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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Limit SharePoint access to protected taxpayer information
Chief Counsel advised that training materials, legal advice, and white papers created by field attorneys and agents could be placed on SharePoint if the National Office had not reviewed them.…
Court filing removes section 6103 concern
Chief Counsel confirmed that IRC § 6103 would no longer present a concern once the document at issue was filed in court. The released email does not describe the document or the underlying matter.…
Medical device leases qualify for excise tax limitation
A medical device manufacturer leased taxable devices directly to end users, with title transferring under a payment plan when use continued beyond a specified period. The IRS concluded that these…
Assumption reinsurance preserves life policy tax status
A holding company planned to transfer life insurance contracts from two subsidiaries to an unrelated insurer through assumption reinsurance as it exited the life insurance business. The new insurer…
Inadvertent S corporation termination relief granted
An S corporation may have had an ineligible shareholder for a period, which could have terminated its S election. The corporation represented that its eligible shareholders filed returns consistent…
Donor receives 120 days to undo an unintended automatic GST exemption allocation
A donor created a five-year grantor retained annuity trust whose assets later passed to another trust with generation-skipping transfer tax potential. When the estate tax inclusion period closed,…
Foreign entity receives 120 days to make a late partnership election
A foreign eligible entity intended to be classified as a partnership for federal tax purposes but did not timely file Form 8832. It requested discretionary relief under the regulatory-election…
Partnership receives 120 days to make a section 754 election after a partner's death
A limited liability company treated as a partnership failed to make an IRC § 754 election for the year in which a partner died. The partnership's advisor had not informed it that the election was…
Another foreign entity receives 120 days for a late partnership election
A foreign eligible entity intended to be classified as a partnership for federal tax purposes but failed to timely file Form 8832. It requested discretionary relief under the regulatory-election…
Successor receives 60 days to make a late section 382 value-restoration election
Two loss corporations in the same controlled group experienced ownership changes when their foreign parent was acquired. One corporation held net operating loss carryforwards and the other held…
Foreign entity gets 120 days to make its partnership election
A foreign eligible entity intended to elect partnership classification for federal tax purposes but failed to timely file Form 8832. It requested discretionary relief under the regulatory-election…
Foreign entity obtains 120 days for a late partnership election
A foreign eligible entity wanted partnership classification for federal tax purposes but failed to timely file Form 8832. It requested relief under the discretionary extension rules for regulatory…
Corporation receives 120 days to file a late S election
A corporation's sole shareholder intended the company to be an S corporation from its formation date, but Form 2553 was not timely filed. IRC § 1362(b)(5) permits the IRS to treat a late S election…
Foreign entity receives 120 days for a late disregarded-entity election
A foreign eligible entity intended to be treated as disregarded from its single owner for federal tax purposes but failed to timely file Form 8832. It requested discretionary extension relief under…
Division of a grandfathered trust preserves GST status and tax attributes
A grandfathered trust proposed to divide into three trusts, one for each child and that child's descendants, and to modify the trustee provisions. The IRS ruled that the division and modifications…
Domestic subsidiaries receive 45 days to file Forms 8848
Seven foreign corporations domesticated into domestic subsidiaries in reorganizations and needed Forms 8848 to extend the assessment period for branch profits tax. Their tax adviser prepared the…
Estate receives 120 days to elect out of automatic GST allocation
A taxpayer created a trust for a son and the son's children and reported the transfer on a timely gift-tax return. The taxpayer's return preparer did not attach the statement needed to elect out of…
Foreign entity receives 120 days for a late disregarded-entity election
A foreign eligible entity intended to be treated as disregarded from its sole owner for federal tax purposes but did not timely file Form 8832. It requested discretionary relief for the intended…
Employer receives 60 days to file a qualified-separate-lines election
A holding company treated one subsidiary as a qualified separate line of business for retirement-plan testing but did not file the required Form 5310-A. Employees and outside administrators…
Taxpayer receives 60 days to recharacterize an ineligible Roth conversion
