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 200834011: Physical-injury settlement payments were excluded and not reportable
A qualified settlement fund paid claimants resolving personal physical-injury claims arising from a redacted tort. The IRS ruled that the specified payments, subject to redacted conditions and…
PLR 200834010: Late Form 1128 was treated as timely filed
A corporation filed Form 1128 after the deadline to change from a calendar tax year to a year ending August 31. The IRS found that the corporation acted reasonably and in good faith and that relief…
PLR 200834009: Physical-injury settlement payments were excluded and not reportable
A qualified settlement fund was created to process and pay personal physical-injury claims arising from a redacted tort. The IRS ruled that the specified payments, within redacted conditions and…
PLR 200834008: Entity received relief for a late corporate classification election
A domestic eligible entity intended to be treated as an association taxable as a corporation from its formation date but inadvertently missed the Form 8832 deadline. The IRS concluded that it acted…
PLR 200834007: Corporation received relief for an inadvertent S election termination
An S corporation's stock was held partly through a single-member LLC owned by its original shareholder. When that owner sold LLC interests to two other people, the LLC stopped being disregarded and…
PLR 200834006: Estate received relief for a late 65-day distribution election
An estate made a distribution during the first 65 days of a calendar year and reported it on the preceding year's income-tax return. Its executor, however, failed to make the required section 663(b)…
PLR 200834005: Foreign entity received relief for a late disregarded-entity election
A foreign eligible entity had one owner through two wholly owned disregarded entities, and all of its members had limited liability. It intended to be treated as disregarded from its formation date…
PLR 200834004: Corporation received relief for a late S election
A corporation's 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 missed deadline and…
PLR 200834003: Utility received a revised nuclear decommissioning-fund schedule
A utility with an ownership interest and a larger contractual decommissioning liability for a nuclear plant requested elective review of its existing section 468A payment schedule. The IRS found…
PLR 200834002: Pro rata corporate spin-off qualified for nonrecognition treatment
A parent corporation proposed distributing all stock of a wholly owned subsidiary pro rata to its shareholders to comply with regulatory restrictions. Based on detailed representations, the IRS…
PLR 200834001: Utility received a revised nuclear decommissioning-fund schedule
A utility with an ownership interest and a larger contractual decommissioning liability for a nuclear plant requested elective review of its existing section 468A payment schedule. The IRS found…
Other 200833031: Farmers market was denied business-league exemption
A membership organization operated a seasonal farmers market where member and nonmember vendors rented space to sell produce, crafts, and services. The IRS concluded that the market primarily gave…
PLR 200833030: Elderly taxpayer received a waiver for a one-day-late IRA rollover
An 87-year-old taxpayer with dementia liquidated an IRA while trying to consolidate assets at a local bank, without intending to withdraw retirement funds. His wife of 70 years, who had handled the…
PLR 200833029: Taxpayer received rollover relief for a bank's duplicate IRA distribution
A taxpayer arranged a required minimum distribution from an IRA, but the bank later made an unauthorized second distribution of the same amount. The bank acknowledged that its representative…
PLR 200833028: Surviving spouse could roll trust-held inherited IRA assets into her own IRA
A deceased IRA owner had named a trust as beneficiary rather than naming his surviving spouse directly. The spouse was the trust's sole current trustee and residual beneficiary, with unrestricted…
PLR 200833027: Pension plans received approval to use substitute mortality tables
A taxpayer asked to use substitute mortality tables when applying section 430 to a redacted group of defined benefit pension plans. The IRS approved the male and female tables for non-disabled union…
Other 200833026: Inactive private foundation lost its tax exemption
A private foundation formed to distribute money to charities had been inactive for several years and had never filed Form 990-PF. It provided no information about its receipts, expenditures, or…
Other 200833025: Private foundation lost exemption after repeated filing failures
A private foundation repeatedly failed to file required annual information returns despite IRS correspondence requesting its delinquent Forms 990-PF. It also did not answer the examination request…
Other 200833024: Seller-funded down payment program lost charitable exemption
A nonprofit operated a down payment assistance program funded almost entirely by home sellers and builders participating in the financed sales. A seller paid the organization an amount equal to the…
Other 200833023: Foundation lost exemption over private benefit and unsupported spending
A foundation was organized to collect donations and pass them to qualified charities, but its records showed limited charitable grants and extensive unsupported or nonexempt spending. In one…
