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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IRS grants a limited partnership a late election to self-certify as a Qualified Opportunity Fund after accounting-firm turnover caused a missed deadline
An entity becomes a Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF), a vehicle for deferring and reducing tax on capital gains reinvested in low-income "opportunity zones," by self-certifying on Form 8996 attached…
IRS grants a late election for an LLC to self-certify as a Qualified Opportunity Fund after its advisor missed the filing deadline
An entity becomes a Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF), a vehicle for deferring and reducing tax on capital gains reinvested in low-income "opportunity zones," by self-certifying on Form 8996 attached…
An online bulletin board for trading limited partnership interests is a qualified matching service, so partnerships that use it are not publicly traded
A "publicly traded partnership" is generally taxed as a corporation under section 7704, which is a bad outcome for a partnership and its investors. A partnership is publicly traded if its interests…
IRS grants a late election for an LLC to self-certify as a Qualified Opportunity Fund
A Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF) is an investment vehicle used to defer and reduce tax on capital gains that are reinvested in designated low-income "opportunity zones." To become a QOF, an entity…
202338026: IRS revokes a 501(c)(3) for ignoring an audit; it used a UPS store mailbox that had closed, the state administratively dissolved it, and it was not a listed chapter of the charity network its name suggested
The IRS revoked a charity's 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status because it never responded to an audit. The organization had been recognized as exempt through a streamlined application in which it attested…
202338025: IRS revokes a 501(c)(3) that ignored an audit and was dissolved by court order after the state attorney general sued it and related nonprofits for fraud
The IRS revoked a charity's 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status on two grounds. First, it never responded to an audit: after the IRS asked for basic records (chart of accounts, general ledger, bank…
202338024: IRS revokes a 501(c)(3) for ignoring an audit; it operated from a UPS store mailbox, filed only electronic notices, and was not a listed chapter of the charity network its name suggested
The IRS revoked a charity's 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status because it never responded to an audit. The organization had been recognized as exempt after filing a full application with a copy of its…
202338023: IRS revokes a 501(c)(3) for ignoring an audit; it filed only empty electronic notices from a UPS store mailbox and was not actually a chapter of the charity network its name suggested
The IRS revoked a charity's 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status because it never responded to an audit. The organization had been recognized as exempt after filing a full application with a copy of its…
202338022: IRS revokes a 501(c)(3) for ignoring an audit; the organization and its officers all used one UPS store mailbox that had closed, and the state placed it in delinquent status
The IRS revoked a charity's 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status because it never responded to an audit. The organization had been recognized as exempt through a streamlined application in which it attested…
202338021: IRS revokes a 501(c)(3) for ignoring an audit; its addresses traced to a retail mailbox store and a shared UPS store mailbox, and its state registration was suspended
The IRS revoked a charity's 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status because it never responded to an audit. The organization had been recognized as exempt through a streamlined application in which it attested…
202338020: IRS revokes a 501(c)(3) for ignoring an audit; its addresses traced to a retail mailbox store and a UPS store and its state registration was suspended
The IRS revoked a charity's 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status because it never responded to an audit. The organization had been recognized as exempt through a streamlined application in which it attested…
202338019: IRS revokes a 501(c)(3) for ignoring an audit; its addresses traced to a retail mailbox store and UPS store mailboxes and its state registration was suspended
The IRS revoked a charity's 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status because it never responded to an audit. The organization had been recognized as exempt through a streamlined application in which it attested…
202338018: IRS revokes a 501(c)(3) for ignoring an audit; its registered office and its application address were both UPS store mailboxes and the state forfeited its registration
The IRS revoked a charity's 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status because it never responded to an audit. The organization had been recognized as exempt through a streamlined application in which it attested…
202338017: IRS revokes a 501(c)(3) for ignoring an audit; its addresses traced to a retail mailbox store and a UPS store, and its state registration was suspended
The IRS revoked a charity's 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status because it never responded to an audit. The organization had been recognized as exempt through a streamlined application in which it attested…
202338016: IRS revokes a 501(c)(3) for ignoring an audit; its application address and its state-registered office were both UPS store mailboxes
The IRS revoked a charity's 501(c)(3) status because it never responded to an audit. The organization had been recognized through a streamlined exemption application, but the address it gave for…
202338015: IRS revokes a 501(c)(3) for ignoring an audit; both its application address and its state-registered office traced to UPS store mailboxes
The IRS revoked a charity's 501(c)(3) status because it never responded to an audit. The organization had been recognized through a streamlined exemption application, but the address it gave for…
202338014: IRS revokes a 501(c)(3) for ignoring an audit; its UPS store mailbox had closed and two state dissolution notices came back undeliverable
The IRS revoked a charity's 501(c)(3) status because it never responded to an audit. The organization had been recognized based on its streamlined Form 1023-EZ. Its addresses, including the one for…
