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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Private foundation gets an extra five years to sell "excess business holdings" inherited from its founder
A private foundation cannot hold too large a stake in a business (an "excess business holding") without facing an excise tax under Section 4943, and it normally has five years to sell down after recei…
9100 relief to file two late "check-the-box" elections classifying foreign subsidiaries as disregarded
This letter gives a company extra time to make two late "check-the-box" entity classification elections. A U.S. corporation that had elected S corporation status indirectly owned two foreign subsidiar…
9100 relief to make late QTIP and reverse-QTIP elections on an estate tax return after the preparer omitted them
This letter gives an estate more time to make two estate-tax elections that its accountant left off the return. A QTIP election (Section 2056(b)(7)) lets property passing into a marital trust for a su…
9100 relief treating a late Form 8996 as timely to self-certify a partnership as a Qualified Opportunity Fund
This letter grants a late-filing extension for an Opportunity Zone election, on facts very similar to a companion ruling in the same release week. A Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF) self-certifies by …
9100 relief treating a late Form 8996 as timely to self-certify a partnership as a Qualified Opportunity Fund
This letter grants a late-filing extension for an Opportunity Zone election. To become a Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF), an entity must self-certify by filing Form 8996 with a timely tax return. Her…
Inadvertent-termination relief restoring a corporation's S election after trustees missed the ESBT elections
This letter fixes an accidental loss of S corporation status. An S corporation can only have certain kinds of shareholders; a trust generally has to make an "electing small business trust" (ESBT) elec…
9100 relief to file a late "check-the-box" election classifying a foreign entity as a partnership
This letter grants extra time to make a "check-the-box" entity classification election, a companion to another ruling issued the same week. Under the Section 7701 regulations, an eligible business ent…
A contingent deferred annuity linked to a taxpayer's own brokerage account is treated as an annuity under Section 72, with no straddle or loss-deferral side effects
A life insurance company plans to sell a "contingent deferred annuity," a product that guarantees a person lifetime income if their own investment account ever runs dry. Unlike a normal annuity, the b…
9100 relief to file a late "check-the-box" election classifying a foreign entity as disregarded
This letter grants extra time to make a "check-the-box" entity classification election. Under the Section 7701 regulations, an eligible business entity can elect how it is treated for federal tax purp…
Conditional approval of a multiemployer pension plan's 5-year amortization extension, with one improperly extended base denied and required to be reversed
This is an IRS ruling on a multiemployer pension plan's request to stretch out (amortize) certain unfunded liabilities over an extra five years, which eases the plan's minimum funding requirements und…
Letter 4038 (202502006): Denial of 501(c)(4) social-welfare exemption to a gated homeowners association operated for its members
This is a final IRS letter denying tax-exempt status as a social welfare organization under Section 501(c)(4). To qualify, a group must operate primarily to promote the common good and general welfare…
A foreign subsidiary's activities are not attributed to its U.S. parent for sourcing services income, because the subsidiary is not the parent's agent
This is Chief Counsel Advice to an Appeals officer about where a company's services income comes from, which matters for the foreign tax credit limitation under Section 904. Services income is general…
9100 relief to file a late Form 8996 self-certifying a partnership as a Qualified Opportunity Fund
This letter grants a late-filing extension for an Opportunity Zone election. A Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF) is an investment vehicle that lets investors defer and reduce capital-gains tax when the…
9100 relief to make late GILTI high-tax-exclusion elections for a CFC group across three years
This letter gives a corporate group more time to make a tax election tied to the GILTI rules for foreign subsidiaries. GILTI (global intangible low-taxed income) requires U.S. shareholders of controll…
R&D-services income that two U.S. companies earn from their foreign parent qualifies as FDDEI in full under section 250(b)(4)(B)
This ruling is about the deduction for foreign-derived intangible income (FDII) under Section 250, which rewards U.S. corporations for income earned by serving foreign customers. To get the deduction,…
9100 relief to file a late statement electing the 70/30 success-based-fee safe harbor under Rev. Proc. 2011-29
This letter grants a company extra time to file a tax election it meant to make but accidentally left off its return. When a business pays fees that are contingent on closing an acquisition ("success-…
Advance approval of a private foundation's scholarship and educational-grant procedures under 4945(g)
This is an IRS letter giving a private foundation advance approval of the way it plans to award two kinds of grants to individuals. Private foundations face an excise tax on "taxable expenditures," an…
Letter 4797 (202501017): Approval of a private foundation's 4942(g)(2) set-aside to renovate and expand an affordable-housing complex
This is an IRS letter approving a private foundation's request for a "set-aside" under Section 4942(g)(2). Private foundations normally have to pay out a minimum amount each year for charitable purpos…
Letter 4038 (202501016): Denial of 501(c)(4) social-welfare exemption to a small homeowners association operated for its members' private benefit
