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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Homeowners association denied Section 501(c)(3) exemption
A homeowners association sought recognition under Section 501(c)(3). Its articles focused on managing and maintaining common areas, preserving and controlling residential lots, and promoting the healt…
Organization loses exemption over real-estate deals and private benefits
The IRS revoked a tax-exempt organization's status under section 501(c)(3) after finding that substantial parts of its operations did not further exempt purposes. The organization directed proceeds fr…
Foreign entity received 120 days to elect corporate classification
A foreign eligible entity intended to be classified as an association taxable as a corporation but did not timely file Form 8832 with the requested effective date. The IRS found that the entity satisf…
Taxpayer could reelect the foreign earned income exclusion after moving countries
A U.S. citizen had elected the foreign earned income exclusion while living in one country, then effectively revoked it by claiming a foreign tax credit. Before the usual six-year waiting period ended…
LLC received 120 days to file a late corporate-classification election
A domestic limited liability company intended to be classified as a corporation from a specified date but did not timely file Form 8832. Based on the submitted facts and representations, the IRS concl…
Partnership received 120 days for a late Section 754 election
A partnership inadvertently failed to make a Section 754 election for the year in which one of its partners died. The IRS found that the partnership satisfied the standards for regulatory-election rel…
Two foreign entities received late partnership-classification relief
Two foreign eligible entities whose default classifications were associations were owned by a married couple who later became U.S. tax residents. After one spouse died, the surviving spouse became the…
Elective transfer between governmental retirement plans avoided current tax
A county proposed allowing participants in its governmental defined-contribution plan to elect participation in a governmental cash-balance defined-benefit plan and transfer their balances directly be…
Late ESBT election did not end the corporation's S status
A trust eligible to be an electing small business trust acquired all shares of an S corporation, but its trustees did not timely file the ESBT election, technically terminating the corporation's S ele…
Scholarship procedures for future litigators approved
A private foundation proposed two annual, nonrenewable scholarships intended to diversify the pipeline of future litigators: one for an entering law student and one for a college-bound high school stu…
Missing elections for nine trusts caused only an inadvertent S termination
After a shareholder died, an original trust covered by a Section 645 election transferred its S-corporation shares to nine successor trusts. Eight were intended to be qualified subchapter S trusts and…
Estate received 120 days to divide a reverse-QTIP trust for GST purposes
A decedent's estate made both a QTIP election and a reverse-QTIP election for an entire marital trust. A later transitional regulation allowed certain pre-1995 reverse-QTIP trusts with allocated GST e…
Partnership could aggregate royalty interests in three adjacent mineral leases
A partnership acquired royalty interests covering three adjacent mineral leases and used cost depletion, but it lacked reserve information needed to calculate depletion separately by property. It lear…
Delinquent Form 8996 was treated as a timely QOF self-certification
An LLC was organized to be a qualified opportunity fund and used members' contributions to buy stock in a qualified opportunity zone business. Its first accountant incorrectly concluded that the partn…
Foreign entity received 120 days to elect partnership classification
A foreign eligible entity requested additional time to file Form 8832 electing partnership classification from a specified date. The IRS found that the entity satisfied the standards for regulatory-el…
Employee-dependent scholarship procedures approved
A private foundation proposed annual, nonrenewable scholarships for dependents of a company's full-time employees attending two- or four-year colleges, universities, or vocational schools. An independ…
Pension plan may use substitute mortality tables for up to two years
A pension plan sponsor asked to use plan-specific substitute mortality tables for minimum-funding calculations under section 430. The IRS approved the tables for union male, non-union male, and female…
Two pension plans may use substitute mortality tables for five years
A parent company asked to use plan-specific base substitute mortality tables for two pension plans when calculating minimum funding under section 430. The IRS approved aggregated male and female annui…
Multiemployer plan receives retroactive funding relief with two bases excluded
A multiemployer pension plan requested a five-year extension of the amortization periods for unfunded liabilities beginning October 1, 2014. The plan timely submitted the request in 2015, resent it af…
Pension plan may use four substitute mortality tables for five years
A pension plan sponsor asked to use separate substitute mortality tables for male and female annuitants and nonannuitants, including disabled participants. The IRS approved all four populations for up…
