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 200909057: Temporary one-dollar increase applied to partnership-return penalty
Chief Counsel explained changes to the section 6698(b) penalty for failing to file a partnership return. The email says one public law raised the base penalty from $50 to $85, while a separate…
CCA 200909056: Section 3509 does not apply to intentional disregard
Chief Counsel briefly addressed the intentional-disregard limitation on section 3509. The email states that section 3509 does not apply when there is intentional disregard. It suggests asserting…
CCA 200909055: Lien notice timing depends on the type of property
Chief Counsel advised when the five-day lien-notice period under section 6320 begins. For real property, section 6323(f)(4) can make a federal tax lien notice ineffective until it is entered and…
CCA 200909054: Parent bankruptcy did not remove subsidiary partner from TEFRA case
Chief Counsel considered a bankruptcy involving a corporate parent and subsidiaries in a TEFRA partnership proceeding. Assuming the subsidiary was the actual partner and the parent was treated as a…
CCA 200909053: Accruals are excluded from guaranteed installment agreement limit
Chief Counsel considered whether accrued interest and penalties should count when the IRS evaluates collection alternatives. The email says the IRS may generally choose whether to include accruals…
CCA 200909052: Tax matters partner can bind small-interest partners in large partnerships
Chief Counsel addressed who may bind partners on an issue in a multi-tier TEFRA partnership. Ordinarily, the email says, partners can bind only themselves. If the partnership has more than 100…
CCA 200909051: IRS could consider offer after criminal referral ended
Chief Counsel considered whether the IRS could process an offer in compromise after a criminal tax case. The Justice Department's exclusive compromise authority ended after judgment was entered and…
CCA 200909050: Partnership adjustments are netted at the partner level
Chief Counsel explained why adjustments from multiple partnerships are netted at the partner level when calculating an underpayment. Treasury Regulation section 1.6664-2 compares the tax that should…
CCA 200909049: State-law manager status controls authority to bind an LLC
Chief Counsel distinguished eligibility to serve as an LLC's tax matters partner from authority to sign a contract for the LLC. The email says only a member-manager can be the tax matters partner.…
CCA 200909048: Successor consent protects transferee assessment period
Chief Counsel considered limitations-period consents after a consolidated group's parent merged into a successor. State law may treat the successor as primarily liable or as a secondarily liable…
CCA 200909047: Late estate tax return did not itself bar installment election
Chief Counsel considered whether an estate that filed its estate tax return late could elect to pay a deficiency in installments under section 6166(h). Neither the statute nor the regulation makes a…
CCA 200909046: Citing election provision did not make the election
Chief Counsel considered whether a tax matters partner had made the election referenced in section 6227(c)(1). The partner had not expressly asked to substitute the treatment shown on the request…
CCA 200909045: Non-wage Peace Corps payments were not subject to FICA or SECA
Chief Counsel addressed non-wage amounts paid to Peace Corps volunteers. The email's consensus was that those amounts were not subject to FICA or self-employment tax. Section 3121(p) treats Peace…
CCA 200909044: Estate tax lien collateral includes four years of interest
Chief Counsel explained how to calculate the maximum collateral the IRS may require for a special estate tax lien under section 6324A. The maximum always includes the deferred tax plus the interest…
CCA 200909043: Taxpayer could not submit a Chief Counsel Advice request
Chief Counsel answered a question about who may request Chief Counsel Advice. Under section 6110(i)(1), the recipient of the email could submit the request but a taxpayer could not. A taxpayer could…
CCA 200909042: Corporation could not reverse income-tax credit election
A corporation elected to apply an income-tax overpayment to its estimated tax for the next year, then sought to reverse that election and receive a hardship refund. Section 6513(d) treats the…
CCA 200909041: Liability was an underpayment rather than an understatement
Chief Counsel classified a liability for innocent-spouse purposes. The released email contains no underlying facts or legal analysis. It states only that, under the facts provided to the author, the…
CCA 200909040: Improper fuel dyeing put related registrations at risk
A terminal operator distributed dye packets in the hope that someone else would properly dye fuel and apparently issued documents indicating fuel was dyed when it was not. Chief Counsel advised that…
CCA 200909039: Agreed additional tax was generally treated as an underpayment
Chief Counsel addressed whether additional joint-return liability was an underpayment or an understatement for innocent-spouse purposes, noting that the area was unsettled. If both spouses agreed to…
CCA 200909038: Accepted offer ended pre-BAPCPA 240-day tolling
Chief Counsel addressed the pre-BAPCPA version of the Bankruptcy Code's tax-priority rule. The brief email agreed that accepting an offer in compromise ended the tolling of the 240-day period. The…
