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 200504005: Partnership gets more time for section 754 election
A trust held an interest in a partnership, and one of its grantors died. The partnership's tax return preparer did not know about the death when preparing the return and did not advise the…
PLR 200504004: Estate receives more time to elect family business deduction
An estate's attorney filed its federal estate tax return without electing the qualified family-owned business interest deduction under IRC § 2057. The attorney had told the executor the estate was…
PLR 200504003: Former resident avoids expatriation tax presumption
A former U.S. long-term resident gave up lawful permanent residence and returned to his country of birth, where he was subject to worldwide income and estate taxes. His net worth exceeded the…
PLR 200504002: Former citizen avoids presumption of expatriation tax purpose
A U.S.-born person who had become a citizen of another country renounced U.S. citizenship. Her net worth exceeded a threshold for a presumption that avoiding U.S. tax was a principal purpose. The…
CCA 200504001: Insurance settlement restores basis only to a limited extent
A policyholder received damages in a class action over an insurer's alleged misrepresentations when she replaced life insurance coverage. Chief Counsel advised that damages tied to her former policy…
PLR 200503036: Custodian's missed IRA payment does not break payment series
An IRA owner had arranged substantially equal periodic payments under the fixed annuitization method. He submitted a form requesting the balance of one year's required payment, but the custodian did…
PLR 200503035: IRS waives late rollover deadline after plan payment was mistaken for ordinary check
A former employee received a check from her retirement plan administrator and deposited it into her checking account. She said she did not realize it was a retirement plan distribution and had…
PLR 200503034: IRS waives late IRA rollover deadline for taxpayer with advanced Parkinson's disease
An IRA owner with advanced Parkinson's disease moved so his daughters could help care for him. During the move, he took a distribution from one IRA and deposited it in a checking account, intending…
PLR 200503033: IRS allows late IRA rollover after bond proceeds entered an annuity
An IRA owner sold a bond held in her IRA and took the proceeds as a distribution. She said she did not understand the tax effect or the 60-day rollover deadline. Following investment advice, she…
PLR 200503032: IRS waives rollover deadline after plan check went to old address
A former employee's retirement plan check was mailed to an old address and was never cashed. He learned about the distribution after the IRS questioned his income, and the plan administrator…
CCA 200503031: Counsel advises how to handle military pay wrongly excluded as foreign income
Some military personnel claimed the foreign earned income exclusion for U.S. government pay earned abroad and sought refunds of all withholding, apparently after receiving bad tax advice. Chief…
PLR 200503030: Scholarship grant procedures receive advance approval
An organization proposed to fund scholarships administered by a public charity. The charity would select students using academic performance, recommendations, activities, leadership, and financial…
PLR 200503029: Wholly owned title-holding subsidiary treated as part of exempt parent
A tax-exempt title-holding organization formed a subsidiary to hold real property and owned all its stock throughout its existence. The IRS ruled that the company was a qualified subsidiary under…
Determination 200503028: IRS denies charitable tax exemption for inadequate showing
The IRS issued a final adverse ruling on an organization's request for exemption under IRC § 501(c)(3). The letter says the organization did not provide enough information to show that it was…
PLR 200503027: VEBA administrator's profits may go to participating employers
A tax-exempt voluntary employees' beneficiary association (VEBA) proposed to shift benefit plan administration to a new company owned mainly by participating employers. The company would receive…
TAM 200503026: Stock issuance costs reduce proceeds and create no deductible loss
A company acquired two corporations in mergers and later sought a deduction for costs those corporations had incurred when issuing their own stock. The IRS concluded that stock issuance costs are…
PLR 200503025: Spouses receive more time to allocate GST exemptions to trust gift
A married couple created a trust for their children and grandchildren and treated a later contribution as a split gift. Their accountant prepared gift tax returns but improperly allocated their…
PLR 200503024: Widow's partial disclaimer of joint brokerage account qualifies
After her husband died, a widow retitled their joint brokerage account in her name, traded some securities, and withdrew cash. Within nine months of his death, she disclaimed only the part of his…
PLR 200503023: Corporation may end alternative research credit election in later year
A corporation asked to revoke its election to calculate the research credit using the alternative incremental research credit rules. It wanted the revocation to apply to one tax year or, if that was…
PLR 200503022: Controlled group gets partial consent to revoke research credit election
A corporation had elected the alternative incremental research credit method for itself and members of its controlled group. It asked the IRS to let the group revoke that election for an earlier tax…
