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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PLR 200901030: Independent special trustee may adjust between principal and income at no tax cost
Two family trusts were created before September 26, 1985 and were irrevocable on September 25, 1985, which is what keeps them outside the generation-skipping transfer tax. All of their net income…
PLR 200901029: Claim-of-right benefit survives a spin-off and a Chapter 11 reorganization
Two operating entities sold a regulated product under rate agreements. Amounts collected under those agreements were subject to refund with interest if the charges were later found excessive. A…
PLR 200901028: Waiver granted for a reasonable error about what counts as cash surrender value
A life insurer sold four series of contracts to corporate policyholders. Each series carried an amendment that guaranteed, for an early period after issue, a payout on surrender higher than the cash…
PLR 200901027: Late Form 1128 accepted as timely under the 9100 relief rules
A taxpayer wanted to move its year end and filed Form 1128 to ask for the change. The form was late. Filing on time would have put the request on the automatic consent track of Rev. Proc. 2006-45,…
PLR 200901026: Currency ETF series may each adopt a non-dollar functional currency
A Delaware statutory trust registered as an open-ended series investment company planned four new exchange traded funds. Each fund is built to track a single foreign currency against the dollar: it…
PLR 200901025: Magazine part of a lifetime membership fee may be deferred under section 455
An accrual-method subsidiary sells both fixed-term and lifetime memberships. A lifetime membership is paid in monthly installments and bundles several benefits, among them a premium gift and a…
PLR 200901024: Six trusts' missed QSST elections forgiven as an inadvertent termination
An S corporation's stock moved into six trusts across four dates. Each trust met the substantive requirements of a qualified subchapter S trust, but no beneficiary ever filed the election under…
PLR 200901023: Foreign art trust takes gift and estate deductions without a 501(c)(3) filing
A United States citizen set up a foreign-registered charitable trust to manage her late husband's paintings and archives: public exhibition worldwide, study access by arrangement, grants to smaller…
PLR 200901022: Separating two businesses with a partial split-off ruled a D reorganization
A closely held corporation ran two businesses and had five shareholders. It proposed to drop the second business into a newly formed subsidiary in exchange for all of the subsidiary's stock, then…
PLR 200901021: Extra 60 days to file a late Form 8832 for a foreign single-member entity
A domestic owner formed a foreign entity and meant for it to be disregarded from the day it came into existence. That takes an affirmative election. A foreign eligible entity whose members all have…
PLR 200901020: Perpetual residential density rights are like kind to real estate
A landowner selling parcels under a county-approved phased development site plan holds a put option letting it move residential density from the parcels it keeps to the parcels the buyer takes.…
PLR 200901019: Sons may put the residence into a second QPRT for their parents
A mother had deeded her home into a trust meant to be a qualified personal residence trust, keeping the right to live there for a term of years. The term ran out, and the remainder passed to her two…
PLR 200901018: State economic development grant is a nonshareholder contribution to capital
A state runs a fund out of the governor's office to attract business investment. A corporation negotiated an economic development agreement under which the state paid it a grant, in disbursements…
PLR 200901017: Late election to be taxed as an association gets a 60-day extension
A foreign entity was formed under the law of its home country and wanted to be treated as an association taxable as a corporation from that first day. It was eligible to elect that treatment, but…
PLR 200901016: LLC gets 60 days to file the section 754 election its return already assumed
An LLC treated as a partnership had interests change hands during the year. It filed its partnership return on time and computed the basis adjustments as though a section 754 election were in place,…
PLR 200901015: Second LLC in a pair gets the same late section 754 election relief
This letter is one of a matched pair. Its control number, PLR-119435-08, sits immediately before that of PLR 200901016, both letters carry the same date, the same signature, and the same request…
PLR 200901014: Split-off divides a two-business corporation between two feuding families
One corporation ran two businesses and was owned in equal halves by two families. The voting stock was split one share each between a member of each family; the nonvoting stock was spread across 17…
PLR 200901013: Late disclaimers by children and their spouses are taxable gifts that move the transferor down a generation
A married couple set up an irrevocable trust for their four children. Each child's named spouse, and the couple's grandchildren, also have interests. All four children and all four named spouses now…
PLR 200901012: One trust's missed QSST election forgiven, with 60 days to file it
An S corporation had a trust become a shareholder. A trust can hold S corporation stock, but only if it fits one of the permitted categories, and for a qualified subchapter S trust that requires the…
PLR 200901011: Unvested restricted stock left off the books did not permanently end an S election
An S corporation granted restricted stock to directors and officers under a plan that vested in installments. Several of those recipients made section 83(b) elections. That election matters here for…