CCA 200909037: Ordinary levy could reach future Social Security payments
Chief Counsel advised that a single ordinary levy on the Social Security Administration under section 6331(a) could attach a taxpayer's right to future Social Security payments. The levy remained…
CCA 200909036: Third-party clause did not block collection of assumed tax liability
A contract apparently both transferred tax liabilities and barred third parties from obtaining rights under the agreement. Chief Counsel advised that the provisions were inconsistent unless the…
CCA 200909035: State-law winding-up authority could support a power of attorney
Chief Counsel considered who could authorize a power of attorney for a corporation being wound up. The email recalls a similar matter in which state law allowed the person handling the winding up to…
CCA 200909034: Notices to dissolved corporation should use last known address
Chief Counsel advised sending a no-change letter and revenue agent's report to a dissolved corporation's last known address, with a copy to the person holding its power of attorney. Depending on…
PLR 200909033: Late trust elections did not defeat S corporation status
A corporation intended to elect S corporation status, but three trust shareholders' beneficiaries did not timely make qualified subchapter S trust elections or properly consent to the corporation's…
CCA 200909032: State tax credit items passed through to owners
Chief Counsel explained how New York's refundable real-property-tax credit affects partnerships, S corporations, and their owners. A state franchise-tax reduction remained a deductible state tax…
PLR 200909031: Taxpayers could make retroactive qualified electing fund election
Taxpayers invested in a foreign mutual fund but did not realize it was a passive foreign investment company, so they missed the deadline to make a qualified electing fund election. They had relied…
PLR 200909030: Transaction changes did not affect prior split-off rulings
A taxpayer asked the IRS to supplement two earlier rulings concerning a recapitalization, split-off, and related transactions under sections 355 and 382. Completion might occur after recently…
PLR 200909029: Corporate property gift caused no deemed distribution or gain
A closely held corporation proposed donating appreciated commercial real property to a related charitable foundation. Before the gift, the corporation would repay the property's mortgage and…
PLR 200909028: Business separation qualified as tax-free split-off reorganization
A closely held corporate group proposed separating a shorter-term, centralized business from its other businesses because their management teams had conflicting operating philosophies. The parent…
PLR 200909027: Missing trust consents did not defeat S corporation status
An S corporation's three trust shareholders did not properly consent to its Form 2553 because their beneficiaries did not sign, and the form also contained clerical errors. The corporation…
PLR 200909026: Late S corporation election received reasonable-cause relief
A corporation's shareholders intended S corporation status from the company's formation date, but Form 2553 was not filed on time. The corporation asked the IRS to treat the late election as timely…
PLR 200909025: Nuclear plant owner received special-transfer deduction schedule
A corporate taxpayer indirectly owned part of a nuclear power plant and its qualified decommissioning fund. After statutory changes allowed funding of decommissioning costs that prior law had…
PLR 200909024: Late trust election received inadvertent-termination relief
Shares of an S corporation moved from a grantor trust to a second trust after the shareholder's death. The second trust met the qualified subchapter S trust requirements, but its beneficiary did not…
PLR 200909023: Entity received extension to elect corporate classification
A newly formed eligible entity intended to be treated as an association taxable as a corporation from its formation date but did not timely file Form 8832. Without an election, a domestic entity…
PLR 200909022: Foreign entity received extension for disregarded status election
A foreign eligible entity intended to elect treatment as an entity disregarded from its owner but missed the Form 8832 deadline because of an oversight. A foreign eligible entity with one owner may…
PLR 200909021: Missing S corporation election received reasonable-cause relief
A corporation intended to be an S corporation from its formation date, but no Form 2553 was filed on time. Section 1362(b)(5) allows the IRS to treat a late or missing election as timely when…
PLR 200909020: Cooperative payments qualified as per-unit retains paid in money
An agricultural marketing cooperative made frequent payments to farmer members based on the quantity of products they delivered, without reference to the cooperative's net earnings. The IRS ruled…
PLR 200909019: Governors' association qualified as state instrumentality
A nonprofit association whose members were the sitting governors of several states was formed to promote interstate cooperation, improve state administration, and facilitate state-federal…
PLR 200909018: Parent received extension for two subsidiary elections
An S corporation intended two wholly owned subsidiaries to be treated as qualified subchapter S subsidiaries from separate effective dates but did not file their elections on time. A valid election…