202338013: IRS revokes a 501(c)(3) for ignoring an audit; its office, agent, and directors all used one UPS store mailbox and the website it reported could not be found
The IRS revoked a charity's 501(c)(3) status because it never responded to an audit. The organization had been recognized based on its streamlined Form 1023-EZ. Its incorporator, its resident agent,…
202338012: IRS revokes a 501(c)(3) for ignoring an audit; its addresses were two mailbox-service storefronts and the state had suspended the corporation
The IRS revoked a charity's 501(c)(3) status because it never responded to an audit. Unlike some related cases, this organization's charter satisfied the organizational test: its Articles of…
202338011: IRS revokes a 501(c)(3) that ignored an audit and whose charter purpose was too broad; its statutory-agent address was a permanently closed UPS store
The IRS revoked a charity's 501(c)(3) status on two independent grounds. First, the organization flunked the organizational test: its Articles of Incorporation stated a corporate purpose broader…
202338010: IRS revokes a 501(c)(3) for ignoring an audit; the charity and its managing director shared a single UPS store mailbox
The IRS revoked a charity's 501(c)(3) status because it never responded to an audit. The organization had been recognized based on its streamlined Form 1023-EZ, and both the charity's mailing…
202338009: IRS revokes a 501(c)(3) for ignoring an audit; both of its addresses traced to UPS store mailboxes, though its state charter stayed active
The IRS revoked a charity's 501(c)(3) status because it never responded to an audit. The organization had been recognized based on its streamlined Form 1023-EZ, but both the address on its Articles…
202338008: IRS revokes a 501(c)(3) for ignoring an audit; both its addresses were mailbox services and the state had forfeited its charter
The IRS revoked a charity's 501(c)(3) status because it never responded to an audit. The organization had been recognized based on its streamlined Form 1023-EZ, but both the registered-agent address…
202338007: IRS revokes a 501(c)(3) after the organization ignored an audit; its Form 1023-EZ address was a UPS store mailbox
The IRS revoked a charity's 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status because it never responded to an audit. The organization had obtained recognition using the streamlined Form 1023-EZ, listing a mailing…
IRS grants a QDOT trustee extra time to certify that the surviving spouse became a U.S. citizen
When someone dies leaving property to a non-citizen spouse, the estate can still claim the marital deduction only if the property goes into a qualified domestic trust (QDOT), which keeps a special…
IRS grants extra time to make a Section 336(e) election treating an S corporation stock sale as an asset sale
When a buyer purchases all the stock of an S corporation, the parties can elect under IRC Section 336(e) to treat the stock sale as if it were a sale of the company's assets, which can give the…
IRS grants a small estate extra time to make a portability election for the unused estate-tax exclusion
When someone dies, any unused part of their estate-tax exclusion can be passed to their surviving spouse (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability" election, but only…
IRS grants a C corporation extra time to make late bonus-depreciation and research-expense elections
A C corporation intended to make two elections on its return: one to opt out of bonus (additional first-year) depreciation for all classes of qualified property (IRC Section 168(k)(7)), and one to…
IRS treats an LLC's late Form 8996 as timely, allowing it to self-certify as a Qualified Opportunity Fund
A Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF) must self-certify each year by attaching Form 8996 to a timely filed tax return (IRC Section 1400Z-2). Here, an LLC organized to operate as a QOF timely filed its…
IRS grants extra time for an LLC to self-certify as a Qualified Opportunity Fund
Investors can defer tax on capital gains by putting them into a Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF), but the fund must self-certify each year by attaching Form 8996 to a timely filed tax return (IRC…
IRS approves a private foundation's set-aside of funds to build a regional performing arts center
Private foundations must pay out a minimum amount each year, but they can "set aside" money for a big future project and still have it count toward that payout requirement, as long as the IRS…
IRS approves a private foundation's grant procedures for young professional equestrians
A private foundation asked the IRS to approve, in advance, how it plans to award grants to individual athletes. Private foundations normally owe an excise tax on grants to individuals for study or…
IRS rules a bankruptcy-plan settlement trust for governmental plaintiffs is a qualified settlement fund whose income is tax-exempt under Section 115
A group of companies that had been sued by many state and local governments over a product-related public health crisis went through bankruptcy, and their reorganization plan set up a trust to…
IRS grants extra time for a corporate group to make a late election to file a consolidated return
An affiliated group of corporations can elect to file one combined (consolidated) federal income tax return with the parent as the common parent, but the election must be made by the return's due…
IRS rules a company's conversion from an LLC to a corporation does not modify its outstanding debt
When the terms of a debt change enough, tax law treats the old debt as swapped for a new one, which can trigger taxable gain or loss (a "significant modification" under IRC Section 1001). Here, an…
IRS grants extra time to elect out of automatic GST-exemption allocation on 2010 gifts to a grandchildren's trust
A married couple set up an irrevocable trust for their four grandchildren and made gifts to it in 2010. Because the trust benefits only grandchildren (skip persons), those gifts are "direct skips"…
IRS grants extra time for a partnership to elect out of bonus depreciation on its 15-year property
Bonus depreciation (IRC Section 168(k)) lets a business deduct a large chunk of an asset's cost in the year it is placed in service, but a taxpayer can elect out for a whole class of property. Here,…
IRS grants extra time for a U.S. parent to make a late GILTI high-tax exclusion election for its foreign subsidiaries
A U.S. parent company must include in its income the "global intangible low-taxed income" (GILTI) earned by its controlled foreign corporations (CFCs). A regulation lets the parent exclude income…
