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 200430032: Three-day late IRA rollover receives waiver
An IRA owner redeemed an account and intended to roll over part of the proceeds. She made one deposit into another IRA while also caring for her elderly mother and trying unsuccessfully to reach an…
PLR 200430031: Replacement check made rollover timely, so no waiver was needed
A former spouse received a retirement plan account under a qualified domestic relations order and intended to roll its balance into an IRA. The plan liquidated her account and issued a check, but…
TAM 200430030: Estate's family business deduction election was invalid
An estate elected the qualified family-owned business deduction for farmland and a bank account. An IRS examination found that gifts made shortly before death increased the adjusted gross estate,…
TAM 200430029: Overlapping product groups cannot inflate foreign sales benefits
A domestic manufacturer used product groups to calculate its foreign sales corporation commission and its extraterritorial income exclusion. For marginal costing, it calculated an overall profit…
PLR 200430028: Produce marketing organization qualifies as a cooperative
A U.S. organization owned by three foreign grower companies planned to market their growers' produce through a wholly owned U.S. LLC. It would elect to be taxed as a corporation and distribute…
PLR 200430027: Late historic building certification application treated as timely
A property owner planned to claim the historic rehabilitation credit for several buildings. A consultant filed a form with the state historic preservation officer, but neither the owner nor the…
PLR 200430026: Subsidiary's stock option reimbursement is not a distribution
A parent corporation gave its subsidiary's employees options to buy the parent's stock as compensation for their work for the subsidiary. After employees exercised some options, the subsidiary…
PLR 200430025: Two subsidiary combinations qualify as tax-free reorganizations
An acquiring corporation planned to exchange its voting stock for the shares of three businesses and elect to treat them as qualified subchapter S subsidiaries. The IRS treated the stock exchanges…
PLR 200430024: Employer tuition obligation leaves scholarship rulings unchanged
A company funded a charity's scholarship program for children of its employees working abroad. The IRS had previously ruled that grants awarded under the program's stated safeguards were…
PLR 200430023: Late trust elections do not end corporation's S status
Two trusts became shareholders of an S corporation, but their trustee had failed to file elections to treat them as electing small business trusts. That failure made the trusts ineligible…
PLR 200430022: S corporation status restored after another S corporation held shares
An individual transferred some shares of an S corporation to another S corporation without realizing the recipient could not be an eligible S corporation shareholder. The recipient later agreed to…
PLR 200430021: Parent receives extra time for subsidiary stock basis election
A consolidated group's subsidiary transferred stock of another subsidiary to a partnership, causing that corporation to leave the group. The parent intended to elect a regulatory method for…
PLR 200430020: Late S corporation election accepted for initial tax year
Two shareholders intended their newly formed corporation to be an S corporation from the start of its first tax year, but its Form 2553 was not filed on time. The IRS found reasonable cause for the…
PLR 200430019: Early executive payments count toward parachute payment base amounts
A corporation planned a merger and proposed to pay certain executives severance and salary continuation amounts before the merger closed. The executives would keep those payments even if the merger…
PLR 200430018: Synthetic fuel credit survives ownership change and facility relocation
A partnership sought confirmation of earlier section 29 fuel credit rulings after interests in the partnership were sold and it proposed using different chemical reagents to make solid fuel from…
PLR 200430017: Synthetic fuel credit survives ownership change and facility relocation
A partnership sought confirmation of earlier section 29 fuel credit rulings after interests in the partnership were sold and it proposed using different chemical reagents to make solid fuel from…
PLR 200430016: Extension granted for dual consolidated loss agreements
A taxpayer missed the deadlines to file election agreements for dual consolidated losses incurred by two branches in several tax years. The taxpayer had relied on its tax managers to file the…
PLR 200430015: Extra time granted for dual consolidated loss filings
A taxpayer's tax manager was advised to attach dual consolidated loss election agreements and annual certifications to a return, but failed to add those filings to her task list. The return was…
PLR 200430014: Grandparent receives extra time to allocate GST exemption to trust share
Two grandparents contributed to one trust, creating separate trust shares for their transfers, but neither filed a gift tax return to allocate generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption in the…
PLR 200430013: Section 457 does not govern federal credit union's deferred pay plan
A federal credit union planned a nonqualified deferred compensation arrangement for an executive and asked how section 457 applied. The IRS concluded that the credit union was a federal government…
