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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IRS grants a foreign entity extra time to elect partnership classification (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, majority-owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a partnership for U.S. federal tax purposes, but it missed the deadline to file the…
IRS grants a foreign entity extra time to elect disregarded-entity status (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, wholly owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a "disregarded entity" (ignored as separate from its owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes,…
IRS grants a foreign entity extra time to elect disregarded-entity status (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, wholly owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a "disregarded entity" (ignored as separate from its owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes,…
IRS grants a foreign entity extra time to elect disregarded-entity status (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, wholly owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a "disregarded entity" (ignored as separate from its owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes,…
IRS grants a foreign entity extra time to elect disregarded-entity status (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, wholly owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a "disregarded entity" (ignored as separate from its owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes,…
IRS grants a foreign entity extra time to elect disregarded-entity status (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, wholly owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a "disregarded entity" (ignored as separate from its owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes,…
IRS grants a foreign entity extra time to elect disregarded-entity status (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, wholly owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a "disregarded entity" (ignored as separate from its owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes,…
IRS grants a foreign entity extra time to elect partnership classification (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, majority-owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a partnership for U.S. federal tax purposes, but it missed the deadline to file the…
IRS grants a foreign entity extra time to elect disregarded-entity status (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, wholly owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a "disregarded entity" (ignored as separate from its owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes,…
IRS grants a foreign entity extra time to elect partnership classification (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, majority-owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a partnership for U.S. federal tax purposes, but it missed the deadline to file the…
IRS grants a foreign entity extra time to elect disregarded-entity status (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, wholly owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a "disregarded entity" (ignored as separate from its owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes,…
IRS grants a foreign entity extra time to elect disregarded-entity status (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, wholly owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a "disregarded entity" (ignored as separate from its owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes,…
IRS grants an S corporation extra time to elect QSub treatment for its subsidiary (late Form 8869 relief)
An S corporation can elect to treat a wholly owned subsidiary as a "qualified subchapter S subsidiary" (QSub), which makes the subsidiary invisible for tax purposes so its assets and income are…
IRS grants a foreign entity 120 days to make a late disregarded-entity election
A foreign eligible entity wholly owned by a foreign partnership intended to be disregarded for U.S. federal tax purposes from its formation date but failed to timely file Form 8832. It requested…
IRS grants a foreign entity 120 days to make a late partnership-classification election
A foreign eligible entity owned primarily by a foreign partnership intended to be classified as a partnership for U.S. federal tax purposes from its formation date but failed to timely file Form…
IRS grants a foreign entity 120 days to make a late disregarded-entity election
A foreign eligible entity wholly owned by a foreign partnership intended to be disregarded for U.S. federal tax purposes from its formation date but failed to timely file Form 8832. It requested…
IRS grants a foreign entity 120 days to make a late disregarded-entity election
A foreign eligible entity wholly owned by a foreign partnership intended to be disregarded for U.S. federal tax purposes from its formation date but failed to timely file Form 8832. It requested…
IRS grants a foreign entity 120 days to make a late disregarded-entity election
A foreign eligible entity wholly owned by a foreign partnership intended to be disregarded for U.S. federal tax purposes from its formation date but failed to timely file Form 8832. It requested…
IRS grants 60 days for a consolidated group to elect out of bonus depreciation
Six subsidiaries in a consolidated group placed qualifying 3-year, 5-year, 7-year, and 15-year property in service during a fiscal year. The group's return did not claim additional first-year…
