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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High school scholarship procedures receive approval
A private foundation requested advance approval for scholarships benefiting graduating seniors at a named high school who planned to attend two-year or four-year colleges or universities. Applicants h…
Employee-child scholarship procedures receive approval
A private foundation sought advance approval for scholarships benefiting children of current employees with sufficient service and children of employees who died while employed. Applicants had to atte…
County student scholarship procedures receive approval
A private foundation requested advance approval for nonrenewable scholarships serving financially needy residents of a named county who attended specified local public colleges or universities. The se…
Artist and activist fellowship procedures receive approval
A private foundation requested advance approval for fellowship and residency grants supporting contemporary artists and writers and Native American community activists. Separate programs would recogni…
Community leadership program grant procedures receive approval
A private foundation sought advance approval for a two-phase educational program encouraging college students to pursue professional careers serving a religious community. The first phase combined dis…
County high school graduate scholarships receive approval
A private foundation requested advance approval for scholarships benefiting graduates of high schools in a named county whose families could not afford to support further education. Applicants had to …
Need-based education grant procedures receive approval
A private foundation sought advance approval for education grants serving financially distressed single parents, veterans, and students studying mathematics or engineering. Applicants had to submit a …
County resident scholarship procedures receive approval
A private foundation sought advance approval for scholarships serving residents of a named county and state, with preference for students who could not obtain equivalent government or private assistan…
Farmers' market denied section 501(c)(5) status
A nonprofit farmers' market applied for exemption as an agricultural organization under IRC § 501(c)(5). It rented stalls, promoted the market, and covered site and operating expenses with vendor fees…
Partnership receives consent for retroactive QEF election
A domestic partnership owned a foreign corporation whose only asset was stock in another foreign company. An initial public offering reduced the first corporation's ownership below the level needed fo…
Partnership receives consent for retroactive QEF election
A domestic partnership owned a foreign corporation whose only asset was stock in another foreign company. An initial public offering reduced the first corporation's ownership below the level needed fo…
Partnership receives consent for retroactive QEF election
A domestic partnership owned a foreign corporation whose only asset was stock in another foreign company. An initial public offering reduced the first corporation's ownership below the level needed fo…
Tax-exempt controlled entity receives late section 168 election relief
A corporation indirectly controlled by a section 501(c)(4) organization was a tax-exempt controlled entity and served as general partner of a partnership holding real property. It intended to elect un…
Tax-exempt controlled entity receives late section 168 election relief
A corporation indirectly controlled by a section 501(c)(4) organization was a tax-exempt controlled entity and served as general partner of a partnership holding real property. It intended to elect un…
Tax-exempt controlled entity receives late section 168 election relief
A corporation indirectly controlled by a section 501(c)(4) organization was a tax-exempt controlled entity and served as general partner of a partnership holding real property. It intended to elect un…
Corporation receives 60 days to make late section 168 election
A corporation wholly owned through tax-exempt section 501(c)(4) organizations was a tax-exempt controlled entity and served as general partner of a real-estate partnership. The partnership agreement r…
Partnership receives 120 days to make late section 754 election
A limited liability company treated as a partnership intended to make an IRC § 754 election after one owner transferred an interest to another person. The partnership inadvertently omitted the electio…
Corporation receives relief for missed ESBT election
A shareholder transferred S corporation stock to a trust and later died. The trust continued holding the shares but its trustee did not timely elect electing small business trust status, causing the c…
Volunteer firefighter plan qualifies as a length of service award plan
A city established a plan providing retirement, death, and disability benefits to long-serving volunteer firefighters and rescue-service volunteers. Eligible members performed fire, emergency medical,…
Surviving spouse may roll trust-held IRA into her own IRA
