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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CCA 200913061: Every partner could protest and participate in the TEFRA appeals conference
Chief Counsel addressed partner notice and participation rights during a TEFRA administrative proceeding. The tax matters partner generally had to forward notice of the 60-day letter and appeal…
CCA 200913060: A tier LLC's state-law manager had to sign for the entity
Chief Counsel addressed who could sign for an LLC that was the tax matters partner of a TEFRA limited partnership. The LLC's manager under state law had to sign for the entity, regardless of whether…
CCA 200913059: An unfiled partnership withholding return left assessment open indefinitely
Chief Counsel addressed assessment periods for partnership withholding tax and the partnership's foreign partners. Withholding forms were tax returns of the state-law partnership itself. If the…
CCA 200913058: Evasion of a redemption check completed the government's redemption
Chief Counsel addressed a property purchaser who evaded the IRS's attempts to tender a check redeeming property after a nonjudicial sale. Relying on an earlier private ruling and Turner v. Sanchez,…
CCA 200913057: A REIT closing agreement could require part of the forgone corporate tax
Chief Counsel forwarded earlier field-service advice about a REIT's failure of the 75 percent asset test. If the district director found reasonable cause, the taxpayer could reelect REIT status…
CCA 200913056: A routine tested party's arm's-length range could include losses
Chief Counsel clarified transfer-pricing analysis during an economic downturn. Characterizing a tested party as a routine distributor or contract manufacturer did not prevent the arm's-length range…
CCA 200913055: A retail clawback payment was separate from the reorganization
Chief Counsel reconsidered whether a retail clawback payment was part of a corporate reorganization. Based on the previously supplied facts, it continued to treat the payment as separate from the…
CCA 200913054: Tribal council service payments were not subject to employment tax
Chief Counsel addressed whether payments for service as a member of a tribal council presented an employment-tax issue. The email stated that they did not. It concluded that payments for those…
CCA 200913053: Each adopting employer had to amend its plan for new qualification rules
Chief Counsel explained that neither a prototype sponsor nor an adopting employer had to obtain an IRS opinion or determination letter before offering a plan, but they lacked reliance or assurance…
CCA 200913052: A parent was not liable for its subsidiary's employment taxes solely due to consolidation
Chief Counsel distinguished a consolidated group's income tax liability from its members' employment tax obligations. Every group member was severally liable for the group's entire income tax. Each…
CCA 200913051: Counsel addressed a refund when the taxpayer was not under indictment
Chief Counsel addressed whether criminal tax provisions supported withholding a taxpayer's refund. The email states that the taxpayer was not part of the criminal indictment at that time. Its…
CCA 200913050: Each notice partner's FPAA needed an adequate explanation of adjustments
Chief Counsel advised that every notice partner, not only the tax matters partner, was entitled to a final partnership administrative adjustment. The notice needed enough explanation of the grounds…
CCA 200913049: The IRS had to remove confidential client data before selling seized computers
The IRS proposed to seize and sell computers belonging to a security alarm company. Chief Counsel advised that the computers could not be sold while they contained private client information…
CCA 200913048: A taxpayer could have a penalty underpayment and still receive a refund
Chief Counsel considered an accuracy-related penalty for a year in which the taxpayer was due a refund. An underpayment under the penalty regulation measures understatement of the correct tax…
CCA 200913047: Partnership assets were not generally attributed to a partner
Chief Counsel considered attribution of a partnership's production activity and assets to a partner. It advised that those items were attributed only in determining the partner's distributive share…
CCA 200913046: A bankruptcy trustee had to file the debtor corporation's returns
Chief Counsel addressed an examination involving a corporation in bankruptcy. The writer questioned why the trustee would sign a revenue agent report but advised that the IRS ordinarily would deal…
CCA 200913045: A state-law manager had to sign for an LLC serving as tax matters partner
Chief Counsel addressed who could sign for an LLC acting as a tax matters partner. A manager authorized under state law had to sign for the LLC, whether or not the LLC was itself subject to TEFRA…
CCA 200913044: A TEFRA power of attorney might not govern a separate FOIA request
Chief Counsel considered whether a power of attorney covering the TEFRA partnership provisions also was required for a disclosure or Freedom of Information Act request. The power applied "for…
CCA 200913043: Effects of valid or invalid S corporation elections for an LLC
Chief Counsel analyzed an LLC's entity-classification and S corporation elections under two possible outcomes. If the classification election was unauthorized and invalid, the LLC defaulted to…
CCA 200913042: An LLC's default classification determined the examination procedure
Chief Counsel considered the examination consequences if an invalid election caused an LLC to fall back to a default tax classification. If the default was C corporation status, the IRS would issue…
