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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Public-benefit rebates need no information reporting
A political subdivision created a rebate program to pay part of property owners' costs for installing equipment on designated private properties. The installations furthered governmental purposes by r…
Housing agency may correct swapped credit allocations
A low-income housing project received credit allocations for several buildings. When the housing agency prepared Forms 8609, it accidentally switched the applicable fractions for two buildings, produc…
REIT receives more time for taxable subsidiary election
A corporation intending to elect REIT status and its indirectly owned subsidiary intended to file Form 8875 so the subsidiary would be treated as a taxable REIT subsidiary. Their adviser prepared the …
Captive insurer receives late small-company election relief
A captive insurance company intended to elect the small-insurance-company tax treatment under section 831(b) from its first business year. A miscommunication caused its manager and tax attorney each t…
Captive insurer receives late small-company election relief
A captive insurance company intended to elect the small-insurance-company tax treatment under section 831(b) from its first business year. A miscommunication caused its manager and tax attorney each t…
Mortgage REIT may exclude hedge income from income tests
A residential mortgage REIT financed fixed-rate mortgage assets with short-term or floating-rate borrowing. It used interest-rate swaps, swaptions, and similar instruments to manage that financing ris…
Mortgage REIT may exclude hedge income from income tests
A residential mortgage REIT financed fixed-rate mortgage assets with short-term or floating-rate borrowing. It used interest-rate swaps, swaptions, and similar instruments to manage that financing ris…
Trust settlement preserves GST tax exemption
Beneficiaries of a trust that was irrevocable before September 25, 1985 sued its corporate trustee over proposed and prior distributions. A court-approved settlement established mandatory distribution…
Estate receives more time for 2010 carryover-basis election
The co-executors of an estate for a person who died in 2010 hired an accountant to handle estate-tax filings. The accountant failed to prepare Form 8939 by the deadline, so the estate did not elect th…
S corporation receives relief for missed trust elections
An S corporation's stock was transferred to a trust that qualified first as a qualified subchapter S trust and later as an electing small business trust, but the required elections were not filed on t…
S corporation receives relief for missed trust elections
An S corporation's stock passed through one trust to another trust that qualified first as a qualified subchapter S trust and later as an electing small business trust, but the required elections were…
S corporation receives relief for missed trust elections
S corporation stock was transferred to a trust that qualified first as a qualified subchapter S trust and later as an electing small business trust. The income beneficiary did not timely make the QSST…
S corporation receives trust and QSub election relief
An S corporation shareholder trust missed both a qualified subchapter S trust election and a later electing small business trust election, causing the corporation's S election to terminate. The IRS ru…
S corporation receives relief for missed trust elections
S corporation stock was transferred to a trust that qualified first as a qualified subchapter S trust and later as an electing small business trust. The income beneficiary did not timely make the QSST…
Alaska Native Settlement Trust qualifies for section 646 treatment
An Alaska Native Corporation established a settlement trust to support beneficiaries' health, education, welfare, heritage, and culture and planned additional contributions to it. The IRS ruled that t…
IRS addresses notes, securities, basis, and earnings in separation
A corporate group requested supplemental rulings on discrete issues in a complex international restructuring and separation. The IRS ruled that circular flows of two intercompany notes would be disreg…
Family receives relief for missed GST exemption allocations
A married couple made transfers to several irrevocable trusts for their children and descendants, but their tax advisers failed to allocate generation-skipping transfer tax exemptions to many of the t…
Family receives relief for missed GST exemption allocations
A married couple made transfers to several irrevocable trusts for their children and descendants, but their tax advisers failed to allocate generation-skipping transfer tax exemptions to many of the t…
Misleading fund communications justify late IRA rollover
An IRA owner directed retirement funds into an investment fund after communications led him to believe the investment would remain inside an IRA. The fund was not an IRA custodian, but its statements …
Bank error and illness justify late IRA rollover
An IRA owner's certificate of deposit matured, and she instructed her financial institution to move the money to a money market fund inside the IRA. The institution instead placed the funds in a non-I…
