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 200841029: Retiree-benefit payments increase stock basis and create capital losses
A corporate group sold a target company before a spinoff while one affiliate agreed to pay certain target retirees' benefits and the seller agreed to fund those payments. The IRS treated those…
PLR 200841028: Target companies may deduct retiree benefits paid on their behalf
Before a spinoff, one affiliate assumed responsibility for certain benefits owed to retirees of a target group, while the seller agreed to fund those payments. The IRS treated the affiliate and…
PLR 200841027: Trust modifications preserve its zero GST inclusion ratio
A grantor funded an irrevocable trust and allocated enough generation-skipping transfer tax exemption to give it a zero inclusion ratio. The trust proposed removing a one-percent cap on…
PLR 200841026: Corporation receives relief for a late S election
A newly incorporated company intended to elect S corporation status from its incorporation date but did not file Form 2553 on time. The IRS found reasonable cause for the late election under Section…
PLR 200841025: Grantor receives more time to allocate GST exemption to four trusts
A grantor and her spouse intended to split gifts and allocate generation-skipping transfer tax exemption among trusts for their three children. Their accountant allocated exemption to the trusts for…
PLR 200841024: Company receives relief for a late S election
A company's shareholders intended the company to be an S corporation from a redacted effective date, but its Form 2553 was not filed on time. The IRS found reasonable cause for the late filing and…
PLR 200841023: Dividing and modifying an exempt trust has no adverse tax consequences
A GST-exempt trust with a zero inclusion ratio proposed dividing into three subtrusts for different family branches and modifying its trustee and distribution provisions. The IRS ruled that the…
PLR 200841022: Expanded family qualifies homeowner for a reduced gain exclusion
A homeowner sold his residence before meeting Section 121's two-year use requirement. After buying that home, he married a partner with two children and also needed space for a child with whom he…
PLR 200841021: Corporate separation and debt exchange qualify for tax-free treatment
A publicly held parent proposed separating a controlled company through two internal spin-offs, an exchange of controlled-company stock for parent stock, and exchanges of remaining…
PLR 200841020: Internal and external spin-offs receive nonrecognition treatment
A publicly traded parent sought to separate two businesses from a third business through two internal spin-offs, contributions of property, and an external pro rata spin-off to its shareholders.…
PLR 200841019: State retiree health trust income is excluded and no return is required
A state created a trust to accumulate and invest funds for health insurance premiums benefiting eligible retired public employees and their dependents. State-appointed trustees controlled the trust,…
PLR 200841018: Government risk pool income is excluded after bylaw amendments
An unincorporated association of counties and other governmental units pooled casualty, public liability, and workers' compensation risks. Its income came from member contributions, fees, and…
PLR 200841017: Interest-rate hedging income qualifies for publicly traded partnership test
A publicly traded limited partnership in the oil and natural gas business used treasury locks and interest rate swaps to manage interest-rate risk on its borrowing. The transactions could produce…
PLR 200841016: Late accounting-period change request is treated as timely
A taxpayer intended to change its tax year from one ending March 31 to one ending December 31 but filed Form 1128 after its deadline. The form and request for discretionary relief arrived within 90…
PLR 200841015: Companies receive 45 days to make late consent-dividend elections
A parent and two subsidiaries failed to make Section 565 consent-dividend elections for two years after ownership changes caused the subsidiaries to become personal holding companies. Staffing…
PLR 200841014: Foreign entity receives 60 days to file late classification election
A domestic limited partnership indirectly owned all interests in a foreign entity whose default federal tax status was an association taxable as a corporation. The foreign entity intended from its…
PLR 200841013: Public retiree health trust and covered benefits receive income exclusions
A public transportation district proposed a trust to fund health benefits for eligible retirees, spouses, domestic partners, and dependents. Trust assets would come from the district, retirees'…
PLR 200841012: Corporation receives 60 days to make late S election
A corporation intended to elect S corporation status from its formation date but did not timely file Form 2553. Section 1362(b)(5) permits the IRS to treat a late election as timely when reasonable…
PLR 200841011: Missed trust election does not end corporation's S status
An S corporation's stock was sold to a trust that qualified to be an electing small business trust, but the trustee did not timely make the ESBT election. The trust therefore became an ineligible…
PLR 200841010: Foreign entity receives 60 days to make disregarded-entity election
A foreign company intended to be disregarded as separate from its owner for federal tax purposes from its formation date. It inadvertently failed to file the required Form 8832 entity-classification…