Employer-related scholarship procedures receive advance approval
A private foundation asked the IRS to approve an employer-related scholarship program for children of an employer's workers. Applicants must satisfy employment, enrollment, academic, and prior-award r…
Farmers’ market denied exemption for commercial activity and vendor benefit
An organization applied for section 501(c)(3) status to operate a farmers’ market offering stalls to local farmers, artisans, food vendors, clubs, and other organizations. Vendors paid weekly or annua…
Proportionate stock surrenders avoid income, distribution, and gift treatment
An executive and several trusts proposed surrendering the same percentage of two classes of common shares to a corporation without receiving consideration. The corporation would retire those shares an…
Proportionate stock surrenders avoid income, distribution, and gift treatment
An executive and several trusts proposed surrendering the same percentage of two classes of common shares to a corporation without receiving consideration. The corporation would retire those shares an…
Proportionate stock surrenders avoid income, distribution, and gift treatment
An executive and several trusts proposed surrendering the same percentage of two classes of common shares to a corporation without receiving consideration. The corporation would retire those shares an…
Proportionate stock surrenders avoid income, distribution, and gift treatment
An executive and several trusts proposed surrendering the same percentage of two classes of common shares to a corporation without receiving consideration. The corporation would retire those shares an…
Proportionate stock surrenders avoid income, distribution, and gift treatment
An executive and several trusts proposed surrendering the same percentage of two classes of common shares to a corporation without receiving consideration. The corporation would retire those shares an…
Proportionate stock surrenders avoid income, distribution, and gift treatment
An executive and several trusts proposed surrendering the same percentage of two classes of common shares to a corporation without receiving consideration. The corporation would retire those shares an…
Proportionate stock surrenders avoid income, distribution, and gift treatment
An executive and several trusts proposed surrendering the same percentage of two classes of common shares to a corporation without receiving consideration. The corporation would retire those shares an…
Proportionate stock surrenders avoid income, distribution, and gift treatment
An executive and several trusts proposed surrendering the same percentage of two classes of common shares to a corporation without receiving consideration. The corporation would retire those shares an…
Proportionate stock surrenders avoid income, distribution, and gift treatment
An executive and several trusts proposed surrendering the same percentage of two classes of common shares to a corporation without receiving consideration. The corporation would retire those shares an…
Corporate group receives 75 days to make late consolidated-return election
A parent corporation and five subsidiaries intended to elect to file a consolidated federal income tax return but did not make a valid election by the deadline. The return later filed for the group al…
Opportunity fund receives 45 days to file late self-certification
A partnership organized as a limited liability company intended to qualify as a qualified opportunity fund from the month it was formed. Its first tax adviser failed to tell it that it needed to file …
Proportionate stock surrenders avoid income, distribution, and gift treatment
An executive and several trusts proposed surrendering the same percentage of two classes of common shares to a corporation without receiving consideration. The corporation would retire those shares an…
Proportionate stock surrenders avoid income, distribution, and gift treatment
An executive and several trusts proposed surrendering the same percentage of two classes of common shares to a corporation without receiving consideration. The corporation would retire those shares an…
Charitable trust may set aside income while beneficiary litigation continues
A nonexempt charitable trust held testamentary income for a hospital that had historically been exempt under section 501(c)(3). After the hospital system sold its operating assets, competing successor…
Scholarship program for low-income students receives advance approval
A private foundation proposed scholarships for graduating high school seniors from identified low-income communities. Eligible students must attend qualifying in-state colleges or technical schools fu…
Special-needs student and teacher grant procedures receive approval
A private foundation proposed two educational grant programs tied to special education. One will help students with disabilities obtain specialized educational or therapeutic services at a named schoo…
Farmers’ market denied agricultural-organization exemption
An organization sought section 501(c)(5) status for operating a farmers’ market that charged farmers and vendors to sell directly to consumers. It also ran a winter market for crafts, furniture, and o…
Organization loses exemption after refusing examination requests