This is a final IRS letter denying tax-exempt status as a social welfare organization under Section 501(c)(4). To qualify, a group must operate primarily to promote the common good and general welfare…
Letter 4038 (202501015): Denial of 501(c)(5) labor-organization exemption to a group that could not show it primarily serves employees
This is a final IRS letter denying tax-exempt status as a labor organization under Section 501(c)(5). To qualify, a group must primarily serve the interests of "labor," which the law reads as the inte…
Letter 6337 (202501014): Revocation of 501(c)(3) status for a dormant church that could not substantiate loan withdrawals, triggering excess-benefit tax
This is a final IRS letter revoking a small organization's 501(c)(3) tax exemption. To keep the exemption, a charity must be both organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes and must keep r…
Letter 4038 (202501013): Exemption denied to a business-networking membership organization serving members' private interests
This is a final IRS letter denying tax-exempt status to an organization that applied under Section 501(c)(3). To qualify, a group must be organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes such as…
Letter 6337 (202501012): Revocation of 501(c)(3) status for an inactive organization that failed to substantiate the operational and organizational tests
This is a final IRS letter revoking a charity's tax exemption. To keep 501(c)(3) status, an organization must be both organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes (the organizational and ope…
A short-term green card holder could not use a treaty to shed U.S. tax residency
A green card holder is a "lawful permanent resident" and therefore a U.S. resident who is taxed on worldwide income until that status is formally given up. This informal Chief Counsel email advice add…
After a § 338(g) election, a subsidiary's pre-acquisition years are ignored for the worthless-stock gross-receipts test
When a company's stock in a subsidiary becomes worthless, the loss is normally a capital loss, but Section 165(g)(3) allows a more valuable ordinary loss if the subsidiary is an affiliated company and…
Which address to use for a partnership representative's audit notice, and how to change it
Under the centralized partnership audit rules from the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, a partnership names a "partnership representative" who receives IRS audit notices on the partnership's behalf, and…
Section 269 and the anti-abuse rule of Temp. Reg. § 1.245A-5T reach a check-the-box GILTI-avoidance transaction
This Chief Counsel Advice tells IRS examiners how to attack a structure a U.S. multinational used to keep eleven months of a foreign subsidiary's income out of the U.S. minimum-tax base on foreign ear…
Late relief granted to self-certify a partnership as a Qualified Opportunity Fund
A Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF) is an investment vehicle that lets investors defer and reduce tax on capital gains if they reinvest in designated low-income "opportunity zones." To become a QOF, an…
Consent granted to re-elect S corporation status before the five-year waiting period ends
An S corporation passes its income through to its shareholders instead of paying corporate-level tax, but only shareholders who meet strict eligibility rules may own its stock. Here a corporation had …
Consent granted to re-elect S corporation status before the five-year waiting period ends
An S corporation is a small business that passes its income through to its shareholders instead of paying corporate tax, but only shareholders who meet strict eligibility rules can own its stock. Here…
Late relief granted to elect out of automatic GST exemption allocation for two GRATs
When someone makes a gift to certain trusts that could later skip a generation, the tax code automatically uses up part of the person's generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption unless they for…
Consent granted to aggregate separate non-operating silver royalty interests as one property
A company that owns silver royalty interests, but does not mine or operate the properties itself, asked the IRS for permission to treat its scattered royalty interests in one region as a single "prope…
Consent granted to aggregate separate non-operating mineral (royalty) interests as one property
A company that owns oil, gas, and mineral royalty interests, but does not drill or operate the wells itself, asked the IRS for permission to lump its scattered royalty interests in one region into a s…
Partnership gets more time to make a late Section 754 basis-adjustment election
A partnership can file a "section 754 election" so that when partnership interests change hands or property is distributed, the inside tax basis of the partnership's assets is adjusted to match. The e…
Foundation's scholarship and educational-grant procedures approved in advance
A private foundation that makes grants to individuals for study or travel normally owes an excise tax on those payments unless the IRS approves its grant-selection procedures in advance. Here a founda…
NIL collective for college athletes denied 501(c)(3) for private benefit
An organization applied for 501(c)(3) charitable status built around a "name, image, and likeness" (NIL) collective: it paid college student-athletes at one university to use their NIL for work with l…
Gated homeowners association loses 501(c)(4) status for restricting the public
A homeowners association can qualify as a 501(c)(4) "social welfare" organization only if it serves a community in a way that benefits the general public, not just its own members. A long-running IRS …
Exemption automatically revoked for filing 990-N while over the $50,000 threshold
Small tax-exempt organizations with average gross receipts of $50,000 or less can meet their annual IRS filing duty with a short electronic notice, the Form 990-N "e-Postcard." Larger organizations mu…
Civil-rights and blockchain-art group denied 501(c)(3) exemption
A newly formed nonprofit applied for 501(c)(3) charitable status, describing a mission to defend citizens' constitutional and civil rights through legal, educational, and social activities, including …
