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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Corrected unequal distributions preserve S corporation status
An S corporation made disproportionate shareholder distributions during three tax years, potentially creating a prohibited second class of stock. Its governing documents nevertheless gave every share …
Foreign superannuation fund is classified as a trust
A foreign arrangement was organized to provide retirement benefits to its members and beneficiaries. Trustees managed employer and employee contributions and investment income, with duties to protect …
Foreign superannuation fund is classified as a trust
A foreign arrangement was organized to provide retirement benefits to its members and beneficiaries. Trustees managed employer and employee contributions and investment income, with duties to protect …
Foreign superannuation fund is classified as a trust
A foreign arrangement was established to provide retirement benefits to its members and beneficiaries. Trustees managed employer and employee contributions and investment income, with duties to protec…
Refined-coal process and testing qualify for section 45 credit rules
A partnership operated a relocated facility that mixed proprietary additives with coal to reduce nitrogen oxide and mercury emissions before the coal was burned to generate electricity. The IRS ruled …
Refined-coal process and testing qualify for section 45 credit rules
A partnership operated a relocated facility that mixed proprietary additives with coal to reduce nitrogen oxide and mercury emissions before the coal was burned to generate electricity. The IRS ruled …
Tax-exempt controlled entity receives late depreciation election relief
An entity wholly owned by a tax-exempt corporation served as general partner of a low-income housing partnership. It intended to elect under section 168(h)(6)(F)(ii) not to be treated as tax-exempt fo…
Buyer receives late success-based fee safe-harbor relief
A corporation paid success-based fees to acquire a subsidiary and reported them using Revenue Procedure 2011-29's safe harbor, deducting 70 percent and capitalizing 30 percent. Its return preparer fai…
Foreign entity receives late corporate classification election relief
A foreign eligible entity intended to elect association taxable as a corporation status but failed to timely file Form 8832. The entity represented that it acted reasonably and in good faith and that …
Caregiving crisis supports late IRA rollover waiver
A married couple took money from the husband's IRA for a family home purchase and planned to replace it with insurance-policy loan proceeds. The proceeds reached their checking account within the 60-d…
Adviser and custodian errors support late Roth IRA rollover
A taxpayer tried to move a Roth IRA into a self-directed Roth IRA so it could invest in a limited liability company. His adviser misread the new custodian's forms and directed the funds into a non-Rot…
Incorrect rollover instructions support waiver for withheld taxes
A former employee tried to roll her entire qualified-plan balance into a new employer's retirement plan by following the old plan administrator's online instructions. The administrator issued a check …
Double bereavement supports late survivor rollover waiver
A surviving spouse was the sole beneficiary of her husband's profit-sharing plan account. Her husband died from a heart attack while traveling to her mother's funeral, leaving her to handle both estat…
Surgery and medication support late rollover waiver
A taxpayer received a retirement-plan distribution intending to roll it into another IRA. During the 60-day period, she underwent surgery, took prescription pain medication, and experienced vertigo th…
Foundation may fund postgraduate scholarships for college athletes
A private foundation proposed one-year postgraduate scholarships for graduating male and female athletes in selected non-revenue college sports. Candidates would be evaluated on academic performance, …
Consumer-products company receives pension funding waiver
A privately owned consumer-products company sought relief from its pension plan's required minimum contribution after management problems weakened product appeal, blurred major brand identities, and c…
Consumer-products company receives pension funding waiver
A privately owned consumer-products company sought relief from its pension plan's required minimum contribution after management problems weakened product appeal, blurred major brand identities, and c…
Religious elder-care facility's pension plan is a church plan
A tax-exempt elder-care facility served aged and infirm members of a religious order that was an integral part of a church. Members of the order controlled the facility through governance and reserved…
City excess benefit plan qualifies under section 415(m)
A city pension board created a mandatory excess benefit plan to pay the portion of governmental defined benefit pensions barred from the qualified plan by section 415(b). The arrangement allowed no em…
Prior political-subdivision ruling receives prospective-only effect
An earlier technical advice memorandum ruled that a bond issuer was not a political subdivision during a specified period for Treasury Regulation section 1.103-1(b). The issuer requested relief under …