IRS clarifies the limited scope of an earlier late § 338(g) election ruling
The IRS had previously given a purchaser 45 days to file a late § 338(g) election for a stock acquisition. A question later arose about whether that ruling provided anything beyond extra time to…
IRS treats a late initial REIT return as a timely REIT election
An LLC elected corporate status and intended to elect real estate investment trust treatment beginning on the same effective date. Its accounting firm filed an extension for the LLC's parent fund,…
IRS denies a trader's late mark-to-market election
An individual substantially increased securities trading during part of a year but did not make a timely § 475(f)(1) mark-to-market election. Most of the year's realized trading losses and…
IRS gives a corporation 45 days to file a late LIFO election form
An LLC became an independent C corporation and acquired inventory that its former owner had accounted for under the last-in-first-out method. The corporation continued using LIFO, but two accounting…
IRS grants 60 days for a late success-based-fee safe-harbor election
A corporate group paid contingent financial-adviser fees in connection with a taxable stock acquisition. Its timely return treated 70 percent of the fees as nonfacilitative and deductible,…
IRS gives a limited partnership 120 days to make a late corporate election
A domestic limited partnership intended to be classified as an association taxable as a corporation from a specified effective date. It failed to timely file Form 8832 and requested an extension…
IRS gives a limited partnership 120 days to make a late corporate election
A domestic limited partnership intended to be classified as an association taxable as a corporation from a specified effective date. It failed to timely file Form 8832 and requested an extension…
IRS grants 60 days for a success-fee election omitted from an examined return
A corporation paid a contingent advisory fee in a business acquisition and intended to use the Rev. Proc. 2011-29 safe harbor. Its accounting firm prepared the required election statement and the…
IRS grants 60 days to add an omitted success-fee election to an amended return
A corporate group completed a taxable stock acquisition and paid contingent fees to two financial advisers. Its return deducted 70 percent of the fees and capitalized 30 percent, consistently with…
IRS grants extra time to make the "success-based fee" safe-harbor election after the required statement was left off a return
When a company is bought or reorganized, fees that are contingent on the deal closing ("success-based fees") are presumed to be capital costs that must be capitalized rather than deducted, unless…
IRS grants an LLC extra time to elect REIT status after its accountants missed the filing deadline
An LLC intended to be taxed as a corporation and to elect real estate investment trust (REIT) status by filing a Form 1120-REIT for its first year. A REIT election is made simply by filing that…
Late-election relief to identify convertible notes and call options as an integrated transaction
Tax rules let a company treat a debt instrument and a related hedge as a single "integrated" transaction, which changes how the interest and cash flows are taxed, but only if the company writes down…
Late notice extension to treat two subsidiaries as separate lines of business for retirement-plan testing
An employer that runs genuinely separate businesses can test its retirement plans for coverage and nondiscrimination line-by-line instead of across the whole controlled group, but only if it files a…
Late election to defer the start of a low-income housing credit period
A partnership owns and operates a multi-building low-income housing project and claims the low-income housing credit under Section 42. The credit runs for a 10-year "credit period." A building owner…
IRS grants 90 days to file a late consolidated-return election for 52-53-week tax years
A corporate parent filed consolidated returns for an affiliated group whose members included corporations using a 52-53-week tax year. After acquired subsidiaries joined the group, all members' tax…
IRS treats a regulated investment company's late dividend election as timely
A regulated investment company prepared and signed its Form 1120-RIC with an election under IRC § 855(a) to treat qualifying dividends as paid during the prior tax year. Its fund administrator…
IRS grants 90 days for late consolidated-return and de minimis safe-harbor elections
A domestic parent corporation and its affiliated group failed to timely make two elections with their federal return. One election was to file a consolidated return with the corporation as common…
IRS grants 90 days to make a late consolidated-return election
A domestic parent corporation and its affiliated group failed to timely elect to file a consolidated federal income tax return. The parent requested discretionary relief while the assessment periods…
IRS grants more time to elect the success-based fee safe harbor
A corporation paid a success-based fee to a financial adviser in connection with a nontaxable acquisition and merger. Its return deducted 70 percent of the fee and capitalized 30 percent, consistent…
IRS grants more time for a corrected success-based fee election
A corporation incurred financial adviser fees while acquiring and merging with a related company. Its return preparer applied the Rev. Proc. 2011-29 safe-harbor percentages but omitted the required…
