 election
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership missed the deadline to elect under IRC § 754 after one of its members died. The election would permit an adjustment to the basis of partnership prope…
Corporation keeps S status after passive-income termination
An S corporation had accumulated earnings and profits and received more than 25 percent of its gross receipts from passive investment income for three consecutive years. That combination terminated it…
Dementia supports waiver of three IRA rollover deadlines
An IRA owner closed three retirement accounts and deposited the checks into ordinary checking and savings accounts at banks closer to his home. He did not understand that the distributions had to be p…
IRS approves need-based college scholarship procedures
A private foundation proposed one-time college scholarships for students selected by participating schools. A school had to be a commercial customer of a specified bank and have more than half of its …
IRS approves set-aside for water-quality education facility
A private foundation asked to set aside funds to construct a larger facility for two water-quality and science education programs. The planned building would include chemistry and biology teaching lab…
Parking-garage income qualifies as rent from real property
A real estate investment trust planned for a partnership it partly owned to acquire a parking garage next to an office building. The garage primarily served the office park's tenants, employees, custo…
Parking-garage income qualifies as rent from real property
A real estate investment trust planned for a partnership it partly owned to acquire a parking garage next to an office building. The garage primarily served the office park's tenants, employees, custo…
Parent receives more time for unified-loss basis election
The parent of a consolidated group transferred stock of a subsidiary in a restructuring and missed the deadline for an election under Treas. Reg. § 1.1502-36. The election would reduce the parent's ba…
Donor receives more time to opt out of automatic GST allocation
A donor made a cash gift to a trust with generation-skipping transfer tax potential and hired tax professionals to prepare the gift tax return. The professionals failed to elect out of the deemed allo…
Corporation receives more time to elect IC-DISC status
A domestic corporation was formed to operate as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation. Its law firm said it would organize the entity and prepare Form 4876-A, but it miscalculate…
Foreign corporation receives more time for branch-profits election
A foreign corporation's timely Form 1120-F calculated branch profits tax consistently with an election to reduce its U.S. liabilities. Its accounting firm omitted the required statement formally makin…
REIT receives more time to make consent-dividend election
A limited liability company elected real estate investment trust treatment on its first tax return but did not claim the dividends-paid deduction required for REIT qualification. Its accounting firm o…
Corporation keeps S status after missed ESBT election
A shareholder placed S corporation stock in a revocable grantor trust and later died. The trust remained an eligible S corporation shareholder for two years after the death, but its trustee failed to …
Couple substantially complied with GST allocation elections
A married couple created trusts for their children and descendants, dividing each child's trust into an exempt and a non-exempt subtrust. They split gifts between themselves and intended to opt out of…
Foreign entity receives more time to elect disregarded status
A foreign eligible entity was wholly owned by an S corporation through a qualified subchapter S subsidiary. The owners intended from formation to treat the foreign entity as disregarded for federal ta…
QDOT trustee receives more time to report spouse's citizenship
A decedent left property in a qualified domestic trust for a surviving spouse who was not a U.S. citizen. The spouse later became a citizen after continuously residing in the United States but did not…
Retained trust powers keep transfers incomplete for gift tax
A grantor created an irrevocable family trust whose corporate trustee could make distributions under powers involving the grantor and a distribution committee. The IRS concluded that the grantor's ret…
Permanently moored casino facilities qualify as real property
A gaming company planned a transaction in which casino real estate would be owned by a real estate investment trust and leased to an operating company. Several casino facilities were built on barges o…
Trust reallocation avoids GST, gift, and income tax
A trust created before the generation-skipping transfer tax effective date had been divided into successor trusts under a court-approved settlement. When a beneficiary died without descendants, the ag…
GST exemption allocated automatically despite reporting errors
A settlor transferred partnership interests, corporate stock, and promissory notes to two trusts for children and later descendants. The settlor and spouse split the first-year gifts but their tax pro…
Court reformation cannot create an IRA designated beneficiary
An IRA owner intended only to move retirement assets to a new custodian but signed a form naming the estate as sole beneficiary instead of preserving three trusts as beneficiaries. After the owner's d…
Court reformation cannot create an IRA designated beneficiary
An IRA owner intended only to move retirement assets to a new custodian but signed a form naming the estate as sole beneficiary instead of preserving three trusts as beneficiaries. After the owner's d…
Court reformation cannot create an IRA designated beneficiary
An IRA owner intended only to move retirement assets to a new custodian but signed a form naming the estate as sole beneficiary instead of preserving three trusts as beneficiaries. After the owner's d…
Consolidated group receives more time to waive loss carryback
A consolidated corporate group incurred a consolidated net operating loss and intended to give up the loss carryback period. Its return was prepared consistently with that choice, but a valid election…
Growing family qualifies for reduced home-sale exclusion
A married couple bought a two-bedroom condominium while they had one child. One bedroom also served as the husband's home office and a guest room. After the purchase, the wife became pregnant and the …
Entity receives more time to elect corporate classification
A business entity intended from its formation date to be treated as an association taxable as a corporation for federal tax purposes. It inadvertently failed to file Form 8832 by the deadline. The IRS…
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.