PLR 200901010: 60 more days to elect the ten-year write-off for tax preference expenditures
Section 59(e) lets a taxpayer choose to amortize certain expenditures over ten years instead of deducting them at once, which keeps them out of the alternative minimum tax preference calculation.…
PLR 200901009: Real estate professionals get 60 days to group all their rentals into one activity
Rental activity is passive by default, which caps the losses an owner can deduct. Section 469(c)(7) lifts that presumption for people in a real property trade or business, but it applies rental…
PLR 200901008: Buying a remainder interest is not taxed when the 50-year lead estate runs out
Three partnerships sold a mixed-use building by carving it in two. One buyer took a 50-year estate for years, the lead interest. A second, unrelated buyer took the remainder, meaning it owns the…
PLR 200901007: Two missed elections restored so an LLC can be a REIT's taxable subsidiary
A foreign group bought a U.S. REIT. One affiliate, a single member LLC sitting on the shelf until the deal closed, became the management company that provides services to tenants at the REIT's…
PLR 200901006: LLC that defaulted into partnership status gets 60 days to elect corporate treatment
An LLC with more than one member is treated as a partnership unless it files Form 8832 and says otherwise. This LLC wanted corporate treatment from the day it was formed, but nobody filed the form.…
PLR 200901005: Professional LLC gets 60 days to file the Form 8832 it forgot at formation
A professional limited liability company meant to be taxed as a corporation from the day it was formed. Doing that takes a Form 8832, and the company simply never filed one. Because the…
PLR 200901004: Swapping an old mineral transport facility for a newly built one is a like-kind exchange
A partnership that transports a processed mineral wants to trade its existing facility for a replacement. A competitor's group will build the replacement through a disregarded LLC, then swap it for…
PLR 200901003: Value swings between common and preferred stock are factored out of the section 382 ownership test
Section 382 limits how much of a company's losses survive an ownership change, and it measures ownership by value rather than share count. That creates a trap for a company whose stock classes move…
PLR 200901002: Five separate threats to one S election forgiven in a single letter
A family business rolled several affiliated companies into one S corporation by merger, and years later its advisers found five different reasons the S election might not have held up. The company…
PLR 200901001: Venture-backed loss corporation may freeze relative stock values and ignore value-for-value recapitalizations
A privately held loss corporation went through the full venture financing arc: founders' common, then Series A through Series E preferred, a stock split, secondary sales among five-percent holders,…
PLR 200852039: Advance approval of a private foundation's scholarship grant procedures
A private foundation asked the IRS to bless its scholarship program before it runs. Section 4945 treats a private foundation's grant to an individual for study as a taxable expenditure unless the…
PLR 200852038: Foundation grant to a non-charity standards body is not a taxable expenditure
A private foundation organized as a trust asked whether a grant it had already made would count as a taxable expenditure. The grantee, called N in the letter, is exempt under section 501(c)(6), not…
PLR 200852037: Reinsured charitable gift annuity program is neither commercial-type insurance nor UBTI
A public charity operates two houses that serve as a home away from home for seriously ill children and their families while the children get treatment. It runs on donations, and it wanted a new way…
PLR 200852036: Funding clinical trials for an orphan disease is scientific research in the public interest
A nonprofit works toward a cure for a disease that carries "orphan" status under FDA regulations. It already facilitates collaborative research between academic institutions and maintains a bank of…
PLR 200852035: Advance approval of a will-created trust's college scholarship procedures
A charitable trust created by a will asked the IRS to approve its scholarship procedures in advance under section 4945(g). The reason it had to ask is a change in its own classification. The trust…
PLR 200852034: Arbitration award for broker misconduct is a restorative payment to an IRA
A taxpayer's IRA was run by an investment advisor at a brokerage firm he had dealt with for years. Acting with full discretion, the advisor changed the account's investment objective from moderate…
PLR 200852033: 60-day rollover waiver after the receiving firm misrouted a trustee-to-trustee transfer
A 65-year-old taxpayer held two accounts at one firm: an individual retirement account under section 408(a), and an ordinary taxable account. He decided to move both to a second firm and met with a…
PLR 200852032: 60-day rollover waiver where an advisor emptied an IRA to cover a bounced check
A taxpayer wrote a check to pay off a car loan, drawing on what he believed was a money market account holding more than enough to cover it. The check bounced. His investment representative at the…
PLR 200852031: 60-day rollover waiver where a broker double-counted a required minimum distribution
In December, a financial representative at the taxpayer's brokerage called to tell him that his required minimum distribution for the year had not yet come out of his IRA, and that he needed to take…
PLR 200852030: Late election relief for a trust that missed the 65-day rule filing
Section 663(b) gives trusts and estates a useful bit of flexibility. If the fiduciary pays or credits an amount to a beneficiary within the first 65 days of a tax year, the fiduciary can elect to…