Multiemployer plan receives five-year funding extension
A multiemployer pension plan requested a five-year extension of the period for amortizing specified unfunded liabilities. The plan submitted an actuary's certification that it otherwise would face an …
Multiemployer plan receives five-year funding extension
A multiemployer pension plan requested a five-year extension of the period for amortizing specified unfunded liabilities. The plan submitted an actuary's certification that it otherwise would face an …
Seller-funded down payment program loses charitable exemption
A tax-exempt organization operated a nationwide down payment assistance program for home purchases. Sellers and builders had to pay the organization an amount equal to the assistance provided to a buy…
Inactive religious radio station loses charitable exemption
A tax-exempt organization had operated a radio station broadcasting religious programs for Spanish-speaking listeners. Its president told the IRS that the organization had been inactive since a redact…
Private road association denied charitable exemption
A membership corporation applied for section 501(c)(3) status so it could acquire a road easement, build a private road, and maintain the road for its members. Membership was limited to owners of prop…
Grief-support publisher denied charitable exemption
An organization supporting grieving people applied for exemption while operating publishing, manufacturing, support, meal, and housing programs. Publishing and manufacturing accounted for 75 percent o…
Inactive community-facility organization loses exemption
A tax-exempt organization had been formed to plan, fund, construct, manage, and maintain a mixed-use community facility. During an examination of its Form 990, the organization repeatedly failed to pr…
Nonresponsive civic organization loses exemption
A tax-exempt organization had been formed to encourage and promote diversity, dignity, and the inherent worth of people in a city. During an examination, the IRS repeatedly tried to obtain records con…
Disease-awareness scholarship procedures approved
A private foundation requested advance approval for scholarships intended to increase awareness of a debilitating disease that can be difficult to diagnose. Eligible post-secondary students would teac…
Form 872 can further extend an open partner assessment period
Chief Counsel advised that Form 872 extends a partner's section 6501 assessment period for all covered items, including partnership items specified in the form. Sections 6229(a) and 6229(d) may also k…
Post-lien bank advance lacks priority without statutory protection
Chief Counsel agreed that a bank disbursement made after the filing of a notice of federal tax lien was a future advance. The advance would not take priority over the federal tax lien unless it qualif…
Partnership withholding claim required an AAR
Chief Counsel advised that section 1446 withholding is a partnership item governed by the administrative adjustment request procedures. The partnership should have filed its claim on Form 8082 or Form…
Late return preserved three-year refund lookback
Chief Counsel concluded that a refund claim filed as part of the taxpayer's return was timely because the claim and return were the same filing. Under section 6511(a), the claim was therefore filed wi…
Liability-related IRS materials are return information
Chief Counsel advised that the definition of return information is broader than information appearing on a tax return. It includes material the IRS gathered, collected, or created while determining or…
Refund lookback example applies to all taxpayers
Chief Counsel confirmed that an Internal Revenue Manual example correctly stated its position on applying the refund limitation in section 6511(b)(2). The approach illustrated in IRM 25.6.1.10.2.7.2.2…
Related issue could be disclosed in referred taxpayer case
Chief Counsel saw no disclosure problem with addressing an additional issue involving the same taxpayer in a case already referred to the Department of Justice. The brief advice relied on section 6103…
TEFRA conversion requires notice covering the partnership issues
Chief Counsel advised that partnership items are converted by an authorized person sending a conversion notice to the ultimate individual or corporate taxpayer under section 6231. After conversion, th…
Court transfer delay did not support interest abatement
Chief Counsel advised that interest could not be abated under section 6404(e) when a federal court clerk, rather than an IRS employee, delayed transferring restitution payments to the IRS. The delay t…
Allowed refund claim cannot be amended after credit carryforward
Chief Counsel advised that a timely protective refund claim may be supplemented or amended only until the IRS takes final action on it. Final action includes both allowance and disallowance. An allowa…
Invalid S election barred flow-through loss deduction
Chief Counsel concluded that a revenue agent could and should deny a taxpayer's claimed loss deduction on an alternative ground. Because the corporation's S election was invalid, there was no flow-thr…
