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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Adviser error supports late IRA rollover waiver
A taxpayer surrendered an IRA annuity after his financial adviser incorrectly treated it as a non-IRA annuity in which the taxpayer had basis. Following the adviser's advice, the net proceeds were dep…
Death within rollover period supports IRA waiver
An IRA owner withdrew an amount and died after a sudden brief illness before the 60-day rollover period expired. The owner's will appointed an executrix, and submitted documentation indicated that the…
Wrong-account deposit receives IRA rollover waiver
A taxpayer instructed a financial institution to roll funds from one IRA into another IRA at the same institution. The institution instead deposited the funds into a non-IRA account. After the taxpaye…
Brokerage deposit error supports IRA rollover waiver
A taxpayer directed a check from one IRA to a clearing firm for the benefit of the taxpayer's IRA at a new company. Contrary to those instructions, the company deposited the funds in the taxpayer's no…
Misrouted plan stock receives rollover waiver
A retiring employee received employer-plan stock that he intended to keep in a retirement account at the same financial institution. A miscommunication caused the shares to be placed in a non-IRA brok…
IRS revokes inactive charity that ignored records requests
An exempt organization did not respond to repeated IRS requests for records about its receipts, spending, and activities. The organization was inactive, with no operations or financial activities cond…
Single-owner entity receives late disregarded-entity election
A single-owner eligible entity intended to be treated as disregarded for federal tax purposes but did not file the required Form 8832. The IRS concluded that the entity satisfied the standards for dis…
Oilfield service income qualifies for partnership exception
A corporation formed a limited partnership to own and finance oil and gas midstream activities before a planned public offering. The partnership would provide freshwater distribution, produced-water t…
Purchaser receives more time for section 338 elections
A U.S. purchaser acquired a foreign target and indirectly acquired the target's foreign affiliates in a transaction represented to be a qualified stock purchase. The purchaser intended to make section…
Reincorporation does not bar potential F reorganization
A publicly traded parent planned a holding-company restructuring involving a merger, conversion of the original corporation into a disregarded limited liability company, asset and ownership transfers,…
Estate and spouse may allocate GST exemptions late
Spouses created a trust for their descendants and timely allocated GST exemptions to an initial split gift. For a later transfer, their attorney failed to prepare Forms 709 or advise them to allocate …
Foreign entity receives late disregarded-entity election
A foreign eligible entity wholly owned by a U.S. citizen failed to file Form 8832 for its intended disregarded-entity status. The IRS concluded that the entity met the standards for discretionary elec…
Foreign entity receives late disregarded-entity election
A foreign eligible entity wholly owned by a U.S. citizen failed to file Form 8832 for its intended disregarded-entity status. The IRS concluded that the entity met the standards for discretionary elec…
Temporary grid link preserves solar placed-in-service status
A renewable-energy developer expected two solar projects to be complete and operating during the relevant year, but the utility might not finish one project's permanent grid connection on time. The de…
Entity receives late corporate and S corporation elections
An eligible entity intended to be classified as a corporation and elect S corporation status from the same effective date. It failed to timely file both Form 8832 and Form 2553. The IRS found that the…
Estate and spouse receive more time to allocate GST exemptions
A married couple transferred property to a trust for their children and more remote descendants, but their attorney failed to prepare gift tax returns for a later transfer or advise them to allocate t…
Partnership receives more time to make a section 754 election
A limited liability company became a partnership for federal tax purposes when an owner's interest passed to a trust at death. The entity was eligible to elect under section 754 to adjust the basis of…
Shared-services company qualifies as a successor employer
Two subsidiaries planned to transfer all employees in a support function, along with the related owned assets and rights to use affiliate-owned assets, to a shared-services company. The employees woul…
S corporation receives more time for a section 336(e) election statement
A partnership bought all stock of an S corporation in a transaction represented to be a qualified stock disposition. The parties timely signed a binding agreement to make a section 336(e) election, wh…
Consolidated group receives more time to elect an extended NOL carryback
A consolidated corporate group incurred a net operating loss eligible for the extended carryback rules then available under section 172(b)(1)(H). The common parent intended to carry the loss back beyo…