PLR 200852029: Book-value buy-sell survives section 2703 because unrelated owners hold more than half
Three unrelated people formed a joint venture to buy, hold, lease and sell real estate. Their original agreement let each of them transfer an interest but said nothing about what happens when one of…
PLR 200852028: Late-filed Form 1128 to change a tax year treated as timely
A taxpayer wanted to change its annual accounting period and filed Form 1128 to ask permission. Under section 1.442-1(b), consent to a change in annual accounting period requires the application to…
PLR 200852027: Companion ruling treating a late Form 1128 as timely filed
This letter is a companion to PLR 0852028. The two were signed by the same reviewer on the same day and carry consecutive control numbers, PLR-135952-08 here and PLR-135953-08 there. Apart from…
PLR 200852026: Extension to file the national office copy of a Form 3115
Changing a method of accounting normally requires the Commissioner's consent under section 446(e). Rev. Proc. 2002-9 offers a shortcut: satisfy its requirements and consent is deemed granted, with…
PLR 200852025: Split-off separating two shareholder groups of an S corporation
One S corporation ran two related businesses and had two shareholder groups. The groups decided to go their separate ways so each could run its share of the combined business under its own…
PLR 200852024: Nuclear decommissioning funds ride through a deemed liquidation intact
Taking a nuclear power plant apart at the end of its life costs an enormous amount, and section 468A lets a utility deduct money set aside for that work in advance, decades before it happens. The…
PLR 200852023: Thirty-nine corporations get late relief on FIRPTA non-USRPHC statements
When a foreign person sells an interest in a U.S. corporation, the buyer normally has to withhold tax under section 1445 on the assumption that the corporation might be a U.S. real property holding…
PLR 200852022: A marketing cooperative's advance payments count toward its section 199 deduction
A farmer cooperative pays its members in stages across the year. There are advances near the end of each month, monthly settlement checks that true up the prior month, a thirteenth check that closes…
PLR 200852021: A REIT gets extra time to raise a consent dividend it filed too small
A real estate investment trust has to distribute its earnings to keep its status, and a consent dividend is a way of doing that without moving any cash. The shareholder signs a consent agreeing to…
PLR 200852020: A REIT's elective stock or cash special dividends are section 301 distributions
The taxpayer represented that it qualifies as a REIT and regularly distributes its earnings as required by section 857(a)(1). It planned two special dividends for its publicly traded common stock,…
PLR 200852019: A holding company merges up into the subsidiary it controls
A holding company sat on top of an operating business but did nothing else. It was an S corporation, its only real asset was stock in the operating company, and it had no business of its own. The…
PLR 200852018: A reciprocal may deduct savings credited to subscriber accounts it pays out in stages
A reciprocal is an old and unusual form of insurer. Instead of a company selling policies to customers, a group of subscribers exchange insurance contracts with each other through an…
PLR 200852017: A pooled trust prefunding public retiree health care is untaxed under section 115
Governments promise retirees health coverage, and accounting rules pushed them to start setting money aside for those promises rather than paying as they go. A single small city or school district…
PLR 200852016: A settlement trust escapes grantor trust treatment after its special regime sunsets
Section 646 lets an Alaska Native Corporation put assets into a settlement trust for its shareholders and have that trust taxed under a favorable special regime rather than the ordinary rules. The…
PLR 200852015: S election restored after an ineligible shareholder acquired stock, on condition the shareholders report consistently
An S corporation can only have certain kinds of shareholders. When stock lands in the hands of someone outside that list, the S election terminates by operation of law on the day it happens. Nobody…
PLR 200852014: two words in a 1985 trust made a limited power general, and correcting them costs no estate, gift or GST tax
A settlor created three identical trusts before September 26, 1985, one for each of her three daughters. Each daughter receives the income for life, can receive principal for health, education,…
PLR 200852013: A buyer of a term interest in an apartment complex may depreciate the land
Land does not wear out, so nobody depreciates it. That is one of the first rules anyone learns about real estate tax. This ruling is about the exception hiding behind it. Three sellers owned an…
PLR 200852012: A late GST allocation is backdated to the gift, and the intervening one is voided
Generation-skipping transfer tax exemption is worth the most when it is allocated early. Allocate it on a timely gift tax return and the trust is measured at the value of the property when it went…
PLR 200852011: A nuclear operator gets to fund the decommissioning costs old law denied it
Taking a nuclear plant apart costs an enormous amount of money and happens decades after the plant starts producing power. Section 468A lets the owner set aside money for that in advance, in a…
PLR 200852010: Two schedules, two different jobs, in one decommissioning fund letter
This letter is a companion to PLR 0852011. Same date, same reviewer, same branch, adjacent control numbers, and analysis that tracks the other word for word. The taxpayer is a different entity with…
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.