A taxpayer converted amounts from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA in 2009 without knowing that joint modified adjusted gross income would exceed the then-applicable $100,000 limit. A financial…
Taxpayer receives 60 days to roll over tax withheld from a plan distribution
An alternate payee received a retirement-plan distribution under a qualified domestic relations order. She timely rolled over the 80 percent paid by check, but she did not replace and roll over the…
Medical hardship supports waiver for a late IRA rollover
An elderly taxpayer withdrew funds from an IRA while she had serious medical conditions and was caring for a seriously ill spouse. She intended to keep the money in retirement savings but…
Hospital receives conditional pension funding waivers for two plan years
A hospital serving a semi-rural community requested waivers of minimum pension funding contributions for plan years ending in 2011 and 2012. It attributed the funding shortfall to a temporary…
ESOP may adopt a minimum formula for releasing charitable-trust stock
A charitable remainder trust transferred employer stock to an employee stock ownership plan after the income beneficiary's death. The shares were held in a suspense account subject to IRC § 664(g),…
Historic-preservation spending on a private club building will not end exemption
A public charity proposed to fund restoration of historically significant interior spaces in a building owned and primarily used by a tax-exempt private social club. The preservation agreement…
VEBA may shift retiree-life reserves to retiree-health benefits without tax
An employer's voluntary employees' beneficiary association held reserves accumulated before 1984 to provide life insurance for union-represented retirees. The employer proposed moving the assets to…
VEBA may shift pre- and post-DEFRA reserves to retiree-health benefits
An employer's voluntary employees' beneficiary association held retiree-life reserves that were mostly accumulated before 1986 but might include later contributions. The employer proposed moving…
Foundation's learning-exchange grant procedures receive advance approval
A private foundation proposed grants that would let selected individuals from U.S. and U.K. charities participate in international learning exchanges. The grants would cover reasonable travel,…
Scholarship procedures for firefighter and police families receive approval
A private foundation proposed up to ten annual scholarships for full-time college students whose parent or guardian is an active firefighter or police officer in the foundation's service area.…
Hospital-bond collateral is a program-related investment and qualifying distribution
A private foundation pledged marketable securities as collateral for a surety supporting the debt-service reserve on bonds used to build and equip a charitable hospital. The pledge was essential to…
Congressional-policy fellowship grant procedures receive approval
A private foundation proposed sponsoring two professionals each year as fellows working with a congressional subcommittee on major policy issues. Candidates had to demonstrate policy knowledge and…
Scholarships for students formerly in institutional care receive approval
A private foundation proposed one-time, renewable-by-reapplication scholarships for students who were or had been residents of nonprofit or institutional children's homes, lacked a nurturing home…
Homeowners association loses social-club exemption
A homeowners association originally recognized under § 501(c)(7) required subdivision property owners to be members and maintained swimming pools, tennis courts, a marina, a duck pond, common…
Private foundation loses exemption for inurement and unsubstantiated charity
A private foundation controlled by two trustees could not substantiate the charitable giveaway it claimed, and its ledger showed no related expenditure. Instead, the examination found insider loans…
Purported partnership return triggers TEFRA procedures
Chief Counsel advised that TEFRA applies when a purported partnership return is filed even if no valid partnership exists. State law determines whether an unsigned trust instrument created a valid…
Supplemental assessment uses deficiency procedures for deficiency tax
Chief Counsel advised that deficiency procedures apply to a supplemental assessment when the tax at issue is a deficiency tax within the meaning of § 6211. The brief email pointed to the…
Worthless subsidiary stock cannot use product-liability carryback
A taxpayer's wholly owned subsidiary faced product-liability litigation and entered Chapter 11. Under the reorganization plan, the taxpayer's existing subsidiary stock was canceled, while the…
LLC recapitalization transferring future profits to sons is a gift
A donor contributed real property to a family LLC and later joined in a recapitalization that allocated all future profit, loss, and asset appreciation equally to her two sons in exchange for their…
Deferred put-option premiums are not deductible interest
An insurer bought put options to hedge variable-annuity guarantees and paid the premiums in installments over several years. Although it obtained dealer quotes for hypothetical up-front premiums and…
Recasting oil-and-gas leases as purchases requires accounting-method consent
