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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Housing project receives late multiple-building election
A taxpayer intended to treat all buildings in a low-income housing development as one multiple-building project but inadvertently failed to make an effective election on the Forms 8609 issued for ever…
Housing project receives late multiple-building election
A taxpayer intended to treat all buildings in a low-income housing development as one multiple-building project but inadvertently failed to make an effective election on the Forms 8609 issued for ever…
Housing project receives late multiple-building election
A taxpayer intended to treat all buildings in a low-income housing development as one multiple-building project but inadvertently failed to make an effective election on the Forms 8609 issued for ever…
Service-related disability benefits are excluded from income
Local pension plans paid disability benefits under a state statute to members whose employment ended because of an injury received while performing official duties or an occupational disease arising f…
Corporate group receives late consolidated return election
A corporation was formed to acquire five subsidiaries and intended to elect consolidated federal income tax filing for the group, but a valid consolidated return was not filed by the deadline. The par…
Housing project receives late section 42 election relief
A taxpayer inadvertently failed to make its intended section 42(i)(2)(B) election for every building in a low-income housing project for which the state agency issued Forms 8609. The election concerne…
Consolidated group receives late stock loss election relief
A corporation in a consolidated group merged into its parent when its liabilities exceeded the value of its assets, causing the parent to recognize a loss on the subsidiary's stock. The group did not …
Housing project receives late multiple-building election
A taxpayer intended to treat all buildings in a low-income housing development as one multiple-building project but inadvertently failed to make an effective election on the Forms 8609 issued for ever…
Missing return copy does not invalidate section 83(b) election
A service provider purchased restricted company stock and executed a section 83(b) election on the transfer date. The election contained the required information and reached the IRS within the 30-day …
Two businesses satisfy active management requirement
A corporation operated two businesses and was owned equally by two individual shareholders. It proposed placing one business in a newly formed controlled corporation and distributing that corporation'…
Estate receives late portability election relief
A decedent's estate did not timely file Form 706 to elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount to the surviving spouse. The estate represented that the gross estate, including …
Estate receives late portability election relief
A decedent's estate did not timely file Form 706 to elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount to the surviving spouse. The personal representative stated that the gross estate…
Foreign entity receives late disregarded status election
A foreign eligible entity intended to be treated as disregarded from its owner for federal tax purposes but inadvertently failed to timely file Form 8832. The entity represented that it acted reasonab…
Foreign entity receives late disregarded status election
A foreign eligible entity intended to be treated as disregarded from its owner for federal tax purposes but inadvertently failed to timely file Form 8832. The entity represented that it acted reasonab…
Foreign entity receives late partnership election relief
A foreign eligible entity intended to be treated as a partnership for federal tax purposes but failed to timely file Form 8832. The IRS concluded from the submitted facts and representations that the …
Late Form 1128 is treated as timely filed
A C corporation that headed a consolidated group decided to change its tax year from June 30 to November 30 to align with its revenue cycle. It did not consult its tax advisers when making the decisio…
Late Form 1128 is treated as timely filed
A taxpayer sought to change its federal tax year but did not file Form 1128 by the deadline for the short-period return required to make the change. It requested section 301.9100-3 relief shortly afte…
Treaty waiver excludes branch profits and excess-interest taxes
A foreign corporation conducting a U.S. business proposed liquidating its wholly owned domestic subsidiary into itself after integrating the subsidiary's operations and assets. The parties intended th…
Charity-owned entity receives late section 168 election
A charity formed a wholly owned taxable entity to hold an interest in an affordable-housing partnership after advisers concluded that the charity should not hold the interest directly. The new entity …
Bond recovery payment creates only incidental private benefit
A state nonprofit organization financed a project with state-issued bonds, later defaulted, and reorganized in bankruptcy. Replacement bonds issued under the reorganization included a payment based on…