IRS grants a partnership more time to elect the success-based fee safe harbor
A partnership incurred success-based transaction fees when a buyer acquired the stock of its two corporate owners. Its tax professional prepared a return that deducted 70 percent of the fees and…
IRS allows a late success-based fee election after an attachment was omitted
A limited liability company paid a transaction fee to a financial adviser when its owners sold their interests to an acquirer. The company's return preparer determined that the fee qualified for the…
IRS grants 120 days for a late corporate-classification election
A domestic limited liability company intended to be treated as a corporation for federal tax purposes from a specified date. Because of inadvertence, it did not timely file Form 8832 making the…
IRS grants 60 days to file an omitted duplicate Form 3115
A taxpayer timely filed its federal return with the original Form 3115 requesting an automatic change to the cash method of accounting. The return reflected the requested method, but an…
IRS grants a foreign entity 120 days for a late corporate-classification election
A foreign eligible entity intended to elect corporate treatment for U.S. federal tax purposes from a specified date but inadvertently failed to file Form 8832 on time. The IRS concluded that the…
IRS allows a late election to waive target losses' carryback to a former group
A consolidated group acquired a target corporation that had previously belonged to another consolidated group. The acquiring group intended to elect under the consolidated-return rules to relinquish…
IRS allows a late investment-income election for one open year but denies two closed years
A married couple failed to elect to treat net capital gain from investment property as investment income for three tax years. That election would allow investment interest expense to offset the…
Parties receive extra time to make a section 336(e) election for an S corporation stock sale
Shareholders sold all the stock of an S corporation to purchasers and intended the transaction to be treated as an asset sale under section 336(e). The parties did not timely sign the required…
A mining group receives extra time to elect out of bonus depreciation
A consolidated mining group decided not to claim additional first-year depreciation for any class of qualified property placed in service during a loss year. Its return reflected that decision, but…
A new fund's late RIC and dividends-paid elections are treated as timely
A new series of an investment company intended to qualify as a regulated investment company and to make a section 855 election for dividends declared and distributed after year-end. The company…
A company receives extra time to attach the success-based fee safe-harbor election
A company paid two financial advisers success-based fees in connection with the sale of its business. Its tax consultant recommended the Rev. Proc. 2011-29 safe harbor, and its return deducted 70…
A fund's late RIC and dividends-paid elections are treated as timely
A new series of an investment company intended to qualify as a regulated investment company and make a section 855 election for dividends declared and distributed after year-end. The company…
Three foreign insurers receive more time to elect domestic treatment
Three foreign insurance companies writing U.S. risks intended to elect under section 953(d) to be treated as domestic corporations for federal tax purposes. Their professional adviser prepared…
IRS grants 60 days to file an IC-DISC election not found in its records
A domestic corporation was formed to operate as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation for a partnership that manufactured and sold products. Its accounting firm prepared Form…
Consolidated-group members receive 60 days to make a value-restoration election
A parent corporation underwent an ownership change while it and a subsidiary were members of the same controlled group. The section 382 rules reduced the parent's value by the value of its…
Estate receives 120 days to make a late portability election
An estate that was not otherwise required to file an estate tax return failed to timely file Form 706 and elect portability of the decedent's unused exclusion amount to the surviving spouse. Because…
Mining group receives relief for depreciation and expenditure-amortization elections
A consolidated mining group intended both to elect out of additional first-year depreciation for all qualified-property classes and to amortize mining exploration and development expenditures over…
Taxpayers receive 60 days to revoke an excessive investment-income election
Two retired taxpayers self-prepared their return and elected to treat qualified dividends and net long-term capital gain as investment income so they could deduct investment interest expense. They…
Estate receives 120 days to make a late QTIP election
A revocable trust became irrevocable at the decedent's death and divided property between a survivor's trust and a marital trust. The marital trust required all net income to be paid to the…
Partnership receives 120 days to make a late § 754 election
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership expected to redeem a deceased member's interest, so it did not make a section 754 basis-adjustment election for the year of that death. The…
Foreign entity receives 120 days to file a late classification election
A foreign eligible entity intended to elect disregarded-entity status 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.