PLR 200841009: Foreign company receives extension for entity-classification election
A foreign entity eligible to choose its federal tax classification intended to elect disregarded-entity status from a specified date. It did not file Form 8832 on time and requested discretionary…
PLR 200841008: Taxpayer receives extension to elect dividend investment-income treatment
A taxpayer's stock redemption was initially reported as long-term capital gain but was later determined on audit to be equivalent to a dividend. The taxpayer's accounting firms had not advised him…
PLR 200841007: Temporary partnership ownership causes only inadvertent S termination
An individual indirectly owned S corporation stock through a disregarded limited liability company and transferred interests in that company to five grantor trusts. When the individual died, the…
PLR 200841006: Corporation receives 60-day extension for late S election
A newly formed corporation intended to elect S corporation treatment from its incorporation date but did not timely file Form 2553. Section 1362(b)(5) allows the IRS to treat a late election as…
PLR 200841005: Nuclear plant transfer preserves decommissioning fund treatment
The owner of a two-reactor nuclear plant proposed transferring the plant, its decommissioning obligations, and its qualified nuclear decommissioning funds to another company. The transaction was…
PLR 200841004: Serviced equipment-use income is not passive rental income
An S corporation received payments principally for customers' use of tangible equipment. Its employees also provided pickup and delivery, loading and unloading, maintenance, replacement and repair,…
PLR 200841003: Historic building and connected addition count as one property
A nonprofit visual-arts college planned to transfer its historic building to a for-profit company, which would rehabilitate it and construct an adjacent connected addition. The two structures were…
PLR 200841002: Foreign entity receives 60 days to make partnership election
A foreign entity with more than one owner was eligible to elect partnership treatment for federal tax purposes. It intended that classification from its formation date but inadvertently failed to…
PLR 200841001: Investors may make retroactive qualified electing fund election
A married couple owned shares of a foreign corporation that became a passive foreign investment company after selling a business and retaining substantial proceeds in liquid investments. Their tax…
PLR 200840057: IRS denies waiver for two late IRA rollovers
A 67-year-old taxpayer withdrew money from two IRAs after serious medical events because he expected substantial medical bills. Months after the 60-day rollover periods expired, he learned that…
PLR 200840056: Pension lump sum and annuity receive partial basis exclusion
A citizen and resident of another country asked how a pension lump sum and lifetime annuity arising in the United States would be taxed if received by a U.S. resident, as required by the applicable…
PLR 200840055: Taxpayer receives 60 days to undo ineligible Roth conversion
A married couple expected business losses to keep their income low enough for one spouse to convert a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. A later partnership Schedule K-1 reported a large Section 1231…
PLR 200840054: Custodian's missed IRA payments do not trigger early-distribution tax
A taxpayer under age 59½ received monthly IRA withdrawals intended to qualify as substantially equal periodic payments under Section 72(t). After the IRA moved to a new custodian, the January and…
PLR 200840053: Bank error supports waiver of IRA rollover deadline
An 88-year-old taxpayer took a distribution from one IRA and instructed another bank to place the check into a new IRA. The check itself was marked "IRA," but the receiving bank instead opened a…
PLR 200840052: Multiemployer plan is denied ten-year funding extension
A multiemployer defined benefit plan sought ten additional years to amortize unfunded liabilities after trucking deregulation, bankrupt employer departures, nonunion competition, and a declining…
Determination 200840050: Veterans organization faces revocation and wagering taxes
An organization exempt under Section 501(c)(19) conducted public pull-tab gaming and used checks from its charitable-gaming account to help pay for its building. The IRS concluded that the…
Determination 200840049: Charity loses exemption over founder loans and private benefit
A trust obtained Section 501(c)(3) status as a supporting organization intended to distribute most of its net income to named public charities. The IRS examination found that it instead lent…
Determination 200840048: Bingo operator loses exemption for private benefit and minimal charity
A nonprofit operated multiple bingo halls offering traditional bingo, video bingo, pull tabs, and related merchandise. The IRS found that less than 2 percent of known receipts went to charitable…
Determination 200840047: Inactive charity agrees to loss of exempt status
A public charity closed its facilities, stopped operating, received only a later payment on old invoices, and owned no assets. The IRS concluded that it no longer conducted activities accomplishing…
PLR 200840046: Medical incapacity supports waiver of IRA rollover deadline
A 79-year-old taxpayer withdrew an amount from an IRA and intended to roll it back into an IRA within 60 days. The taxpayer also received a separate required minimum distribution and had sufficient…