Municipal-district repayments are not tax-exempt bond interest
A real estate developer advanced money to special municipal districts that financed and built public infrastructure for its development. The developer treated the advances as common-improvement costs …
IRS must consider a vessel-replacement extension application
Section 1359 permits a qualifying vessel operator to avoid recognizing gain when it replaces a disposed vessel within the statutory replacement period. The statute also allows the IRS to designate a l…
Data-center REIT receives rulings on property, income, distributions, and hedges
A publicly traded data-center company planned to reorganize and elect real estate investment trust status. The IRS ruled that its buildings, integrated building components, and specified real-estate-r…
Public-employer benefit trust income is excluded under section 115
A multiple-employer trust allowed public agencies to fund retiree health, welfare, and pension obligations. Each employer's contributions and investment results remained in a separate account dedicate…
Retained spin-off shares and subsidiary liquidations receive favorable rulings
A public corporation planned to separate one business by contributing assets to a new controlled corporation and distributing most of its stock to shareholders. It would temporarily retain a minority …
Taxpayer receives 60 days to elect out of bonus depreciation
A foreign corporate taxpayer placed qualified property in service but filed its income tax return late after an unusual series of events prevented a timely extension request. Its late return included …
Late success-based-fee safe-harbor statement receives relief
A corporation paid a success-based fee in a taxable stock acquisition and intended to use Revenue Procedure 2011-29's safe harbor. Its return deducted 70 percent of the fee and capitalized 30 percent,…
Condominium PILOT payments qualify as deductible real property taxes
A property sponsor asked whether payments in lieu of taxes under a ground lease would be treated as real property taxes. The payments were imposed at the general real-property-tax rate under an afford…
Produced-water and skim-oil income qualifies for partnership exception
A limited partnership planned a public offering and expected to earn fees from handling saltwater produced during oil and gas exploration and production. Its dedicated system gathered, transported, pr…
Late tax-year-change application is treated as timely filed
A taxpayer filed Form 1128 late when seeking to change to a calendar tax year. The delay resulted from an oversight or misunderstanding by its tax professional. The IRS found that the taxpayer acted r…
Late estate-tax portability election is treated as timely
An estate below the estate-tax filing threshold failed to file Form 706 on time to transfer the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount to the surviving spouse. The surviving spouse later filed the …
Grantor receives 120 days to allocate GST exemption to trust
A grantor created an irrevocable trust for a spouse and descendants and transferred stock to it. The grantor intended the trust to avoid generation-skipping transfer tax but relied on an accountant wh…
Estate receives 120 days to make portability election
An estate below the estate-tax filing threshold missed the deadline to file Form 706 and elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount. Because that estate was not otherwise requi…
Foreign insurer receives 60 days for domestic-corporation election
A regulated foreign insurance company intended to elect domestic-corporation treatment under section 953(d). Its accounting firm prepared the election statement, but a management firm failed to file i…
Foreign entity receives late disregarded-entity election relief
A single-owner foreign eligible entity failed to file Form 8832 on time to elect disregarded-entity status. The IRS found that the entity satisfied the standards for regulatory-election relief. It gra…
LNG terminal contract income qualifies under section 7704
A limited partnership planned a public offering and would indirectly own interests in a liquefied natural gas terminal. The terminal regasified imported LNG and was adding facilities to liquefy domest…
Tax-exempt controlled entity receives late depreciation election relief
A corporation owned equally by two section 501(c)(3) organizations was a tax-exempt controlled entity under section 168(h)(6). Its partnership agreement required an election not to be treated as tax-e…
Real estate holding company may make late depreciation election
A real estate holding company owned by two section 501(c)(3) organizations was a tax-exempt controlled entity under section 168(h)(6). Its partnership agreement called for an election not to be treate…
Replacement spin-off notes qualify as section 361 securities
A public corporation planned to transfer businesses to a new controlled corporation and distribute the controlled corporation's stock in a spin-off. As part of dividing existing debt, the controlled c…
Returned stock remains property contributed by the partner
A partner contributed three identified lots of public-company stock to a partnership. The partnership later planned to return part of one lot to that same partner after certificate numbers had changed…
Identified stock lots remain the partner's contributed property