Other 200833022: Independent student-housing developer was denied charitable exemption
A nonprofit proposed creating disregarded LLCs to finance, develop, own, and operate student housing near colleges and universities using tax-exempt bonds. The IRS found that the projects would rent…
IRS denies social welfare exemption to group focused on election campaigns
A nonprofit sought recognition as a tax-exempt social welfare organization under section 501(c)(4). It organized local chapters, distributed voter guides, trained activists, and lobbied on…
IRS revokes charity's exemption after it fails to provide records
The IRS revoked a charity's section 501(c)(3) exemption after the organization failed to answer requests for records during an examination. The charity had participated in a homebuyer assistance…
IRS proposes revoking organization's exemption after unanswered records requests
An exempt organization did not respond to IRS requests for financial records and information about its activities for a tax year. The examination report concluded that the missing information…
IRS gives private foundation five more years to sell excess stock
A private foundation received a large block of publicly traded stock from a director, creating excess business holdings under section 4943. It could not sell all the shares during the initial…
IRS agrees with railroad board that redacted businesses are not covered employers
The Railroad Retirement Board advised the IRS that certain businesses were not covered employers under the Railroad Retirement Tax Act and the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act. After reviewing…
IRS finds a business became a railroad tax employer when operations began
The Railroad Retirement Board advised the IRS that a business had become an employer under the Railroad Retirement Act and the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act. Chief Counsel reviewed the board's…
IRS agrees two redacted businesses are not railroad tax employers
The Railroad Retirement Board told the IRS that several businesses were not employers under the Railroad Retirement Act and the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act. Chief Counsel reviewed the…
Utility rate calculation using unavailable production deduction does not breach normalization rules
A regulated electric utility had a net operating loss, so it could not use a section 199 domestic production activities deduction on its federal tax return. Its rate regulator nevertheless included…
IRS grants time to split marital trust and make missed GST election
An estate elected the marital deduction for a trust benefiting the surviving spouse, but its accountant did not split the trust or make a reverse QTIP election for generation-skipping transfer tax…
Early trust termination avoids excise taxes but creates capital gain for beneficiaries
Two lifetime beneficiaries proposed ending a charitable remainder unitrust early and dividing its value with the charitable remainder beneficiaries. The IRS ruled that the termination, permitted by…
IRS approves nuclear plant decommissioning fund schedules and special transfer
A utility that owned a nuclear power plant requested updated schedules for contributions to its decommissioning fund and deductions for a special transfer. The special transfer would fund costs that…
IRS approves decommissioning fund schedules for utility's share of nuclear plant
An investor-owned utility held a redacted ownership share of a nuclear plant and sought new schedules for its decommissioning fund. It also sought a special transfer to fund costs excluded under the…
IRS approves one-year deduction for nuclear decommissioning fund transfer
A utility that owned and operated a nuclear plant sought a special transfer to its decommissioning fund and a revised schedule of annual fund contributions. The transfer would fund costs that prior…
IRS approves special nuclear decommissioning transfer and deduction schedule
A utility sought permission to make a special transfer into its nuclear plant decommissioning fund and to revise the annual contribution schedule. The transfer concerned decommissioning costs that…
IRS approves nuclear plant fund transfer with deductions spread over years
A utility that solely owned and operated a nuclear plant requested a special transfer to its decommissioning fund and a revised annual contribution schedule. The transfer would cover costs that…
IRS approves fund transfer and revised schedule for partial nuclear plant owner
An investor-owned utility held a redacted share of a nuclear plant as a tenant in common. It asked for a special transfer into its decommissioning fund and a revised annual contribution schedule,…
IRS allows late election to treat acquired company as S corporation subsidiary
An S corporation acquired all the shares of another S corporation and intended to elect qualified subchapter S subsidiary treatment from the acquisition date. It inadvertently missed the deadline to…
IRS grants late S corporation election effective from incorporation
A newly incorporated company intended to elect S corporation status from its incorporation date but missed the filing deadline. The IRS found reasonable cause for the late election under section…
Actively managed rental income is not passive investment income for S corporation rule
An S corporation asked whether rent from its residential and commercial properties counted as passive investment income under section 1362. It described substantial work in finding tenants,…