An energy company had consistently treated foreign oil-and-gas agreements as leases, deducting or including royalties in cost of goods sold. It later filed claims seeking to recast the agreements as…
Production-sharing contracts cannot be recast without accounting-method consent
An energy company had treated foreign production-sharing contracts as leases for financial and federal tax reporting for decades. It later claimed that the contracts should be treated as contingent…
Closed-year CDS gains enter section 481 adjustment
An investment adviser deferred incentive fees and also deferred gains from participation interests in credit-default swaps that it said hedged those fees. Examination proposed recognizing the CDS…
Damaged-goods claims cannot use recurring-item exception
An accrual-method moving company deducted pending customer claims for lost or damaged goods when it paid them within five months after year-end, relying on the recurring-item exception. Chief…
Missed ESBT election causes only inadvertent S termination
An S corporation shareholder trust transferred its stock to a newly created trust with the same sole beneficiary, but the new trust's trustees failed to make a timely electing small business trust…
Court reformation cures revocable GRAT remainder trust
A grantor funded two GRATs whose remainder beneficiary was intended to be an irrevocable trust for his children. A drafting error instead gave the grantor power to revoke that remainder trust,…
Retroactive trust reformation is respected for GRAT remainders
A grantor funded two GRATs whose remainder beneficiary was intended to be an irrevocable trust for his children. A drafting error instead gave the grantor power to revoke that remainder trust,…
Scrivener-error reformation preserves intended GRAT gifts
A grantor funded two GRATs whose remainder beneficiary was intended to be an irrevocable trust for his children. A drafting error instead gave the grantor power to revoke that remainder trust,…
Reformed remainder trust avoids retained-power tax effects
A grantor funded two GRATs whose remainder beneficiary was intended to be an irrevocable trust for his children. A drafting error instead gave the grantor power to revoke that remainder trust,…
Court-corrected GRAT remainder trust receives tax effect
A grantor funded two GRATs whose remainder beneficiary was intended to be an irrevocable trust for his children. A drafting error instead gave the grantor power to revoke that remainder trust,…
Missed QSub election receives 120-day filing extension
An S corporation acquired a subsidiary and elected to treat it as a qualified subchapter S subsidiary, but discovered during restructuring that no Form 8869 had been filed for that subsidiary's…
Foreign entity receives late Form 8832 election relief
A foreign eligible entity wanted a federal tax classification different from its default classification but inadvertently failed to file Form 8832 on time. The IRS found that the entity satisfied…
Foreign entity gets late partnership-classification election
A foreign eligible entity and its two members intended partnership classification from the entity's formation date but inadvertently failed to file Form 8832. The IRS found that the entity met the…
Late S corporation election receives reasonable-cause relief
A corporation intended S corporation treatment from its formation date but did not timely file Form 2553. The IRS concluded that the corporation established reasonable cause under § 1362(b)(5).…
Hydroelectric authority earns excluded governmental income
A county and a governmental agency created an authority to finance hydroelectric-project licensing costs, approve energy contracts, and distribute project revenue. The two political subdivisions…
Foreign entity gets late disregarded-entity election
A single-owner foreign eligible entity intended to be disregarded for federal tax purposes but inadvertently failed to file Form 8832 on time. The IRS concluded that the entity satisfied the…
Late Form 8832 disregarded-entity relief is granted
A wholly owned foreign eligible entity intended to be disregarded for federal tax purposes but inadvertently failed to file Form 8832 on time. The IRS concluded that the entity satisfied the…
Retroactive disregarded-entity election gets filing extension
A foreign eligible entity intended to be disregarded for federal tax purposes from its formation date but inadvertently failed to file Form 8832. The IRS concluded that the entity satisfied the…
Missed foreign disregarded-entity election gets relief
A single-owner foreign eligible entity intended to be disregarded for federal tax purposes but inadvertently failed to file Form 8832 on time. The IRS concluded that the entity satisfied the…
Foreign entity receives retroactive Form 8832 relief
A foreign eligible entity intended to be disregarded for federal tax purposes but inadvertently failed to file Form 8832 on time. The IRS concluded that the entity satisfied the discretionary-relief…
Late disregarded-entity classification election is allowed
A single-owner foreign eligible entity intended to be disregarded for federal tax purposes but inadvertently failed to file Form 8832 on time. The IRS concluded that the entity satisfied the…
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.