A partner contributed four identified lots of public-company stock to a partnership. Certificate numbers later changed, and the partnership exchanged part of one lot for another company's stock, but t…
Invalid S corporation and QSub elections receive inadvertence relief
A corporation's S election was ineffective because one trust did not provide the proper shareholder consents and another trust failed to make an electing small business trust election. Those defects a…
Religious-tolerance internship grant procedures approved
A private foundation proposed grants for college and graduate students taking unpaid or low-paying internships with nonprofits working to reduce religious intolerance and hate crimes. Applicants had t…
IRS may rely on LLC manager's officer to sign corporate return
A taxpayer LLC was managed by another LLC whose sole remaining member acted through an officer. Taxpayer's counsel represented that the officer could act for the taxpayer. The IRS advised that section…
Insurer retains unearned-premium and loss reserves for prior contracts
The IRS summarized reserve treatment for an insurer at the end of its 2009 tax year. The unearned-premium reserve included the part of written premiums covering unexpired periods of pre-2010 contracts…
IRS may disclose limited FFI data for vendor demonstration
The IRS wanted a prospective technology vendor to demonstrate services for identifying gaps in FATCA registration and compliance. The demonstration required access to a foreign financial institution d…
Pawnshop option fee counts as retail-sale payment for cash reporting
A Colorado pawnshop used contracts in which it advanced money for delivered property while the customer retained a time-limited option to cancel the transaction. The IRS viewed the option payment as a…
Tax matters partner must have authority to act for entity
This very short email gives affirmative answers to questions that do not appear in the released document. The first answer is conditional: Entity 2's tax matters partner must be a general partner or m…
Post-assessment-deadline payment is refundable only within section 6511
A payment made after the assessment limitations period expires is an overpayment even if no tax was actually due. The IRS has authority to refund that payment, and a taxpayer filing a late amended ret…
Tax Court petition may be shared with state bar, but return information may not
The IRS considered what material it could provide to state bar disciplinary authorities. A taxpayer's return or return information could not be disclosed without the taxpayer's consent. A filed Tax Co…
RFPA exception may support Federal Reserve information request
This brief email addresses a Federal Reserve information request under the Right to Financial Privacy Act. The writer believed the exception in section 3413 could supply the requested explanation of w…
Offsite solar-array ownership qualifies for residential energy credit
A homeowner purchased solar panels and a share of related equipment in a ground-mounted offsite array. All electricity entered the public utility's grid, and the utility applied the homeowner's share …
REIT cash-and-stock distribution is taxable property distribution
A REIT recognized gain after acquiring distressed mortgage loans and foreclosing on the underlying property, then proposed a deficiency dividend to offset redetermined income. Shareholders could choos…
S corporation receives 120 days for late QSub election
An S corporation acquired all the stock of another corporation but failed to file Form 8869 on time to elect qualified subchapter S subsidiary status. The IRS found that the parent satisfied the regul…
Ineligible shareholder transfer receives inadvertent S termination relief
An S corporation's status terminated when a shareholder transferred stock to an ineligible owner. The shareholders did not know the transfer was prohibited or intend to end the S election, and the cor…
Taxpayer may elect out of automatic GST exemption allocation
A taxpayer and spouse transferred community property to three irrevocable trusts with generation-skipping transfer potential. Their advisers did not explain the automatic GST exemption allocation or t…
GST exemption allocations to non-skip grandchildren are void
A married couple made outright gifts to two grandchildren after the grandchildren's parent, the couple's child, had died. The couple allocated generation-skipping transfer tax exemption to the gifts o…
Cooperative loss recovery plan and NOL carryforwards approved
A nonexempt farmers cooperative incurred a large loss consisting of patronage and nonmember or nonpatronage portions. It planned to waive the carryback period, carry each portion forward against the c…
QTIP trust severance and spouse's renunciations receive favorable rulings
A court divided a marital QTIP trust into two separate trusts, and the surviving spouse planned to renounce all interests in one divided trust and a related disclaimer trust. The IRS ruled that the no…
Stock split does not substantially modify transfer restrictions
A family-owned S corporation's articles had restricted stock transfers since before section 2703's October 1990 effective date. The corporation proposed a stock split, an increase in authorized nonvot…
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.