Late success-based fee safe-harbor election allowed
A corporation paid a success-based advisory fee in connection with an acquisition and capitalized the entire amount on its timely filed return. A law firm's due-diligence analysis had identified part …
Trust settlement preserves grandfathered GST exemption
An irrevocable trust created before September 25, 1985 divided its assets into separate shares for the grantor's children. One child later died without a spouse or descendants, did not exercise her ap…
Taxpayer may elect out of automatic GST allocation late
A taxpayer made several cash gifts to a trust with generation-skipping potential and timely reported the gifts on Forms 709. The taxpayer did not elect out of the automatic allocation of GST exemption…
Restaurant and bar denied social-club exemption
An organization sought exemption as a social club under section 501(c)(7) while operating a bar and restaurant open to the general public. It advertised publicly, allowed anyone to buy food, and offer…
Business league exemption denied for member services
A cooperative health-care purchasing alliance of self-funded employers sought exemption as a business league under section 501(c)(6). It negotiated provider rates, managed provider contracts, coordina…
Cemetery's donation of church property is a charitable activity
A tax-exempt mutual cemetery company owned a historic church building and its approximately five-acre site. After restoring the church and preserving the site, the cemetery planned to donate both to a…
TARP status carries over and bars extended NOL carryback election
A consolidated group tried to elect the temporary three-, four-, or five-year net operating loss carryback available under the Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009. During the lo…
Mixed-use aircraft is one property for like-kind exchange analysis
An individual exchanged an aircraft used for both business or investment travel and personal flights in a transaction intended to qualify under section 1031. Chief Counsel advised that the aircraft mu…
Spin-off business size and deferred-compensation stock retention approved
A publicly traded parent proposed contributing a subsidiary and other assets to a newly formed controlled corporation, distributing most of the controlled corporation's stock to its shareholders, and …
Terminating VEBA's member distributions avoid inurement but are wages
A voluntary employees' beneficiary association funded solely by mandatory payroll deductions voted to terminate and distribute its remaining assets to current and former employee members. Its formula …
Late consolidated intercompany election receives 90-day extension
A consolidated group failed to timely elect to apply the 1995 intercompany transaction regulations to earlier stock-elimination transactions with deferred gains. The parent reasonably relied on a qual…
Deferred intercompany stock gains excluded after deemed liquidations
Members of a consolidated group had two deferred intercompany gains from pre-1995 stock distributions. After later mergers, contributions, parent changes, and a proposed sequence of subsidiary convers…
Estate receives 120-day extension for 2010 carryover-basis election
The executor of an estate for a decedent who died in 2010 hired an accountant to handle estate-tax filings. The accountant failed to advise the executor that Form 8939 had to be filed by January 17, 2…
Estate receives 120-day extension to elect portability
An estate failed to timely file Form 706 to elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount to the surviving spouse. The decedent's gross estate, including lifetime taxable gifts, w…
Estate receives 120-day portability-election extension
An estate failed to timely file Form 706 to elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount. The estate was represented to be below the basic exclusion amount after accounting for t…
Estate receives 120-day portability-election extension
An estate failed to timely file Form 706 to elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount. The decedent's gross estate, including lifetime taxable gifts, was represented to be bel…
Trust executor receives 120-day portability-election extension
A decedent's assets were held in a revocable trust, and the successor trustee served as executor under section 2203. The estate failed to timely file Form 706 to elect portability of the decedent's un…
Partnership receives 120-day extension for section 754 election
An LLC taxed as a partnership intended to elect under section 754 to adjust the basis of partnership property but inadvertently failed to file a properly executed election with its return. The partner…
Defined benefit and contribution lump sums may be aggregated for testing
A company maintained a closed defined benefit plan and a defined contribution plan and wanted to aggregate them for coverage and nondiscrimination testing. Both plans offered vested participants a sin…
Foreign inclusions qualify for REIT income test and currency gains are excluded
A timberland REIT operated abroad through foreign subsidiaries, including controlled foreign corporations and passive foreign investment companies. It expected subpart F, qualified electing fund, and …