PLR 200430012: Court reformation can preserve estate deductions for charitable trust
A decedent's trust provided payments to his spouse and left its remaining assets to a charitable foundation, but its original terms did not qualify the charitable interest for an estate tax…
PLR 200430011: Estate receives extension to elect QTIP treatment for trust
An estate's attorney claimed a charitable deduction for a trust that paid income to the decedent's surviving spouse and would later benefit charities. A second attorney advised that the charitable…
PLR 200430010: Separate trustees preserve older trusts' GST exemption
A grantor created four separate irrevocable trusts for his children before the September 1985 cutoff for the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption. The successor trustee proposed asking a…
PLR 200430009: Separate trustees preserve older trusts' GST exemption
A grantor created four separate irrevocable trusts for his children before the September 1985 cutoff for the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption. The successor trustee proposed asking a…
PLR 200430008: County health benefits pool income excluded from gross income
Counties and related public entities formed a pool to provide health and employee benefits to their workers, retirees, and eligible dependents. The pool's income came from member payments and…
PLR 200430007: Late Form 8716 treated as timely for partnership tax year election
A partnership wanted to elect a tax year other than its required tax year under section 444, but its tax professional filed Form 8716 late. The IRS found that the partnership reasonably relied on…
PLR 200430006: Missing Form 3115 copy accepted for accounting method change
A consolidated group attached Form 3115 to its timely tax return to change its method of depreciating certain assets for alternative minimum tax purposes. It inadvertently failed to send the…
PLR 200430005: LLC receives relief for late corporate and S elections
A single-owner LLC intended to elect corporate tax classification and then S corporation status from its formation date, but its owner failed to file Forms 8832 and 2553. The IRS found that the…
PLR 200430004: Late dual consolidated loss agreements and certification allowed
A taxpayer relied on its accounting firm to make filings needed to use dual consolidated losses of two entities. The firm's tax professionals did not know that election agreements and an annual…
PLR 200430003: Parent receives extension for subsidiary stock loss statement
A consolidated group sold a business that included stock of a subsidiary with a loss. The parent intended to include a statement with its return to elect the regulatory exception to disallowance of…
PLR 200430002: Estate's full QTIP election covers omitted and revalued assets
An estate's timely return elected qualified terminable interest property (QTIP) treatment for all assets passing to a marital trust, listing their values by return schedule. After filing, the estate…
PLR 200430001: Parent gets time to elect subsidiary stock loss rule
A consolidated group's subsidiary sold another subsidiary's stock at a loss. The parent meant to elect the temporary regulatory rule for determining how much of that loss was allowable, but no valid…
PLR 200429017: Waiver covers late rollover of tax withholding amounts
After a former employer's retirement plan was terminated, its buyer mailed the participant's distribution check to an address where he had worked years earlier. The participant learned of the…
PLR 200429016: Foundation's sale of partnership interest is not self-dealing
A private foundation proposed to sell its interest in a real estate partnership to two buyers at fair market value. The buyers' father managed that partnership and served as an officer of a…
PLR 200429015: Waiver allows a widow to roll IRA distributions into her own IRA
A widow asked her bank to move her late husband's IRAs into her name. Bank personnel told her a rollover was unavailable, so she took cash distributions and left the money untouched in a savings…
PLR 200429014: Extension allows recharacterization of ineligible Roth IRA transactions
A taxpayer converted a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA and contributed to another Roth IRA while the couple's income exceeded the applicable limits. Their tax preparer had not warned them about those…
PLR 200429013: Uniform stock and membership unit sales avoid self-dealing
A private foundation proposed to sell shares in a corporation and related membership units in a limited liability company. Both entities were disqualified persons with respect to the foundation, so…
PLR 200429012: Waiver for IRA rollover mistakenly put in savings account
A taxpayer instructed a bank to put part of an IRA withdrawal into a new IRA. The bank instead placed it in an existing savings account, though the taxpayer believed the rollover had been completed…
PLR 200429011: Late securities trader mark-to-market election denied
A securities trading partnership asked for more time to elect the mark-to-market accounting method under § 475(f). Its accounting firm had said it would make the election but later advised that the…
PLR 200429010: Corporate group gets more time to elect consolidated filing
A foreign owned U.S. corporate group intended to elect consolidated federal income tax filing but missed the election deadline. The common parent had relied on tax professionals who failed to make…