A decedent named a trust as beneficiary of an IRA, and the surviving spouse became the trust's sole trustee and sole beneficiary. The spouse allocated the IRA to a survivor's trust, had authority to d…
IRA rollover deadline waived after funds went to brokerage account
An IRA owner directed a financial institution to complete a direct rollover from one IRA to another. The receiving institution mistakenly deposited the funds into a regular brokerage account, while th…
Educational grant procedures for organization-based programs approved
A private foundation proposed a grant program to deepen students' religious education through programs run by educational organizations. Consultants would nominate experienced educators, their employi…
Scholarship procedures for terrorism victims' family members approved
A private foundation proposed scholarships for dependent family members of people who died while working at its facilities during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, as well as children of victi…
Agriculture scholarship procedures approved
A private foundation proposed funding scholarships administered by a public charity for students from a specified area who study agriculture or a related field. Applicants had to meet enrollment and g…
Need-based scholarship procedures approved
A private foundation proposed funding scholarships administered by a public charity for students from a specified geographic area. Eligible applicants had to be citizens or legal residents, graduates …
Scholarships for middle-ranked students approved
A private foundation operated a scholarship program for financially needy high school graduates who wanted to attend an accredited college in a specified state. Applicants generally had to rank in the…
Blind merit scholarship procedures approved
A private foundation proposed awarding two annual merit scholarships to graduates of a specified school district. Each award covered one full year of tuition at a state-supported college or university…
Need-based local scholarships approved
A private foundation proposed scholarships for high school seniors in a specified local school system who needed financial help to attend a college, junior college, or university. A committee consisti…
College scholarship procedures approved
A private foundation proposed renewable scholarships for residents of a specified state who attended a particular college. A committee of college faculty members would rank applicants based on academi…
Gap-year educational stipends approved
A private foundation proposed stipends, educational advising, and mentoring for low-income students accepted into an existing program who wanted to complete a funded gap-year program before college. A…
Employer-related scholarship procedures approved
A private foundation proposed undergraduate scholarships for children and grandchildren of full-time employees of a corporation and its subsidiaries. A separate public charity would administer the pro…
Low-income college scholarship procedures approved
A private foundation proposed two scholarship programs, and possible future programs using the same procedures, to help low-income students with academic promise complete bachelor's degrees. Eligible …
Scholarships for underprivileged local students approved
A private foundation proposed scholarships for underprivileged students under age 21 from a specified local area. Eligible applicants had to have attended high school in that area, enroll full time, a…
Online fundraising service denied charitable exemption
An organization sought charitable exemption for an online service that collected donations and forwarded them, less processing and marketing fees, to charities selected by donors. The service was its …
Open-source software developer denied social-welfare exemption
An organization sought social-welfare exemption under IRC § 501(c)(4) for developing and distributing open-source software that encrypted digital communications. It aimed to help human-rights activist…
Estate bequest qualifies as an unusual grant
A community foundation expected a large bequest consisting of securities, cash, and properties that would be sold to establish a designated fund. The fund's earnings would support named public chariti…
Booster club fundraising creates member inurement
A parent-led gymnastics booster club raised money by having families sell products. The club tracked each family's proceeds and applied them to that family's own competition and coaching fees, while f…
Dairy farmer may revoke bonus depreciation opt-out
A dairy farmer elected not to claim the 50 percent additional first-year depreciation deduction for all classes of qualified property placed in service during a tax year. After the return was filed, t…
Late S corporation election receives relief
A corporation intended to be treated as an S corporation from a specified effective date but did not file its election on time. The IRS found that the corporation had reasonable cause for the late fil…
Rehabilitation credit disposition triggers $21,600 recapture
A taxpayer earned a $100,000 rehabilitation credit for a historic building, used $20,000 in the first year and $16,000 in the second, and carried $64,000 forward. The taxpayer then disposed of the bui…
Nonrecourse debt sets floor for securities mark-to-market value
