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 200401024: Hospitalization and disability warrant IRA rollover waiver
An IRA owner withdrew cash and intended to return it within the normal 60 day rollover period. The owner was then involuntarily admitted to a clinic, spent time sedated in intensive care, and was…
PLR 200401023: Bank error leads to IRA rollover deadline waiver
An IRA owner took a check from one bank directly to another bank to open a new IRA with a better interest rate. Despite her instructions, the second bank deposited the check into a nonretirement…
PLR 200401022: Hospital retirement plan qualifies as church plan since 1995
A hospital corporation with longstanding ties to two churches sponsored a retirement plan covering mainly its own employees. Church officials held board seats, the hospitals appeared in church…
200401021: IRS revokes earlier stock option plan ruling
The IRS revoked an earlier private letter ruling about contributing stock options to a qualified retirement plan and then exercising them to buy the employer's common stock. It had announced in 1997…
PLR 200401020: IRS waives IRA rollover deadline after bank withdrawal error
A taxpayer asked a bank to withdraw money from a brokerage account to buy a home, but the bank took it from his IRA instead. He learned of the error after the normal 60 day rollover window had…
PLR 200401019: IRS changes collateral condition for pension funding waiver
A hospital had conditional waivers of its pension plan's minimum funding standard for 1999 and 2000. The IRS modified the 2000 waiver so that collateral acceptable to the Pension Benefit Guaranty…
PLR 200401018: IRS waives excise tax on pension plan liquidity shortfalls
A company's pension plan had liquidity shortfalls in four quarters of its 2002 plan year. The company learned of the shortfalls only after its actuaries discovered earlier valuation errors and had…
PLR 200401017: IRS denies pension minimum funding waiver
A company requested a waiver of its defined benefit pension plan's minimum funding standard for the plan year beginning April 1, 2000. The IRS found that the information supplied did not show its…
PLR 200401016: IRS denies hospital pension funding waiver
A hospital sought a waiver of the minimum funding standard for its defined benefit pension plan's year beginning October 1, 2000. It had significant income losses and had filed for Chapter 11…
PLR 200401015: IRS denies funding waiver for 2001 pension plan year
A company sought a waiver of the minimum funding standard for its defined benefit pension plan's year ended December 31, 2001. The IRS found that the information supplied did not show its hardship…
PLR 200401014: IRS grants nonprofit pension funding waiver
A nonprofit asked for a waiver of its pension plan's minimum funding standard for the 2002 plan year. The IRS granted the waiver under section 412(d) for the contribution otherwise needed to bring…
PLR 200401013: IRS extends time to waive consolidated loss carryback
A consolidated group intended to waive the carryback period for its consolidated net operating loss but failed to file a valid election with its return. Its tax professional had failed to make the…
PLR 200401012: IRS allows late regulated investment company elections
Twenty-five investment funds missed the deadline to file tax returns after their administrator failed to submit extension forms. Their late returns included elections to treat certain dividends paid…
PLR 200401011: Trust disclaimers preserve S corporation election
Two electing small business trusts owned shares in an S corporation. Their trustees originally could distribute trust income to an unlimited number of charitable beneficiaries, which raised a…
PLR 200401010: IRS allows late GST exemption allocations to family trusts
A husband and wife had made transfers to separate trusts for their daughter and son without allocating generation skipping transfer tax exemptions to the gifts. Their advisers had not told them the…
PLR 200401009: IRS addresses S corporation redemption and family trusts
An S corporation proposed to redeem shares proportionally from its shareholders, including two family trusts, so they could invest the cash in two new businesses. The IRS ruled that the redemption…
PLR 200401008: IRS extends deadline for consolidated return election
A parent company and its wholly owned subsidiary intended to file a consolidated federal income tax return but missed the deadline to make a valid election. They relied on a qualified tax…
PLR 200401007: IRS permits late entity classification and S elections
A limited liability company intended to be taxed as an S corporation and timely filed an S corporation return, but it had failed to file both its entity classification election and S election. The…
PLR 200401006: IRS allows late disregarded entity election
A foreign corporation with one owner intended to elect treatment as a disregarded entity for US federal tax purposes, but it missed the Form 8832 filing deadline. The IRS concluded that the…
PLR 200401005: IRS extends time for foreign entity classification election
A foreign corporation owned through a chain of US partnerships intended to be treated as a disregarded entity for federal tax purposes. It inadvertently missed the deadline to file Form 8832 for…
PLR 200401004: IRS permits late foreign entity classification filing
A foreign corporation owned through US partnerships intended to elect disregarded entity treatment for federal tax purposes but inadvertently missed the Form 8832 filing deadline. The IRS found that…
PLR 200401003: IRS grants 60 days for late foreign entity election
A foreign corporation owned through a series of US partnerships planned to elect disregarded entity treatment for federal tax purposes. It inadvertently did not file Form 8832 on time. The IRS…
PLR 200401002: IRS allows late election for foreign subsidiary
A foreign corporation owned by another foreign corporation intended to elect disregarded entity treatment for US federal tax purposes. Its owners had not filed Form 8832 on time. The IRS concluded…
PLR 200401001: IRS treats late Form 1128 as timely filed
A taxpayer filed Form 1128 late to request a change from a December 31 tax year end to a September 30 tax year end. The IRS found that the taxpayer had acted reasonably and in good faith and that…