Foreign entities receive more time to elect corporate classification
Foreign eligible entities intended to elect treatment as associations taxable as corporations from a specified date, but they did not timely file valid Forms 8832. The IRS concluded that the requireme…
Pension medical account may reimburse another retiree group
A company had excess assets in a section 401(h) account used to pay medical costs for one grandfathered group of retirees. It proposed amending its plans so that the account could also reimburse quali…
Trust may deduct IRA proceeds paid to a charity
A decedent named a trust as beneficiary of several individual retirement accounts, and the trust instrument directed those accounts to a charitable foundation. The trust proposed to receive each IRA b…
Foreign insurer receives more time for two tax elections
A foreign property and casualty insurer intended to elect domestic-corporation treatment under section 953(d) and the small-insurance-company tax regime under section 831(b), but its manager did not f…
Charity loses exemption over property donation transactions
The IRS revoked an organization's section 501(c)(3) status effective January 1, 2009. The organization performed charitable work for schoolchildren, but it also accepted donated real estate at high st…
Farm employee housing foundation loses exemption
The IRS revoked a private foundation's section 501(c)(3) status because its primary activity was providing housing exclusively to employees of its founders' family-owned farming business. The foundati…
Taxpayer receives a waiver for a late IRA rollover
A taxpayer's IRA custodian liquidated her account after unpaid fees, but she did not receive a check and was unaware that a distribution had occurred. She later learned of the distribution from a Form…
Taxpayer receives a waiver after a bank misdirects rollover funds
A taxpayer directed that her final employee stock ownership plan balance be rolled directly into an IRA. Although the distribution check was payable to a bank for the benefit of her IRA, the bank depo…
Foundation receives approval for martial arts grant procedures
A private foundation proposed grants to individuals for martial arts, self-defense, and anti-violence training, travel, competitions, certifications, and educational publications. Applicants would be …
Medicaid contractor status depends on insurance risk and beneficiary rights
Chief Counsel addressed when entities providing Medicaid services are health insurance issuers and covered health insurance providers for the compensation deduction limit in section 162(m)(6). A non-r…
Assessment ends one partnership's Form 872-A extension
Chief Counsel considered whether a Form 872-A consent extending the assessment period had terminated for three partnerships. An assessment attributable to one partnership ended the consent as to that …
Form 872 may extend the section 6501(f) assessment period
Chief Counsel advised that Form 872 may extend an assessment period that remains open under section 6501(f), even if the ordinary three-year period under section 6501(a) has expired. No additional lan…
IRS letters need not show a taxpayer's full TIN
Chief Counsel advised that no legal requirement compels the IRS to include a taxpayer's full taxpayer identification number on a letter sent to that taxpayer. The advice did not say that the number sh…
Retailer may estimate the goods share of unredeemed gift cards
A retailer sold gift cards redeemable for goods, integral services, unrelated services, warranties, and other items. The IRS concluded that gift cards do not fall outside the former section 1.451-5 de…
Corporation's late tax-year change application is treated as timely
A corporation filed Form 1128 after the deadline to change its annual accounting period from a March 31 year-end to an April 30 year-end. It filed the application soon after the missed deadline and re…
Pooled mortgage investment interests qualify as registered obligations
An investment manager proposed a tiered structure of partnerships, statutory trusts, and series trusts that would hold mortgage loans. The underlying mortgage loans were not in registered form, but in…
Parent receives more time to file LIFO elections for subsidiaries
A corporate parent transferred LIFO inventory to newly created subsidiaries in a restructuring and continued using the same LIFO method for tax and financial reporting. Its outside advisers did not te…
Estate receives more time to elect portability of unused exclusion
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 executor represented that the gross estate and…
S corporation receives relief for six late trust elections
After a shareholder died, shares of an S corporation passed to six trusts. The trusts were intended to become qualified subchapter S trusts, but their beneficiaries did not timely file the required QS…
Consolidated group may make a late NOL carryback waiver
A consolidated corporate group intended to waive the entire carryback period for a consolidated net operating loss and filed its returns consistently with that intent, but a valid election statement m…
Consolidated group receives relief to make a late NOL carryback waiver