Partnership conversion continues without termination or recognition
A disregarded limited partnership owned an interest in another partnership. After a new investor exchanged its interest in the lower-tier partnership for an interest in the upper-tier entity, the lowe…
Surviving spouse's estate receives portability-election extension
An estate failed to timely file Form 706 to elect portability of the first decedent's unused exclusion amount, and the surviving spouse later died. The surviving spouse's executor represented that the…
Inadvertent multiple stock classes do not defeat S election
A corporation's articles and shareholder agreement allowed liquidation proceeds to vary by stock class and by the length of a shareholder's employment. Those binding provisions meant the corporation h…
Foreign entity receives extension for disregarded-entity election
A foreign entity's owner intended the entity to be treated as disregarded for federal tax purposes from a specified date, but the entity failed to timely file Form 8832. The IRS found that the section…
Medical research grant procedures receive advance approval
A private foundation proposed grants to researchers at universities, hospitals, and research centers for work on heart disease, cancer, AIDS, and similar diseases. The program would be publicized onli…
Revised employee scholarship procedures receive approval
A private foundation revised an existing scholarship program for dependent children of a related employer's full-time employees. Nonrenewable awards would pay qualified tuition, fees, books, and suppl…
Homeowners association loses social-welfare exemption
A homeowners association restricted membership to subdivision lot owners and used member assessments to maintain a lake, beaches, parks, and a tennis court, as well as limited member social activities…
Stock-car racing club denied charitable exemption
A stock-car racing organization already exempt under section 501(c)(4) sought charitable status under section 501(c)(3). Its governing documents expressly identified stock-car racing as its purpose an…
IRS may adjust section 108(i) deferred debt-cancellation income
A sole proprietor reacquired an $800 debt for $500 but reported and elected to defer only $100 of the resulting cancellation-of-debt income instead of $300. Chief Counsel advised that, depending on fu…
Estate receives 120-day portability-election extension
An estate failed to timely file Form 706 to elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount. The decedent's gross estate, including lifetime taxable gifts, was represented to be bel…
Estate receives portability relief after temporary procedure expired
An estate failed to timely file Form 706 to elect portability and did not discover the omission until after December 31, 2014, the extended deadline provided by Revenue Procedure 2014-18. The executor…
Estate receives 120-day portability-election extension
An estate failed to timely file Form 706 to elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount. The decedent's gross estate, including lifetime taxable gifts, was represented to be bel…
Surviving-spouse executor receives portability-election extension
A surviving spouse serving as executor failed to timely file Form 706 to elect portability of the decedent's unused exclusion amount. The executor represented that the estate was below the basic exclu…
Late Form 1128 for calendar-year change deemed timely
A new domestic corporation decided after the deadline to change its tax year from June 30 to December 31 to better match annual revenue and expenses. It filed neither Form 1128 nor the short-period re…
S corporation receives extension for QSub election
An S corporation owned all the stock of another domestic corporation and intended to treat it as a qualified subchapter S subsidiary from the parent's S-election effective date. Because of inadvertenc…
Late QSST elections receive inadvertent-termination relief
After an S corporation shareholder died, a formerly eligible trust needed a qualified subchapter S trust election to remain an eligible shareholder. The beneficiary failed to timely elect QSST treatme…
Untimely QSST elections receive inadvertent-termination relief
After an S corporation shareholder died, a trust's temporary eligibility expired and the beneficiary failed to timely elect qualified subchapter S trust treatment. A second trust later received some s…
Cooperative's preferred-stock exchange avoids deemed distribution
A non-stock cooperative proposed a mandatory exchange of newly issued publicly traded preferred stock for patrons' qualified written notices of allocation. Participation would be limited by recent bus…
Corporation receives 60-day extension for IC-DISC election
Shareholders formed a corporation intending interest-charge DISC treatment from inception and entered a commission agreement on the formation date. The corporation's Form SS-4 also indicated that it i…
Corporation receives late S election relief
A corporation's owners believed an S election had been filed before the intended effective date, but the IRS had no record of a timely Form 2553. The IRS found reasonable cause for the failure and gra…
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.