CCA 200840045: State home-care agent may pay employment taxes with timely returns
A state agency administered an in-home assistance program whose service recipients hired and supervised their own workers. The agency acted as their Section 3504 employment-tax agent and hired a…
CCA 200840044: Agent receiving over $10,000 cash must file Form 8300
A cemetery acting as an insurance company's agent received more than $10,000 in cash from a customer buying a burial policy. Chief Counsel considered whether the reporting result changed if the…
CCA 200840043: Publicly available assets make policyholder the tax owner
A life insurer proposed variable contracts backed by separately managed accounts that would invest directly in assets available to the general public. A policyholder could nominate an independent…
CCA 200840042: S corporation's ranch interest counts as limited-partner ownership
A ranching limited partnership allocated more than 35 percent of its losses to limited partners, including an S corporation owned by an individual who actively managed the ranch. The partnership…
CCA 200840041: Overpaid but unpayable deficiency interest cannot be netted
A corporate taxpayer sought Section 6621(d) interest netting after net operating loss carrybacks created overpayments for years that previously had paid deficiencies and underpayment interest. The…
CCA 200840040: Two-week corporation cannot manufacture gain to preserve S status
An S corporation owned a disregarded entity holding a fully depreciated airplane and a large bank loan whose proceeds had gone back to the parent. The entity elected corporate status for two weeks…
PLR 200840039: Commodity notes and subsidiary income qualify for RIC income test
A closed-end investment fund planning to elect regulated investment company status proposed investing in four commodity-linked notes tied to total-return and excess-return indexes or sub-indexes.…
PLR 200840038: Full-price purchase of residence remainder avoids gift tax
A married couple proposed transferring their vacation home to a trust that would give them rent-free use for both lives, with the remainder passing to an existing trust for their descendants. The…
PLR 200840037: Foreign entity receives 60 days for disregarded-entity election
A wholly owned foreign entity converted under local law into an entity eligible to choose its federal tax classification. Its default status was an association taxable as a corporation, but it…
CCA 200840036: IRS declines ruling and limits basis for acquired goodwill
An S corporation acquired a proprietorship's business assets for its own stock and a note and sought rulings on Section 351 treatment and amortization of self-created goodwill and going-concern…
PLR 200840035: Court-approved unitrust conversion creates no taxable exchange
Trustees asked a state court to convert an existing income trust into a total-return unitrust paying 3 percent of the trust's averaged value each year. State law allowed the conversion when it would…
PLR 200840034: Updated city deferred-compensation plan qualifies under Section 457(b)
A city amended and restated its governmental deferred-compensation plan to reflect EGTRRA and later legislation. The plan limited deferrals and distributions under Section 457, allowed specified…
PLR 200840033: Estate receives 60 days for late GST exemption allocation
A married couple transferred community-property stock in an S corporation to an irrevocable trust for their daughter and grandchildren. Their longtime estate-planning attorney did not advise them to…
PLR 200840032: Wife's estate receives extension for late GST allocation
A married couple transferred community-property stock in an S corporation to an irrevocable trust for their daughter and grandchildren. Their longtime estate-planning attorney did not advise them to…
CCA 200840031: Withdrawn request leaves bonus-depreciation elections in effect
A leasing company had elected not to claim additional first-year depreciation for multiple years because it lacked the tax resources to compute the deduction across its many assets. It later…
PLR 200840030: Disclaimer and trust reformation preserve charitable estate treatment
A family trust split into survivor, marital-deduction, and residual trusts, with a daughter and a charity holding interests after the surviving spouse's death. The daughter timely disclaimed her…
PLR 200840029: Late QSST election does not end corporation's S status
An S corporation shareholder transferred part of the corporation's stock to a trust whose sole current beneficiary was eligible to elect qualified subchapter S trust treatment. The parties intended…
PLR 200840028: Longer-stay temporary housing payments qualify as REIT rents
A corporation planning to elect REIT status owned temporary-housing properties and intended to rent rooms directly to occupants for recurring minimum periods rather than daily stays. The properties…
PLR 200840027: Missed QSST election after trust transfer is inadvertent
S corporation stock was held in a grantor's revocable trust and then in the continuing trust after the grantor's death. Within the two-year period during which that trust remained an eligible S…
PLR 200840026: Late QSST election is treated as inadvertent termination
S corporation stock passed from a revocable grantor trust into a continuing trust after the grantor's death and then moved to a third trust within the two-year eligibility window. The third trust's…
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.