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.
No determinations match these filters
Try fewer or different words, check the spelling, or clear the filters to browse everything.
PLR 200737015: Foreign branch loss elections receive 60-day filing relief
A taxpayer reported dual consolidated losses from two foreign branches over four years. It missed required elections in two years and filed elections with errors in the next two. Its tax preparer…
PLR 200737014: IRS excuses invalid S election caused by multiple stock classes
A corporation elected S status while its articles still authorized three classes of stock, making the election ineffective under the one-class rule. The corporation later discovered the provision…
PLR 200737013: Subsidiary merger preserves intercompany gain deferral
A corporate group sought to supplement an earlier ruling after deciding to merge one subsidiary into another. The IRS ruled that the planned statutory merger would qualify as a Type A…
PLR 200737012: Reinsurance transfer to subsidiary qualifies under section 351
A life insurer transferred reinsurance contracts, related assets, and obligations to its wholly owned insurance subsidiary so it could end an accreditation while preserving regulatory relief for the…
PLR 200737011: Housing project gets more time to make 40/60 credit election
A taxpayer failed to make the intended low-income housing credit election for buildings in a rental project. The election it sought uses the standard that at least 40 percent of units be rent…
PLR 200737010: Missed capital transfer treated as made before contribution
A corporate group had obtained earlier rulings for a planned restructuring. Officers approved a capital transfer to a subsidiary before a later stock contribution, but an administrative oversight…
PLR 200737009: Divided stock options remain exercisable by employee spouse
A divorce judgment awarded half of an employee's incentive stock options to a former spouse, while keeping the options in the employee's name. The former spouse would direct the employee to exercise…
PLR 200737008: Foreign entity gets more time to elect partnership status
A foreign entity was eligible to elect partnership treatment for U.S. federal tax purposes but failed to file Form 8832 on time. It requested an extension for an effective date that is redacted in…
PLR 200737007: Foreign entity may make late corporate classification election
A foreign entity intended to elect treatment as an association taxable as a corporation from its formation date. It represented that it was eligible for that classification but missed the Form 8832…
PLR 200737006: Intragroup partnership sales follow consolidated return matching rule
Two subsidiaries in a consolidated corporate group planned to sell their interests in a partnership to a third group member. That purchase would leave the partnership with one owner, ending its…
PLR 200737005: Missed elections for foreign entity losses receive filing relief
A taxpayer held interests in two foreign entities that produced dual consolidated losses in a redacted year. After a corporate restructuring and substantial tax staff turnover, its new team missed…
PLR 200737004: Corporation receives relief for late S election
A corporation's shareholder intended S corporation treatment from the date of incorporation, but the election was not filed on time. The IRS found reasonable cause for the failure and allowed…
PLR 200737003: Corporation receives relief for late S election
A corporation's shareholder intended S corporation treatment from the date of incorporation, but the election was not filed on time. The IRS found reasonable cause for the failure and allowed…
PLR 200737002: Partial nuclear fund transfer would disqualify both funds
A utility planned to sell its interest in a nuclear plant and transfer decommissioning assets to the buyer, while possibly retaining excess assets from its qualified funds. The IRS ruled that…
PLR 200737001: Partial nuclear fund transfer would disqualify both funds
A utility planned to sell its interest in a nuclear plant and transfer decommissioning assets to the buyer, while possibly retaining excess assets from its qualified funds. The IRS ruled that…
Determination 200736037: Sperm donation group denied charity status for private benefit
An organization sought tax exemption for providing donated sperm at no charge to selected women. Its two directors were father and son, and the son was also its sole financial donor and supplied…
PLR 200736036: IRA rollover deadline waiver denied after wrong account selection
A worker intended to roll a former employer's 401(k) balance into an IRA. He opened an account online that he believed was an IRA, but it was an ordinary account. The plan custodian sent a check…
PLR 200736035: Pension funding waiver granted with collateral and payment conditions
A manufacturer requested relief from the minimum funding standard for its pension plan after domestic losses and cash flow problems. The IRS found substantial business hardship and some prospect of…
Determination 200736034: Homebuyer assistance charity loses exemption over private benefits
A nonprofit originally described plans to support youth groups, influence family media programming, and provide free legal help. Its main activity became a down payment assistance program for…
Determination 200736033: Investment company loses small insurer exemption