Related partnerships issued mortgage-backed securities in exchange for cash and treated the notes as nonrecourse liabilities secured by mortgage assets. When calculating year-end mark-to-market gain o…
Charity assignment recast as controlled-corporation transfer
A partner assigned valuable, low-basis partnership units to a supporting organization. The next day, a newly formed corporation controlled by the partner purportedly bought the units from the organiza…
Four partnerships receive extra time for LIFO elections
A holding company had used the last-in, first-out inventory method for itself and four disregarded subsidiaries. When profits interests vested, the subsidiaries became partnerships and began filing se…
Late foreign earned income exclusion election allowed
A U.S. citizen worked for a company at several locations in a foreign country. The taxpayer did not timely file Form 2555 or Form 2555-EZ to elect the foreign earned income exclusion under IRC § 911. …
Late tax-exempt controlled entity election allowed
A C corporation was majority owned through an organization exempt under IRC § 501(c)(4), making the corporation a tax-exempt controlled entity for depreciation purposes. As the general partner of a re…
Closed tax year does not bar late controlled-entity election
A C corporation majority owned by an organization exempt under IRC § 501(c)(4) was a tax-exempt controlled entity for depreciation purposes. As the general partner of a real-estate partnership, it int…
Couple may make late foreign income exclusion election
A married couple filed jointly after the wife worked as a physical therapist providing health care in a foreign country. They did not timely file Form 2555 or Form 2555-EZ to elect the foreign earned …
Foreign entity receives late disregarded-status election
A foreign entity was formed through an acquisition and merger and converted into a limited entity owned within a U.S. consolidated group. It intended to be treated as disregarded from a specified effe…
Late S termination-year allocation election allowed
An S corporation revoked its election during a tax year, dividing that year into an S short year and a C short year. It intended to elect under IRC § 1362(e)(3) not to use the default daily pro rata a…
Foreign parent entity receives late disregarded-status election
A foreign entity was formed within a corporate chain ultimately owned by the parent of a U.S. consolidated group. The entity and two related foreign entities intended to be treated as disregarded from…
Foreign acquisition entity receives late disregarded-status election
A foreign entity was formed to acquire another business within a corporate chain ultimately owned by the parent of a U.S. consolidated group. It and two related foreign entities intended to be treated…
Self-settled trust remains grantor-owned and gifts incomplete
A trustor proposed an irrevocable trust for herself and her descendants. An independent distribution adviser could direct distributions to the trustor, while distributions to descendants required the …
Late Forms 3115 allowed after missed return extension
A consolidated group's subsidiary changed two LIFO inventory submethods and one capitalization method under IRC § 263A. The parent intended to extend its consolidated return but failed to file Form 70…
Consolidated group may make late intercompany regulation election
A consolidated group had deferred gains from two stockless mergers completed before the 1995 intercompany transaction regulations took effect. It failed to make the transition election that would appl…
Entity receives late disregarded-status election
An eligible entity intended to be treated as disregarded for federal tax purposes from a specified date but did not file Form 8832. It requested discretionary relief under the regulations governing la…
Rural telephone cooperative's spectrum gain is patronage income
A taxable rural telephone cooperative used a wholly owned subsidiary to hold nonregulated telecommunications assets. The subsidiary bought wireless spectrum to support possible future services, but th…
New parent group may make late consolidated return election
A corporation acquired the former common parent of a consolidated group through a subsidiary, terminating the former group and bringing its members into a new parent group. The new group failed to tim…
Water-system improvements satisfy governmental and exempt-facility tests
A state political subdivision planned bonds to improve two physically distinct raw-water systems. It proposed governmental bonds for the upstream system, whose take-or-pay contracts were expected to p…
Retroactive QEF election approved after adviser failures
A U.S. citizen living abroad owned shares of a foreign company that became a passive foreign investment company. Several tax advisers had access to the relevant records but did not tell the taxpayer t…
Substitute pension mortality tables approved for up to 10 years
A single-employer defined benefit plan requested permission to use substitute male and female mortality tables for funding computations under IRC § 430. The proposed rates were based on the plan popul…
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.