CCA 200913041: Converted partnership items were no longer subject to TEFRA
Chief Counsel addressed a parent-subsidiary consent issue involving items that had been partnership items. The advice states that once those items converted to nonpartnership items, they were no…
CCA 200913040: A two-corporation partnership qualified for the small-partnership exception
Chief Counsel considered whether TEFRA partnership procedures applied to a partnership whose only two partners were foreign C corporations. The advice concludes that the partnership fell within the…
CCA 200913039: A partner's limitations consent had to mention partnership items
Chief Counsel reviewed a final analysis of TEFRA issues and added a point about applying section 6501 to a partner. When a partner's assessment period remains open by consent, the consent must…
CCA 200913038: Indirect partners could request direct notice of the TEFRA proceeding
Chief Counsel addressed TEFRA notice questions involving an LLC owned by a grantor trust. The trust's income and losses were reported directly on the grantors' return, making the grantors indirect…
CCA 200913037: A former tax matters partner may have validly extended the limitations period
Chief Counsel considered whether an extension of the partners' assessment period remained valid after an entity's status as tax matters partner had ended. The advice states that the extension still…
CCA 200913036: A return listing a disregarded entity as a second partner invoked TEFRA
Chief Counsel considered whether a purported partnership return triggered TEFRA under section 6233. A Form 1065 listing only one partner might not qualify because section 761 defines a partnership…
CCA 200913035: TEFRA applied to decide that a purported partnership did not exist
Chief Counsel considered TEFRA's application to an owner and its disregarded entity that had filed a partnership return. The advice agrees that no partnership actually existed because a person…
CCA 200913034: State law may determine when a tax matters partner is liquidated
Chief Counsel considered what a regulation meant by the liquidation of a tax matters partner. The writer believed the regulation probably referred to termination of the entity under state law, as…
CCA 200913033: A $150 divisible penalty payment was thought sufficient to reach court
Chief Counsel responded to a question about the rules for penalties covered by section 6703. The writer had no information about the Internal Revenue Manual point that was raised. On divisibility,…
CCA 200913032: Disregarded-entity partners prevented use of the small-partnership exception
Chief Counsel advised that an examination should use TEFRA's unified partnership procedures because the partnership had disregarded entities as partners. Although the returns listed only…
CCA 200913031: Unreported inconsistency allowed direct assessment of a partnership deduction
Chief Counsel addressed expenses that a partner paid on behalf of a partnership. Ordinarily, the payment is treated as a cash contribution followed by a partnership expenditure, and the deduction…
CCA 200913030: Social Security decides section 218 coverage, while the Code determines FICA treatment
Chief Counsel questioned whether the IRS had authority to decide if state or local government workers belonged to a coverage group under section 218 of the Social Security Act. The advice assigns…
CCA 200913029: A prison-data contract needed a federal tax-administration purpose
Chief Counsel considered whether the IRS could work with the Florida Department of Corrections to identify fraudulent refund schemes involving prisoners. A contract under section 6103(n) had to…
CCA 200913028: A partnership's reportable-transaction penalty fell outside TEFRA
Chief Counsel addressed the penalty for a partnership's failure to disclose reportable-transaction information. The advice treats TEFRA and non-TEFRA partnerships alike when imposing that penalty on…
CCA 200913027: Actual receipt and a hearing cured a misaddressed collection notice
Chief Counsel considered whether the IRS had to issue a new collection due process notice after sending the original notice to the wrong address. The individual taxpayer actually received that…
CCA 200913026: Two matters with the same subject line could be netted
Chief Counsel addressed an apparent mix-up caused by two inquiries arriving with the same subject line. The writer believed the two matters could be netted and offered to discuss the conclusion…
CCA 200913025: Restricted consent language limited assessments but preserved a partner's refund claim
Chief Counsel reviewed language for a restricted consent extending the assessment period. The writer concluded that the language would limit assessments to the research and experimentation credit…
CCA 200913024: Omitting the partnership's address did not invalidate a successor designation
Chief Counsel reviewed a successor tax matters partner designation that omitted the partnership's address. Assuming the original designation was correct, all other regulatory requirements were met,…
CCA 200913023: Closed-year events could be reconsidered to compute an open-year NOL deduction
Chief Counsel addressed how refund limitations affect the calculation of a net operating loss deduction. Section 6514 concerns credits or refunds after the limitations period has expired, not…
CCA 200913022: A taxpayer could revisit a closed year to calculate an open-year NOL deduction
Chief Counsel addressed whether a taxpayer could recompute an item from a closed tax year when calculating a net operating loss deduction in an open year. The advice cites Tax Court decisions…