A company received recognition of exemption under section 501(c)(15) after saying it would conduct insurance business. It instead formed a separate subsidiary to handle the insurance activity while…
Determination 200736032: Charity exemption revoked over trustees' personal expenses
A public charity said it would make grants to other section 501(c)(3) organizations. During an examination, the IRS found that a substantial share of its spending was personal and benefited trustees…
Determination 200736031: Education nonprofit loses exemption over founder controlled payments
An education nonprofit offered training and professional development courses. Its only two directors were its founders, a married couple, and one founder owned a for-profit company that managed the…
PLR 200736030: Foundation split permitted, but transfer needs expenditure oversight
A private foundation planned to transfer about half its assets to another private foundation under a court approved division. The IRS ruled that the transfer would not terminate either foundation's…
PLR 200736029: Foundation split permitted, but transfer needs expenditure oversight
A private foundation planned to transfer about half its assets to another private foundation under a court approved division. The IRS ruled that the transfer would not terminate either foundation's…
Determination 200736028: Campaign fund reporting turns on control of donated funds
An organization asked how to report donations it collected as a Principal Combined Fund Organization for the Combined Federal Campaign. The IRS explained that a collecting organization may be…
CCA 200736027: Director's letter preserved claim for penalty refund
The IRS assessed a trust fund recovery penalty against a nonprofit director, then later concluded he was not a responsible officer and abated it. Some payments had not been refunded because of the…
TAM 200736026: Auto dealer must allocate inventory costs under section 263A
A franchised auto dealer asked how section 263A applied to vehicle repairs, parts, storage, sales, and inventory costs. Chief Counsel concluded that installing parts on customer owned vehicles was…
CCA 200736025: Railroad employer status ended when employee payments stopped
The Railroad Retirement Board informed the IRS that a business had ceased to be an employer under railroad retirement and unemployment laws. Chief Counsel reviewed that opinion and agreed that the…
CCA 200736024: Livestock age classes understated production costs
A vertically integrated animal producer used the unit livestock price method to value animals in inventory by age class. Under its method, an animal kept a value of about 9% of its final unit price…
PLR 200736023: Division of older family trust preserves most tax attributes
The trustees proposed dividing an irrevocable family trust created before September 25, 1985, into three trusts, one for each grandson. The IRS concluded that the division itself would not create a…
PLR 200736022: City development fund income excluded and public gifts deductible
A city created a nonprofit development authority that established a fund to attract businesses and expand existing ones. The fund's income and assets were restricted to that public purpose, with…
PLR 200736021: Late S corporation election accepted for reasonable cause
A limited liability company intended to be taxed as an S corporation but inadvertently missed the deadline to file Form 2553. The IRS found reasonable cause for the late election under section…
PLR 200736020: City retiree health trust income and benefits excluded
A city created a trust to fund health coverage for retired employees and their families. The IRS ruled that the trust's income would be excluded under section 115(1), provided the city adopted…
PLR 200736019: Corporate spin off treated as Type D reorganization
A publicly traded parent planned to transfer assets and subsidiary stock to a new corporation and distribute the new corporation's shares to its shareholders. The IRS ruled that the contribution and…
PLR 200736018: Late trader mark to market election denied for hindsight
A securities trader asked for more time to elect the mark to market accounting method under section 475(f). He said his accountant had not told him about the election, and an amended return using it…
PLR 200736017: Rural telephone bank liquidation payment was patronage income
A rural telephone cooperative had bought stock in the Rural Telephone Bank as a condition of borrowing to serve its members. After repaying the loans, its stock converted to another class and was…
PLR 200736016: Parent granted time to file subsidiary stock loss statement
A consolidated group parent sold all of a subsidiary's stock and sought to recognize a loss, but did not timely file the required section 1.337(d)-2(c) statement with its return. The IRS found that…
PLR 200736015: IRS rules on corporate spin-off and follow-on merger
A public company proposed a series of internal mergers, asset transfers, and subsidiary stock distributions to separate one business from its other businesses. It then planned to distribute the…
PLR 200736014: Three siblings divide an S corporation through split-offs
Three siblings owned an S corporation and wanted to separate its business assets because of disputes over management and business direction. The corporation planned to transfer portions of its…
PLR 200736013: Foreign entity gets more time to elect disregarded status
A foreign entity intended to elect treatment as an entity disregarded from its owner for federal tax purposes but missed the filing deadline. It requested more time to file Form 8832 with its…