A consolidated corporate group failed to file a valid election waiving the carryback period for a consolidated net operating loss. The parent requested relief before the IRS discovered the failure and…
Foreign limited partnership may make a late corporate classification election
A foreign limited partnership intended to be treated as an association taxable as a corporation for U.S. federal tax purposes, but it inadvertently failed to file Form 8832. Without an election, the e…
Foreign limited partnership may make a late corporate classification election
A foreign limited partnership intended to be treated as an association taxable as a corporation for U.S. federal tax purposes, but it inadvertently failed to file Form 8832. Without an election, the e…
S corporation receives relief for an inadvertent termination
An S corporation transferred all its shares to an entity owned by a married couple as community property. Because that entity was treated as a partnership, it was an ineligible S corporation sharehold…
Taxpayer may deduct service warrants when they are exercised
A corporate taxpayer issued stock warrants to two companies in connection with services provided under long-term purchasing agreements. The warrants had no readily ascertainable fair market value when…
Corporation receives relief for missing S election consent and QSST election
A corporation intended to elect S corporation status while its shares were held by two trusts. A required shareholder consent may have been missing, and the beneficiary of one trust did not timely ele…
Holding company may look through intercompany receipts for worthless-stock test
A corporate parent planned to claim an ordinary worthless-stock loss for a holding-company subsidiary after a restructuring. Section 165(g)(3) requires, among other things, that more than 90 percent o…
Late QSST election does not end corporation's S status
S corporation stock passed from a grantor retained annuity trust to a successor trust that met the requirements for a qualified subchapter S trust. The successor trust's beneficiary failed to make a t…
Three partnerships may make late section 754 elections
Three limited liability companies treated as partnerships failed to make section 754 elections for the year in which an owner died. A section 754 election allows partnership property basis adjustments…
Foreign entity may make a late disregarded-entity election
A foreign entity intended to be treated as disregarded from its owner for U.S. federal tax purposes but failed to timely file Form 8832. Its indirect corporate owner filed U.S. tax and information ret…
Pension plan may use substitute mortality tables for up to 10 years
A pension plan asked to use substitute mortality tables for its non-disabled male and female participants when making minimum-funding computations. The IRS found that the submitted rates sufficiently …
Foundation's university scholarship procedures receive advance approval
A private foundation proposed scholarships for qualifying members of a university chapter who needed tuition assistance. An independent selection committee would consider academic standing, financial …
Captive insurer denied section 501(c)(15) exemption
A foreign captive insurance company sought exemption as a small nonlife insurance company under section 501(c)(15). The IRS examination concluded that most of its direct-written contracts covered busi…
Inactive charity lost its section 501(c)(3) exemption
The IRS revoked an organization's section 501(c)(3) exemption after finding that it had stopped conducting charitable work and had no regular operations or planned activities. The examination report s…
Church exemption revoked for private benefit and commercial activity
The IRS revoked an organization's section 501(c)(3) exemption after concluding that it no longer operated as a church and did not operate exclusively for exempt purposes. The examination found no esta…
Renewable energy bond spending period extended for permit delay
An electric power cooperative asked the IRS for 24 more months to spend the remaining proceeds of new clean renewable energy bonds. The cooperative had expected to spend all proceeds within the origin…
REIT liquidation sales avoided prohibited-transaction tax
A real estate investment trust planned to sell all of its residential rental properties under a plan of liquidation. It asked whether the sales would be prohibited transactions subject to the 100 perc…
Statutory property interests qualified for involuntary-conversion relief
A corporation operated facilities on government land and held statutory beneficial ownership interests in buildings and improvements that it financed. A government agency forced the corporation to sur…
Late tax-exempt controlled entity election received 60-day relief
A corporation wholly owned by a tax-exempt entity was a general partner in a partnership that owned low-income housing. The corporation intended to elect under section 168(h)(6)(F)(ii) not to be treat…
Private foundation division approved with pass-through conditions
A family private foundation proposed transferring 40 percent of its assets equally to two new private foundations so different family branches could pursue separate charitable priorities. The IRS rule…
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.