Interest on a prevailing-wage correction payment is compounded daily
This is a brief internal email answering a compliance question about the prevailing wage and apprenticeship (PWA) rules, which certain clean-energy tax credits require employers to meet. If a worker w…
Chief Counsel comments on a BBA partnership-audit training case study
This is an internal email and set of margin comments in which Chief Counsel attorneys review a training case study about partnership audits under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (the BBA "centralize…
Estate gets more time to make an estate-tax portability election
When someone dies without using up their full estate-tax exemption, a "portability" election lets the surviving spouse claim the leftover amount (the deceased spousal unused exclusion, or DSUE). The c…
Late election granted to pass rehabilitation-credit expenditures to a tenant
The rehabilitation credit rewards owners who fix up certain older buildings. When a landlord owns the building but a tenant is the one that should claim the credit, tax rules let the landlord "elect" …
Late relief for a partnership to make a section 754 basis-adjustment election
An LLC taxed as a partnership went through a series of ownership changes: its interests were transferred to a newly formed partnership (briefly making it a disregarded entity), then interests were tra…
Partnership gets more time to make a late section 754 election after a sale
A company that is taxed as a partnership had a buyer purchase a large stake in its parent, a transfer that would let the partnership adjust the tax basis of its assets under a section 754 election so …
Modifying a pre-1985 grandfathered trust will not trigger GST tax
A trust created before September 25, 1985 is "grandfathered," meaning it is exempt from the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax as long as it is not improperly enlarged or changed in ways that shif…
Modifying a pre-1985 grandfathered trust will not trigger GST tax
A trust created before September 25, 1985 is "grandfathered," meaning it is exempt from the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax as long as it is not improperly enlarged or changed in ways that shif…
Modifying a pre-1985 grandfathered trust will not trigger GST tax
A trust created before September 25, 1985 is "grandfathered," meaning it is exempt from the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax as long as it is not improperly enlarged or changed in ways that shif…
A contingent deferred annuity linked to a customer's own brokerage account is treated as an annuity under section 72
A life insurance company designed a new "contingent deferred annuity," a guaranteed lifetime income product that attaches to a brokerage account the customer already owns rather than to money held by …
Late relief lets a foreign entity elect to be disregarded from its owner (companion ruling)
This is a companion ruling to PLR 202452002, involving a related foreign company. Like the other one, this foreign company wanted to be treated as a "disregarded entity" for U.S. federal tax purposes …
Late relief lets a foreign entity elect to be disregarded from its owner
A foreign company wanted to be treated as a "disregarded entity" for U.S. federal tax purposes, meaning it would be ignored as separate from its single owner. To do that it had to file Form 8832 (the …
Late relief lets an LLC change from a corporation to a partnership for tax purposes
An LLC had elected to be an S corporation, which under the check-the-box rules also meant it was automatically treated as an association taxable as a corporation. The LLC later wanted to switch to bei…
Student-athlete NIL collective denied 501(c)(3) exemption for serving private interests
An organization applied for 501(c)(3) charitable status using the streamlined Form 1023-EZ. Its stated mission was to help a school's student athletes use their Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rights b…
Foreign electronic derivatives exchange recognized as a "qualified board or exchange" under section 1256
A foreign, all-electronic derivatives exchange asked the IRS to confirm it is a "qualified board or exchange" under section 1256(g)(7)(C). That status matters because futures contracts traded on such …
In-service employees age 59½ may draw 401(h) retiree medical benefits without disqualifying the pension plan
A company runs a defined-benefit pension plan that includes "401(h) accounts," a feature that lets a pension plan pay retiree medical benefits. It amended the plan to let employees who are at least ag…
Estate gets more time to make a missed QTIP marital-deduction election
When someone dies leaving property to a surviving spouse in a certain kind of trust, the estate can elect "QTIP" treatment under section 2056(b)(7) so that property qualifies for the unlimited estate-…
Tax-free spin-off of a business into a new public company, with debt-for-equity exchange
A publicly traded parent company that runs two lines of business wants to split off one of them (Business B) into a new, separately traded corporation ("Controlled") and hand that new company's stock …
Surviving spouse may roll a deceased spouse's 403(b) annuities, paid through a trust, into her own IRAs tax-free
A man died at 73 holding several 403(b) retirement annuities through his employer. He had named a joint revocable living trust as the beneficiary of those annuities. His surviving spouse is now the so…
Reasonable cause found for a late S corporation election
A newly incorporated company intended to be taxed as an S corporation (which passes income through to shareholders and avoids corporate-level tax) starting from a specific effective date. To get that …
Limited partnership gets more time to make a late section 754 basis-adjustment election
A limited partnership had a partner (who held its interest through a trust) die. When a partnership interest transfers, a section 754 election lets the partnership adjust the tax basis of its assets s…
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.