IRS preserves S corporation status after trust beneficiaries miss QSST elections
Shares of an S corporation passed under a will to two trusts, which were permitted shareholders for two years. After that period, the trusts became ineligible because their beneficiary had not filed…
IRS restores S corporation status after shareholder trust misses QSST election
An S corporation's shares passed under a will to a trust, which could hold them as an eligible shareholder for two years. The trust's beneficiary did not file a qualified subchapter S trust election…
IRS denies charity status to student exchange group tied to officer's company
A nonprofit sought section 501(c)(3) status for a student exchange program. Its president also owned 95 percent of a foreign consulting company whose brochure advertised similar exchange services.…
IRS waives IRA rollover deadline after representative misplaces transfer funds
An 83-year-old IRA owner asked a financial representative to move an IRA annuity to an IRA at a closer bank. The representative instead placed the portion she had not used in a non-IRA account, and…
IRS revokes charity status for commercial purpose and private benefit
The IRS issued a final revocation of an organization's section 501(c)(3) exemption, effective January 1, 2002. The final letter says the organization operated for substantial commercial and private…
IRS denies charity status to seller-funded homebuyer grant program
The IRS denied section 501(c)(3) status to an organization that planned to give homebuyers down payment assistance funded largely by fees from home sellers. Buyers did not have to meet income or…
PLR 200832034: Public arena revenues escape unrelated business tax
A tax-exempt nonprofit planned to build and operate a public arena to relieve city and state governments of that task. It asked whether revenue from leasing the arena and related activities,…
PLR 200832033: Foundation may transfer assets to four related foundations
A private foundation proposed transferring about 20 percent of its assets to each of four other private foundations so their managers could pursue separate charitable goals. The IRS ruled that the…
PLR 200832032: Foundation may transfer assets to four related foundations
A private foundation proposed transferring about 20 percent of its assets to each of four other private foundations so their managers could pursue separate charitable goals. The IRS ruled that the…
PLR 200832031: Charity gets more time to revoke a lobbying election
A public charity joined a group of affiliated charities whose parent had revoked its election to use the section 501(h) lobbying expenditure test. The charity had not revoked its own election,…
PLR 200832030: Foundation may transfer assets to four related foundations
A private foundation proposed transferring about 20 percent of its assets to each of four other private foundations so their managers could pursue separate charitable goals. The IRS ruled that the…
PLR 200832029: Foundation may transfer assets during public charity transition
A private foundation was in a 60 month period to qualify as a public charity. It proposed transferring more than 25 percent of its assets, including an unpaid university pledge, to a new private…
PLR 200832028: Community foundation fees receive mixed unrelated income ruling
A community foundation proposed charging market rate fees to manage grants and provide other services for local private foundations. It asked whether all of those fees would avoid the unrelated…
PLR 200832027: Community foundation fees receive mixed unrelated income ruling
A community foundation planned to charge other grant making charities for help with grants and office work. It asked whether fees for nine proposed services would be exempt from the unrelated…
PLR 200832026: IRA withdrawal for lot purchase gets no late rollover waiver
A taxpayer withdrew money from his IRA to buy a trailer park lot, intending to put the same amount back within 60 days. He attempted to redeposit it two days after the deadline and requested a…
PLR 200832025: IRA rollover deadline waived after bank coding error
A taxpayer directed one financial institution to transfer money from his SEP-IRA into a SEP-IRA at another institution. The receiving institution mistakenly placed the money in a nonqualified…
PLR 200832024: Foreign partner's limited rights avoid U.S. property treatment
A corporate group planned a joint venture that would hold both a U.S. business and a business outside the United States. One partner was a controlled foreign corporation, raising the question…
CCA 200832023: Railroad business no longer treated as covered employer
The Railroad Retirement Board told the IRS that a business had stopped being a covered employer under the Railroad Retirement Act and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act. Chief Counsel reviewed the…
CCA 200832022: Stock substitution does not make forward contract loss deductible
A corporation entered contracts to buy back its own shares at set prices. After it merged into another corporation, the remaining contracts called for shares of the acquiring company's parent…
PLR 200832021: Dividing charitable remainder trust after divorce receives favorable rulings
A divorcing couple divided an existing charitable remainder unitrust into two equal trusts, one with each former spouse as the initial income beneficiary. The IRS ruled that the division itself did…
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.