PLR 200736012: Foreign entity gets more time to elect partnership status
A foreign entity intended to elect partnership treatment for federal tax purposes but did not file the election on time. It asked the IRS for an extension to file Form 8832 with its intended…
PLR 200736011: Estate gets more time to allocate GST exemption to trust gift
A donor gave securities to an irrevocable trust for his nephews and their descendants. His tax professional prepared a gift tax return allocating generation-skipping transfer (GST) exemption to the…
PLR 200736010: Late Form 1128 treated as timely filed
A corporation filed Form 1128 after the deadline for requesting a change from a November 30 to a September 30 tax year. It sought discretionary relief to have the form considered timely under the…
PLR 200736009: Late request to change corporate tax year treated as timely
A corporation filed Form 1128 late to change its tax year end from November 30 to September 30. It asked the IRS to treat the form as timely under the procedure for an automatic accounting period…
PLR 200736008: Trust change for disabled grandchild preserves tax exemption
A trustee sought to change a trust created before the generation-skipping transfer tax rules took effect. The proposed change would hold a disabled grandchild's share in a separate trust for that…
PLR 200736007: Earlier trust distribution and continuing share preserve tax exemption
A trustee sought approval to change a trust created under a will before the generation-skipping transfer tax rules took effect. The changes would allow the trust to end when the youngest child of a…
PLR 200736006: Continuing trust for disabled grandchild preserves tax exemption
A trustee proposed to place a disabled grandchild's share of an irrevocable trust into a continuing trust for that grandchild's sole lifetime benefit. The grandchild would have a testamentary power…
PLR 200736005: More time to file real property nonrecognition notice
A holding company received two properties in a transfer but missed the deadline to file a notice claiming that the transfer was eligible for nonrecognition treatment under the real property…
PLR 200736004: Corporate split-off qualifies as a tax-free reorganization
A corporate group placed one of two businesses into a newly formed company, then gave that company's stock to its parent in exchange for stock of the distributing company. The new company later…
PLR 200736003: Late consent dividend elections allowed for subsidiaries
A corporate parent discovered that two subsidiaries had been personal holding companies in prior years, but the group had not filed consent dividend forms for them. It sought more time to make…
PLR 200736002: Pro rata trust division receives seven favorable rulings
The trustees of a testamentary trust proposed to divide it into three trusts, one for each child of the person who created the original trust and that child's descendants. The IRS ruled that the…
PLR 200736001: More time to elect interest charge DISC status
A corporation began operating as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation and filed a return, but it had not filed the required election form. Its parent had believed outside…
Determination 200735031: Social welfare organization loses tax exemption over missing records
The IRS revoked an organization's exemption under section 501(c)(4) after it failed to file required annual Forms 990 or provide records requested during an examination. The examination report says…
Determination 200735030: Social club loses exemption after extensive public use
A social club operated dining and banquet facilities for members and the general public. Its examination report said public use produced about 46 percent of gross receipts in one year and 36 percent…
PLR 200735029: Estate denied late rollover of retirement plan distribution
A retiree asked for a plan distribution to go to an IRA, but the account designated on the form was a non-IRA account. He did not correct the transfer during the more than three years before his…
Determination 200735028: Motocross club loses social club exemption
A social club held recurring motocross races attended by members and the public, charging nonmembers gate and race fees. Its examination report found that nonmember income exceeded 15 percent of…
Determination 200735027: Charitable remainder trust loses charity recognition
A trust previously recognized as a section 501(c)(3) organization was formed as a charitable remainder unitrust. Its terms called for annual payments to its creator during life, with remaining…
PLR 200735026: Later cash distributions do not disturb corporate reorganizations
After selling a business, three new companies lent their sale proceeds to affiliates. Their parent proposed that, when the loans ended, the companies distribute part of those proceeds to their…
PLR 200735025: Business spin-off qualifies as a reorganization
A corporation proposed to separate two businesses by distributing all the stock of a subsidiary to its sole shareholder, a trust. The subsidiary had received the business assets after mergers of…
PLR 200735024: Foreign corporate restructuring qualifies as an F reorganization
A corporate group planned to separate two businesses held by a foreign company. Its domestic subsidiary would place the old company's stock in a new foreign company; under local law, the old company…
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.