PLR 200503021: IRS grants life insurance tax test waiver for corrected clerical errors
A life insurer sought relief for flexible premium contracts that failed tax rules under IRC §§ 101(f) or 7702. Staff had missed deadlines to return excess premiums, sometimes because they…
PLR 200503020: IRS preserves S status if stock warrant caused inadvertent termination
An S corporation issued a warrant to buy its common stock, raising concern that it had created a second class of stock and terminated its S election. After discovering the issue, it promptly…
PLR 200503019: LLC gets more time to elect corporate tax classification
A single-member LLC intended to elect treatment as a corporation for federal tax purposes from its formation date, but it failed to file Form 8832 on time. The IRS found that the requirements for…
PLR 200503018: LLC gets 60 days to file late corporate classification election
An LLC intended to elect corporate tax classification from the date it was formed, but it failed to file Form 8832 on time. The IRS found that the requirements for discretionary relief under…
PLR 200503017: Business separation receives tax-free reorganization rulings
A corporation proposed to transfer one of its two businesses to a new subsidiary, then distribute all the subsidiary's stock pro rata to its shareholders. It represented that the businesses needed…
PLR 200503016: Active property management keeps rents outside S corporation passive income rule
A company planning to elect S corporation status owned and managed commercial real estate. It described extensive maintenance, security, emergency, leasing, and administrative services for its…
PLR 200503015: Buyer and seller get 45 more days to file stock purchase election
A buyer acquired stock of an S corporation and intended with the seller to make a joint IRC § 338(h)(10) election treating the purchase as a deemed asset sale. Their tax filings were consistent with…
PLR 200503014: IRS rules on internal spinoff and shareholder split-off
A corporate group proposed to separate a publicly traded subsidiary through an internal spinoff to its parent, followed by an exchange of subsidiary shares for parent shares and a possible…
PLR 200503013: Voting trust does not remove subsidiary from consolidated group
A U.S. parent company placed all of its subsidiary's stock in an irrevocable voting trust to address state restrictions tied to indirect foreign government ownership. The trustees held the voting…
PLR 200503012: Pre-sale asset distribution treated separately from subsidiary stock sale
A corporate parent reorganized assets among its subsidiaries, then had one subsidiary distribute assets other than a specified asset group to the parent before selling that subsidiary's stock to an…
PLR 200503011: IRS approves revised nuclear decommissioning fund schedule
A utility owning a share of a nuclear power plant sought a revised schedule of annual payments to its nuclear decommissioning fund. The IRS found that the utility had a qualifying ownership interest…
PLR 200503010: Sale proceeds retain pre-1990 status under family property agreement
Family members bought real estate before October 8, 1990, dividing life interests and remainder interests among parents and children under an agreement made before that date. They proposed to sell…
PLR 200503009: Family property sale proceeds remain outside later valuation rules
Before October 8, 1990, parents and their children bought property through a family agreement that assigned life interests to the parents and remainder interests to the children. They proposed to…
PLR 200503008: Pre-1990 family property interests keep status after sale and trust investment
Parents and children acquired real estate before October 8, 1990, with separate life and remainder interests under a family agreement. They proposed to sell one property and hold the proceeds in…
PLR 200503007: Family land sale does not bring earlier interests under Chapter 14
A family bought real estate before October 8, 1990, with parents holding life interests and children holding remainder interests. Their agreement required proceeds from an early sale to be held in…
PLR 200503006: Sale of family property preserves pre-1990 transfer treatment
A family acquired real estate before October 8, 1990, with life interests held by the parents and remainder interests held by children. Under their existing agreement, proceeds from selling a…
PLR 200503005: IRS approves revised funding schedule for shut nuclear plant
A utility sought a revised schedule of deductible payments to a nuclear decommissioning fund after regulators increased the plant's expected decommissioning costs. The plant had already shut down,…
PLR 200503004: Interest-free charity loan counts as investment property through imputed income
A taxpayer planned to draw on a bank line of credit and lend the proceeds interest-free to a foundation he had formed. Because the proposed demand loan exceeded the charitable-loan exception, the…
PLR 200503003: Tar sand oil processing does not count as crude oil refining
An energy company asked whether hydrocarbons recovered by open pit mining and a proposed process from deposits outside the United States were tar sand oil rather than crude oil. The IRS concluded…
PLR 200503002: Court-approved trust reformation preserves GST tax exemption
An irrevocable trust established before September 25, 1985, had been administered as four shares for four grandchildren and their descendants. After distributions to three of them, the trustees…