IRS grants extra time to elect out of automatic GST-exemption allocation on 2010 gifts to a grandchildren's trust
A married couple set up an irrevocable trust for their four grandchildren and made gifts to it in 2010. Because the trust benefits only grandchildren (skip persons), those gifts are "direct skips"…
IRS grants extra time to make a late QTIP marital-deduction election on an estate return
When one spouse dies, the estate can defer estate tax on property left to the surviving spouse by making a "qualified terminable interest property" (QTIP) election on the estate tax return (Form…
IRS treats an S corporation's election as continuing despite two missed trust elections
An S corporation accidentally lost its S status because two trusts that came to hold its stock never filed the elections needed to be eligible shareholders. After a shareholder died, his shares went…
IRS approves a private foundation's grant procedures for teacher-retention educational grants
A private foundation asked the IRS to approve, in advance, the way it plans to hand out educational grants to individuals. Private foundations normally owe an excise tax on grants to individuals for…
IRS approves a poetry foundation's travel-expense grants for prize winners under § 4945(g)(3)
A private foundation, an independent literary organization devoted to poetry, asked the IRS to pre-approve the procedures for a grant program that pays the travel, meal, and lodging costs of people…
IRS approves a private foundation's scholarship and educational-grant procedures under § 4945(g)
A private foundation asked the IRS to pre-approve the procedures it will use to give money to individuals: scholarships for study at educational institutions, and grants for travel, study, or…
IRS revokes a 1023-EZ nonprofit's 501(c)(3) status after it stonewalled an audit
This is the IRS's final determination revoking a nonprofit's section 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. The organization had obtained exemption through the streamlined Form 1023-EZ, on which it simply…
IRS denies 501(c)(3) status to a general-public cemetery association
This is the IRS's final determination denying a cemetery organization's application to be recognized as a section 501(c)(3) charity. The organization applied using the streamlined Form 1023-EZ and…
IRS revokes 501(c)(3) status for defective articles and a failed audit response
This is the IRS's final determination revoking a nonprofit's section 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, effective January 1, 2020. The revocation rests on two independent problems. First, the…
IRS denies 501(c)(4) status to a members-only water-supply corporation
This is the IRS's final determination denying an organization's application to be recognized as a section 501(c)(4) social-welfare organization. The applicant is a nonprofit that owns and operates a…
IRS revokes a "University" that never operated and whose funds a controller spent on himself
This is the IRS's determination revoking a section 501(c)(3) organization's exemption on two grounds: it never operated for an exempt purpose, and its money went to a person who controlled it. The…
IRS disqualifies a self-declared 501(c)(4) "University" that never operated
This is the IRS's final determination that an organization does not qualify for tax exemption under section 501(c)(4) (the category for social-welfare organizations). Unlike most documents in this…
IRS revokes a cannabis "church" for illegal purpose and inurement to its two controllers
This is the IRS's final determination that an organization does not qualify as a section 501(c)(3) charity, with revocation effective back to a redacted date. The organization had claimed to be a…
IRS revokes a nonprofit's 501(c)(3) status after it ignored an audit and ran a donation website
This is the IRS's final determination revoking a nonprofit corporation's tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3). The organization's Certificate of Formation was properly drafted (it limited the…
IRS revokes a nonprofit's 501(c)(3) status after Washington dissolved it for fraud and it ignored an audit
This is the IRS's final determination revoking a nonprofit corporation's tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3), and it rests on an unusual ground. A Washington state court had involuntarily…
IRS revokes a nonprofit's 501(c)(3) status after it produced no records for an audit; its charter had lapsed and been reinstated
This is the IRS's final determination revoking a nonprofit corporation's tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3). The organization was formed by three incorporators, and its articles were adequate…
IRS revokes a one-director nonprofit's 501(c)(3) status after it produced no records for an audit
This is the IRS's final determination revoking a nonprofit corporation's tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3). The organization was formed by a single incorporator who was also its only listed…
IRS revokes a nonprofit's 501(c)(3) status after it produced no records for an audit and was administratively dissolved
This is the IRS's final determination revoking a nonprofit corporation's tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3). The organization's articles were adequate (a section stated it was organized…
IRS revokes a nonprofit's 501(c)(3) status after it ignored an audit; its charter had lapsed and been reinstated
This is the IRS's final determination revoking a nonprofit corporation's tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3). The organization's articles were adequate (an attachment limited its purposes to…
IRS revokes a nonprofit's 501(c)(3) status after it acknowledged an audit but produced no records
This is the IRS's final determination revoking a nonprofit corporation's tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3). The organization's articles of incorporation were adequate (they restricted its…
IRS revokes a nonprofit's 501(c)(3) status after it refused to produce records for an audit
This is the IRS's final determination revoking a nonprofit corporation's tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3). Unlike some revocations in this series, this organization's articles of…
IRS revokes a nonprofit's 501(c)(3) status after it ignored an audit and never filed a required charter amendment
This is the IRS's final determination revoking a nonprofit corporation's tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3). The organization, whose name hinted at a link to a well-known charity network (it…
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.