CCA 200913021: Voluntary information sharing did not require an IRS summons
Chief Counsel addressed how the IRS could obtain information from the Department of Labor. The writer distinguished the Neece decision because it involved a financial institution covered by the…
CCA 200913020: An extra employer assessment required a written labor agreement
Chief Counsel reviewed proposed employer contributions that were not included in a collective bargaining agreement or another written agreement. The writer agreed with the recipient's concern and…
CCA 200913019: A levy required advance notice but not necessarily an advance hearing
Chief Counsel explained that sections 6330 and 6331 impose separate levy-notice requirements and do not conflict. The section 6331 notice of intent to levy always must precede the levy. In the…
CCA 200913018: Section 6230(c) allowed two years to issue the refund
Chief Counsel approved an approach concerning a partnership-related refund. The writer clarified that section 6230(c) provided two years to issue the refund, rather than one year. The brief,…
CCA 200913017: A demand for TEFRA tax payment was a computational-adjustment notice
Chief Counsel explained that a notice of computational adjustment is effectively a bill for tax liability resulting from TEFRA procedures. A notice and demand for payment states that amount and…
CCA 200913016: Later changes to converted items were outside consistent-settlement rules
Chief Counsel answered a question about consistent settlements of partnership items. Once the items had converted from partnership items, a later modification was not governed by the…
CCA 200913015: Practice for sending a TEFRA notice to IDRS and Schedule K-1 addresses
Chief Counsel described a practice for sending a TEFRA notice to a partner. The notice was first sent only to the partner's last known address in the IRS system. The Schedule K-1 address was used if…
CCA 200913014: A courtesy TEFRA notice did not restart the 120-day period
Chief Counsel approved sending a replacement notice beginning a TEFRA administrative proceeding as a courtesy. Because the original notice had been properly sent, the replacement would not restart…
CCA 200913013: A housing agency faced one annual-report penalty and possible loss of allocated credits
Chief Counsel considered sanctions when a state housing credit agency submitted a late, incomplete, or inaccurate annual low-income housing credit report. Because section 42(l)(3) requires one…
CCA 200913012: Casualty relief depended on timely restoration of low-income housing
Chief Counsel addressed low-income housing credits after a building suffered casualty damage. Section 42(j)(4)(E) protected a timely restored building from credit recapture, but did not itself…
CCA 200913011: A casino and its hotel rooms formed one property unit for interest capitalization
Chief Counsel considered the unit of property and production period for interest capitalized during construction of a combined casino and hotel complex. The taxpayer treated individual hotel rooms,…
PLR 200913010: Investment funds received more time for PFIC and dividend elections
Six regulated investment funds asked for more time to make mark-to-market elections for stock in passive foreign investment companies and related elections to treat later dividends as paid in…
PLR 200913009: A late accounting-period change application was treated as timely
A corporation filed Form 1128 late when seeking to move its tax-year end from October 31 to August 31. It requested relief shortly after the filing deadline. Based on the facts and representations,…
PLR 200913008: A foreign acquisition qualified for an exception to section 367 gain recognition
A publicly traded foreign corporation planned to acquire a publicly traded U.S. corporation through a merger into the foreign buyer's domestic subsidiary. U.S. target shareholders would receive…
PLR 200913007: A shareholder split-off qualified as a tax-free Type D reorganization
An S corporation proposed separating part of its operating business into a new controlled corporation to resolve serious disputes between two shareholders. It would contribute business assets and…
PLR 200913006: An inadvertent election out of installment reporting could be revoked
A taxpayer sold property for cash and a multi-year promissory note and intended to report the gain using the installment method. The return preparer instead reported all the gain in the year of…
PLR 200913005: Related companies received more time for U.S. real-property-interest notices
Several related foreign and U.S. corporations failed to obtain statements and send IRS notices certifying that stock transferred in an acquisition and later reorganization was not a United States…
PLR 200913004: A contingent asset sale qualified for faster alternative basis recovery
A partnership sold substantially all its assets for cash, assumed liabilities, and four years of earn-out payments tied to business revenue. It asked to allocate basis to each installment payment in…
PLR 200913003: A corporation received relief for an inadvertent S election termination
A corporation's S election terminated after it had elected S corporation status. The corporation and its shareholders agreed to make any adjustments required to preserve S corporation treatment…
PLR 200913002: Dividing a grandfathered trust preserved GST status and enabled an ESBT election
Trustees proposed dividing a pre-September 25, 1985 irrevocable trust into two trusts after a potential beneficiary married a resident alien who might later become a nonresident alien. One new trust…
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.