PLR 200909017: Wrong trust signatures received inadvertent-election relief
A trust with a minor beneficiary held stock in an S corporation and qualified as a qualified subchapter S trust. The trustees signed both the corporation's S election and the trust election, but the…
PLR 200909016: Cooperative crop checks qualified as per-unit retain allocations
A nonexempt cooperative marketed crops delivered by its farmer and cooperative members, paying them through twice-monthly checks and year-end patronage dividends. The IRS ruled that the checks were…
PLR 200909015: Foreign entity received more time to elect partnership status
A foreign eligible entity intended to be classified as a partnership for federal tax purposes from the date it was formed. Because all of its members had limited liability, the default rules would…
PLR 200909014: Foreign entity received more time to elect partnership status
A foreign eligible entity intended to be classified as a partnership for federal tax purposes from the date it was formed. Because all of its members had limited liability, the default rules would…
PLR 200909013: Foreign entity received more time to elect disregarded status
A foreign eligible entity intended to be disregarded as separate from its owner for federal tax purposes from the date it was formed. It inadvertently failed to file Form 8832 on time. The IRS found…
PLR 200909012: Foreign entity received more time to elect partnership status
A foreign eligible entity intended to be classified as a partnership for federal tax purposes from the date it was formed. Because all of its members had limited liability, the default rules would…
PLR 200909011: REIT subsidiary election received late-filing relief
A company formed to elect real estate investment trust status indirectly owned a corporate subsidiary. Management failed to tell its tax adviser about the subsidiary, so the REIT and subsidiary did…
PLR 200909010: Subsidiaries were treated as joining consolidated return
A corporate parent acquired a former consolidated-group parent and intended to file a consolidated return with that company and two other subsidiaries. Its accounting firm included the subsidiaries'…
PLR 200909009: Corporation received relief for a late S election
A corporation and its sole shareholder intended the company to be an S corporation from its incorporation date, but Form 2553 was not filed on time. The IRS found reasonable cause for the late…
PLR 200909008: Partnership interest could be parked in reverse exchange
An exchange accommodation titleholder proposed to acquire a 50 percent interest in a partnership whose only asset was real estate, while the taxpayer already owned the other half. The interest would…
PLR 200909007: Corporation received relief for a late S election
A corporation intended to be an S corporation from the date it was incorporated, but it did not timely file Form 2553. The IRS found reasonable cause for the missed deadline and granted relief under…
PLR 200909006: Oil and gas seismic-data income was qualifying income
A limited partnership acquired, created, and licensed seismic data used by oil and gas producers to locate and develop reserves. It planned to operate that business through a publicly traded…
PLR 200909005: Foreign entity received more time to elect disregarded status
A foreign entity wholly owned by another entity intended to be disregarded as separate from its owner for federal tax purposes from the date it was formed. It did not timely file Form 8832 to make…
PLR 200909004: LLC received more time to elect partnership status
A limited liability company originally intended to elect S corporation status, but discovered that it did not qualify as a small business corporation. It then intended to be taxed as a partnership…
PLR 200909003: Missing ESBT election made S election ineffective
A corporation timely filed an S election, but one shareholder was a trust that failed to elect treatment as an electing small business trust. The trust's beneficiary also signed Form 2553…
PLR 200909002: Corporation received more time to elect IC-DISC status
A parent formed a domestic subsidiary to operate as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation, but the subsidiary mistakenly believed its formation documents completed the election…
PLR 200909001: Identified partnership units escaped built-in gains tax after ten years
An S corporation had acquired C corporations, liquidated them, and contributed their assets to partnerships in exchange for separate lots of partnership units. Each lot carried the acquired assets'…
Other determination 200908051: Founder loans cost a charitable trust its exemption
A charitable trust made loans that became most of its assets to its founder and related business interests, accepted irregular repayments, held almost no board meetings, and did not show that…
TAM 200908050: Shared campaign pages counted as a charity's political activity
A § 501(c)(3) local organization moved the web pages of a related § 501(c)(4) organization onto its own website after the related group's separate site had technical problems. The shared pages…
Other determination 200908049: Product-sales scholarship group was denied exemption
A nonprofit proposed to fund medical-field scholarships primarily by selling vitamins, health products, and medical equipment obtained from a related for-profit company. The nonprofit expected to…
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.