TAM 200429009: Later signature cures defect in timely corporate refund claims
A corporation filed timely refund claims on amended returns signed by its accountant, who lacked authority to sign for the company. After the refund claim deadline passed, the corporation submitted…
CCA 200429008: IRS may seize and sell a gun shop's firearms inventory
Chief Counsel advised that the IRS has legal authority to seize and administratively sell a gun shop's firearms inventory to collect tax. The inventory is subject to levy, and limiting bids to…
CCA 200429007: Material Form 5472 errors may make a return substantially incomplete
Chief Counsel reviewed four scenarios in which a reporting corporation misstated related party transactions on timely filed Forms 5472. It advised that each form was likely “substantially…
PLR 200429006: Proposed trust division preserves GST exemption without gain
Trustees proposed to divide a trust created before the generation-skipping transfer tax cutoff into separate trusts after the first of two daughters died. The division would allocate assets pro rata…
PLR 200429005: Late taxable REIT subsidiary election treated as timely
A real estate investment trust indirectly owned a corporation through a partnership. Its law firm arranged an election for another subsidiary but did not know this corporation also existed, so no…
PLR 200429004: Trust severances preserve GST treatment and allow selective distributions
Three trusts for a grantor's grandchildren existed before the GST tax cutoff but later received property from their mother's estate. The trustee proposed to divide each trust into GST exempt and…
PLR 200429003: Late accounting period application treated as timely
A taxpayer filed Form 1128 shortly after the deadline to request a tax year ending April 30. The late filing resulted from an error or misunderstanding. The IRS granted relief under the § 301.9100…
PLR 200429002: Late election for a REIT's management subsidiary accepted
A real estate investment trust indirectly owned a corporation formed to manage an affiliated company under a loan agreement. Counsel who handled the REIT's taxable subsidiary elections had not been…
CCA 200429001: Peanut base acreage payment must be capitalized
Chief Counsel considered payments to historic peanut producers for assigning peanut base acres and payment yield to another farmer's land. Those assignments could support direct and counter-cyclical…
PLR 200428035: Extra time to undo an ineligible Roth IRA conversion
A taxpayer converted a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA even though the couple's income exceeded the $100,000 conversion limit. He thought the conversion was ineffective and did not know he needed to…
PLR 200428034: Rollover waiver covers unused IRA funds but excludes spent funds
While unemployed, an IRA owner withdrew enough money to cover an extended job search after an adviser incorrectly told him he could take only one distribution that year. He spent part on living…
PLR 200428033: IRA rollover deadline waived after investment company delayed returning funds
A retired couple moved funds from existing IRAs to new IRAs at an investment company, then rescinded the new accounts after a disagreement about the promised return. The company delayed returning…
PLR 200428032: Spouse may roll over inherited IRA funds after custodian refusal
A surviving spouse held a check distributing her late husband's IRA to a trust of which she was trustee. She tried to deposit it into her own IRA within 60 days, but the receiving custodian refused…
PLR 200428031: Rollover waiver denied for withdrawal made to avoid IRS levy
An IRA owner withdrew money after receiving an IRS notice of intent to levy the account. He said he kept the withdrawn money and asked the IRS to waive the 60-day rollover deadline after the IRS…
PLR 200428030: Excise tax waived for pension plan liquidity shortfalls
A company's pension plan had liquidity shortfalls in the first three quarters of its 2002 plan year. Its prior actuarial firm had information suggesting a problem but did not calculate or report the…
PLR 200428029: Parent receives 45 days to file late section 338 election
A corporate parent missed the deadline to elect asset sale treatment for its foreign subsidiary's purchase of a foreign target and three subsidiaries. The IRS found that the parent had reasonably…
PLR 200428028: Late S corporation election treated as effective at incorporation
A corporation's sole shareholder wanted S corporation status from the date of incorporation, but the election was not filed on time. The IRS found reasonable cause for the missed deadline under §…
TAM 200428027: Bank must include investment subsidiary's tax-exempt bonds in interest allocation
A bank placed investment assets in a wholly owned subsidiary that held tax-exempt bonds. For its interest expense calculation, the bank counted the value of its subsidiary stock among its assets but…
PLR 200428026: Late section 338 election allowed for foreign stock acquisition
A corporate parent missed the deadline to elect asset sale treatment for its foreign subsidiary's acquisition of a foreign target and three subsidiaries. It said it had relied on a qualified tax…
PLR 200428025: Sixty days allowed to file copies of four accounting method forms
A consolidated group attached four signed Forms 3115 to its timely income tax return but its accountant failed to send duplicate signed copies to the IRS national office. The forms concerned…
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.