The IRS revoked an organization’s section 501(c)(3) status after it failed to cooperate with an examination. The examination file describes repeated letters, delinquency notices, telephone calls, and …
Open-source software group denied charitable exemption
An unincorporated association sought section 501(c)(3) status to finance and coordinate development of an open-source operating system. A related for-profit company owned the copyrights, while the app…
Supporting organization lost exemption after scholarship activity stopped
A tax-exempt supporting organization existed to fund scholarships for students connected with a supported public charity. It had not awarded scholarships or otherwise distributed funds for the support…
Inactive nonprofit lost exemption after incomplete dissolution
A supporting organization told the IRS that it had ended operations, filed a final Form 990-EZ, and distributed its remaining assets to another section 501(c)(3) organization. It relied on a state adm…
Shopping-center association denied business-league exemption
A commercial condominium association sought exemption as a business league under section 501(c)(6). Its member merchants paid fees and assessments that funded maintenance, repairs, landscaping, refuse…
Hereditary-society umbrella group denied charitable exemption
An association sought section 501(c)(3) status for helping founders create hereditary and lineage societies. It advised new groups about bylaws, officer duties, fees, insignia, applications, bank acco…
Rural business group denied charitable exemption
An unincorporated, member-driven organization sought section 501(c)(3) status while supporting businesses in a small rural community. Its activities included vendor fundraisers, holiday events, parade…
Counseling subsidy group denied reinstatement
An organization whose exemption had been automatically revoked sought reinstatement under section 501(c)(3). It raised donations to subsidize counseling and coaching supplied by a particular life coac…
Cook-off fundraising group denied charitable exemption
A group sought section 501(c)(3) status for raising money through cooking competitions and related fundraising. Donations and sponsorships paid entry fees, food, beverages, cooking supplies, and event…
Related exam teams may share return information when tax duties require it
Chief Counsel advised that IRS examination teams may share third-party return information internally under section 6103(h)(1) when the receiving employees have a tax-administration need to know it. Th…
Estate received 120 days to make a portability election
An estate that was not otherwise required to file Form 706 missed the deadline to elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused estate and gift tax exclusion. The estate requested discretionary re…
S corporation received relief for QSST distribution failures
Two trusts holding stock in an S corporation converted from electing small business trusts to qualified subchapter S trusts. Their trustees later failed to distribute all trust income currently, which…
Territory-funded trust income excluded under section 115
A United States territory created and exclusively funded a trust to hold assets for benefits the territory owed to recipients. The trust could distribute money only to the territory for those benefit …
REIT bond and development-incentive income qualified under income tests
A hotel REIT received local-government development incentives connected with two properties. One incentive consisted of special obligation bonds paid from incremental property and occupancy taxes, whi…
Charity reclassified after it stopped operating a hospital
A section 501(c)(3) organization had been classified as a hospital under section 170(b)(1)(A)(iii). After it sold the hospital, its remaining operations were a home health service and a skilled nursin…
Foreign-support charity reclassified as publicly supported
A section 501(c)(3) organization had been classified as a Type III functionally integrated supporting organization while supporting an organization formed outside the United States. Treasury regulatio…
Exemption revoked after organization ignored examination requests
A section 501(c)(3) organization did not respond to repeated IRS requests for records during an examination. The IRS sent certified and ordinary mail, checked the address with the Postal Service, call…
School-support group reclassified as publicly supported
A volunteer organization supported a public school community through teacher grants, school events, family assistance, and improvement projects. It had been classified as a Type III non-functionally i…
Exemption revoked over tax-preparation business and private benefit
A section 501(c)(3) organization shared bank accounts and operations with a for-profit tax-return preparation business owned and operated by insiders. Bank records showed individual tax refunds and ec…
Cross-border business separation qualifies as two tax-free reorganizations
A publicly traded foreign parent planned to separate two business lines from two others through a series of foreign and domestic transactions. The plan included a Country B “butterfly” transaction tha…
Estate gets 120 days to make a late portability election
An estate was not otherwise required to file a federal estate tax return because of the value of the decedent’s gross estate and adjusted taxable gifts. The estate nevertheless needed to file Form 706…
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.