Late GST exemption allocations allowed for two trusts
A decedent and spouse made gifts over sixteen years to two materially identical trusts for their daughters. The trusts were not treated as GST trusts under the automatic-allocation rules, and several …
Late GST exemption allocations allowed for two trusts
A decedent and spouse made gifts over sixteen years to two materially identical trusts for their daughters. The trusts were not treated as GST trusts under the automatic-allocation rules, and several …
Foreign entity received extra time for partnership election
A foreign eligible entity intended to elect partnership classification for federal tax purposes but inadvertently failed to file Form 8832 on time. The IRS found that the requirements for discretionar…
Foreign entity received extra time for partnership election
A foreign eligible entity intended to elect partnership classification for federal tax purposes but inadvertently failed to file Form 8832 on time. The IRS found that the requirements for discretionar…
Foreign entity received extra time for partnership election
A foreign eligible entity intended to elect partnership classification for federal tax purposes but inadvertently failed to file Form 8832 on time. The IRS found that the requirements for discretionar…
Hospitalization justified a late IRA rollover
An individual withdrew three amounts from a Roth IRA and two traditional IRAs, then placed the money in a non-IRA account. A serious medical condition and hospitalization prevented completion of the r…
Pension plan funding-extension conditions were modified
A pension plan had previously received a conditional ten-year extension for amortizing unfunded liabilities. After weak economic conditions and reduced construction activity prevented the plan's funde…
Two-tier local scholarship program received advance approval
A private foundation proposed two scholarships for students from one redacted high school. One award served graduating students or recent graduates entering college or technical education, while the o…
Two scholarship programs received advance approval
A private foundation operated two nonrenewable scholarship programs for students in a redacted state. One program served high school students entering four-year colleges, while the other served commun…
Summer camp scholarship procedures received advance approval
A private foundation proposed scholarships for high school juniors and seniors who completed a short summer camp about issues and careers in aging. Applicants also had to be United States citizens or …
Scholarship grant procedures received advance approval
A nonexempt charitable trust that was also a private foundation requested advance approval of its scholarship procedures under section 4945(g). The program favored students of a redacted ancestry and …
Farmer loan program denied section 501(c)(3) exemption
A proposed nonprofit planned to use public donations and grants to make interest-free loans to farmers or purchase partial or full interests in their farms. Its program was open to any farmer with pro…
Investment-focused company lost section 501(c)(15) exemption
The organization had been recognized as a tax-exempt small nonlife insurance company under section 501(c)(15). The IRS examination found that investment and related-party transactions were its primary…
For-profit construction operation denied 501(c)(3) exemption
A for-profit stock corporation sought section 501(c)(3) status for a program that would train ex-felons through highway construction, hauling, debris removal, and related work. It planned to bid for g…
Business consulting operation denied 501(c)(3) exemption
An organization applied for section 501(c)(3) status to provide grant writing, business consulting, fiscal-agent services, training, payroll assistance, and other support. It served individuals, nonpr…
Section 752 rules did not classify debt for foreclosure income
A partnership reported cancellation-of-debt income after junior loans secured by real estate were canceled following foreclosure. Its members had guaranteed the loans, and the partnership argued that …
Partnership ownership did not permanently end S status
An S corporation shareholder transferred stock to a limited liability company taxed as a partnership, which was not an eligible S corporation shareholder. The error was discovered by new accountants, …
Partnership received extra time for section 754 election
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership failed to file a section 754 election for a year in which ownership interests were bought and sold. The partnership represented that the omission was…
Transmission agreement qualified as a management contract
A taxable rural electric cooperative planned to join a regional transmission organization and give it functional control over the cooperative's transmission facilities. The cooperative would retain ow…
Missed ESBT election did not end S corporation status
A grantor trust continued holding S corporation stock after the two-year period following one deemed owner's death. The trust qualified to be an electing small business trust, but its trustee did not …
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.