CCA 200503001: Military power of attorney requires permission for IRS representation
A military service member gave another person a general military power of attorney covering financial matters. IRS personnel asked whether that document let the person represent him before the…
PLR 200502054: IRS waives IRA rollover deadline after account setup confusion
An IRA owner moved funds to a bank to establish a self-directed IRA and used a cashier's check to buy bank stock for that account. The check identified the funds as coming from an IRA, but the bank…
PLR 200502053: IRS grants IRA rollover waiver after bank failed to open account
An IRA owner directed a transfer to a bank to establish a self-directed IRA, and her husband asked the bank to issue checks to buy stock for that IRA. The cashier's check said the funds came from an…
PLR 200502052: IRS waives plan rollover deadline for worker in a war zone
A former employee received a distribution from an employer retirement plan in a U.S. bank account while working abroad as a consultant. He intended to roll part of it into an IRA, but could not…
PLR 200502051: Taxpayer gets more time to reverse an ineligible Roth conversion
A taxpayer converted a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA while expecting his income to fall below the then applicable $100,000 limit. He later learned that a second stock sale form, which he had not…
PLR 200502050: Estate may complete IRA rollover after trustee withholding error
An IRA owner directed a trustee to transfer funds from two IRAs into a new IRA. The trustee instead reported the movement as a taxable distribution and withheld part of the funds for income tax,…
PLR 200502049: Inherited IRA cannot receive a rollover deadline waiver
After an IRA owner died, an adviser instructed an assistant to move the IRA to a trust for the owner's adult children. The trust's executor signed distribution forms, and the investment firm sent…
PLR 200502048: Pension funding waiver granted with payment and security conditions
A health care company sought relief from its defined benefit pension plan's minimum funding requirement after rising care costs and limited payment increases strained its finances. The IRS granted a…
PLR 200502047: County pension contributions qualify as employer pick-ups
A county resolved to pay the mandatory two percent retirement plan contribution for its eligible employees. Employees could not choose cash instead of the plan contribution. The IRS ruled that the…
Determination 200502046: Housing investment group denied charitable exemption
An organization applied for charitable exemption based on a plan to support low-income rental housing through a for-profit subsidiary and investment partnerships. The IRS found that the organization…
PLR 200502045: IRS approves scholarship procedures for employees' children
An organization proposed funding scholarships for the children of a company's employees through an independent exempt organization. That organization would select recipients using academic…
Determination 200502044: Religious group denied exemption as a church
A religious organization applied for recognition of tax exemption as a church. It held Sunday services and Bible study, but the IRS found that it lacked a regular congregation, formal minister…
PLR 200502043: VEBA may terminate and direct surplus to employee benefits
A business association planned to terminate a voluntary employees' beneficiary association (VEBA) after its insurance arrangement ended. The VEBA's remaining assets came from favorable insurance…
CCA 200502042: Settlement refund claims are wrong but not frivolous
Taxpayers amended returns to exclude payments from a discrimination lawsuit settlement. Chief Counsel advised that the payments did not qualify for the physical injury exclusion under section…
TAM 200502041: Punitive portion of False Claims Act settlement is not deductible
A subsidiary settled federal False Claims Act allegations for a lump sum. The IRS had to determine how much of the payment the business could deduct. It found that an allocation spreadsheet prepared…
TAM 200502040: Employee-paid life insurance programs have different income results
An employer offered employees supplemental group universal life insurance and dependent life insurance, both paid for by employees with after-tax dollars. The IRS concluded that the supplemental…
TAM 200502039: Subsidiary dissolution does not release capitalized acquisition costs
Two acquired subsidiaries had capitalized investment banking, legal, and accounting costs related to their acquisitions. They later transferred their assets to their parent companies and dissolved…
PLR 200502038: Complete expatriation submission avoids tax-avoidance presumption
A former U.S. citizen who was born in another country renounced U.S. citizenship and asked the IRS to rule on the purpose of the expatriation. His net worth exceeded the threshold that would…
PLR 200502037: Divorcing spouses may divide charitable remainder unitrust
After a divorce, two former spouses proposed dividing a charitable remainder unitrust equally so each would receive payments from a separate trust. The IRS ruled that the division would not itself…
PLR 200502036: Fractional trust split qualifies as a GST severance
A family trust held assets from an original trust and two marital trusts, and its generation-skipping transfer tax inclusion ratio was not zero. The trustee proposed dividing it into exempt and…
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.