PLR 200352022: IRS extends Roth IRA recharacterization deadline
A taxpayer converted a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA and later asked to reverse that conversion. He submitted a completed recharacterization request to the broker on the filing deadline, but an…
PLR 200352021: Foundation may pay a related bank for necessary services
A private foundation asked whether it could pay a bank controlled by people connected to the foundation for investment, accounting, legal, and related services. The bank and a company providing some…
PLR 200352020: IRS allows late reversal of an ineligible Roth IRA conversion
A taxpayer converted a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA in 1999, although the couple's income exceeded the limit for that conversion. They said they did not know about the limit until 2002 and…
PLR 200352019: Trust units tied to an endowment do not create unrelated business income
An educational charity served as trustee and beneficiary of charitable trusts. It proposed to let certain trusts buy contractual units whose value and payouts tracked its endowment, without giving…
PLR 200352018: Endowment-linked units do not give trusts unrelated business income
An educational charity proposed to issue contractual units to trusts for which it was both trustee and beneficiary. The units would track the value and payout of the charity's endowment, but the…
PLR 200352017: Charity's endowment unit program avoids unrelated business income
An educational charity asked whether it would earn unrelated business taxable income by issuing contractual units to charitable trusts for which it served as trustee and beneficiary. The units would…
PLR 200352016: Retirement plan balances can move to Puerto Rico plan without immediate tax
A company asked about moving Puerto Rico employees' account balances from a U.S. qualified retirement plan to a plan maintained for employees in Puerto Rico. The IRS ruled that the receiving trust…
PLR 200352015: REIT may measure redemption's earnings and profits charge at payment date
A real estate investment trust planned to liquidate after selling most of its assets, but restrictions prevented a timely sale of the remaining assets. Its former shareholders had already exchanged…
PLR 200352014: Improper trust signatures do not prevent S corporation relief
A corporation's four shareholders were trusts whose income beneficiaries needed to sign the S corporation and qualified subchapter S trust elections. The original trustee signed instead, making the…
PLR 200352013: Late S corporation election receives relief for reasonable cause
A corporation and its two shareholders intended S corporation status from the date the corporation was formed, but its Form 2553 was filed late. The corporation asked the IRS to treat its election…
PLR 200352012: Buyer and seller receive more time for joint stock purchase election
The parents of a buyer and seller intended to make a joint section 338(h)(10) election for the buyer's acquisition of a subsidiary's stock, but a valid election was not filed on time. The IRS found…
PLR 200352011: Estate trust may be severed for generation-skipping tax purposes
Trustees asked to divide a deceased wife's marital trust into separate portions for charities and family beneficiaries, then divide a family portion again for generation-skipping transfer tax…
PLR 200352010: Late trust elections receive relief after S status terminates
Two trusts acquired shares in an S corporation, but their income beneficiaries did not make qualified subchapter S trust elections when the shares were transferred. The IRS concluded that the…
PLR 200352009: IRS declines to rule because automatic depreciation election relief applies
Two subsidiaries asked for extra time to elect out of the mid-quarter depreciation convention for property placed in service in the taxable year that included September 11, 2001. The IRS said their…
PLR 200352008: Estate gets more time to elect family-owned business deduction
An estate's executor asked for more time to elect the section 2057 deduction for qualified family-owned business interests. The accountant and attorney consulted about the estate tax return had not…
PLR 200352007: Late GST exemption allocations may use original gift values
A spouse gave company stock to three trusts for the couple's children, and the taxpayer elected to treat half of each gift as hers. Her tax professionals failed to allocate her generation-skipping…
PLR 200352006: Stock donor may allocate GST exemption to earlier trust gifts
A taxpayer gave company stock to three trusts for his children, and his spouse elected to treat half of each gift as hers. The tax professionals preparing his gift tax returns failed to allocate his…
PLR 200352005: QDOT transfer extension denied without timely assignment
A noncitizen surviving spouse established a qualified domestic trust to seek an estate tax marital deduction for life insurance proceeds and jointly owned assets. Only half of the joint assets were…
PLR 200352004: Dividing older family trust avoids gift and GST tax
Trustees proposed dividing a family trust into four equal trusts, each centered on one great-grandchild and that person's family. The trusts being divided traced back to irrevocable trusts created…
TAM 200352003: Estate retains family business deduction after filing missing agreement
An estate claimed the section 2057 deduction for a family-owned partnership interest but omitted the required signed agreement from its estate tax return. The examiner denied the deduction because…
PLR 200352002: Business split-off qualifies as a tax-free reorganization
The shareholders of an S corporation disagreed about how to run its two businesses. The company proposed moving one business into a new corporation and giving that corporation's stock to one…
PLR 200352001: Private annuity obligation is excluded from debt instrument rules
An individual proposed transferring a partnership interest to a trust for the individual's grandchildren in exchange for annual payments lasting for the individual's life. The payments would come…
PLR 200351033: Community lender may join loan venture without losing tax exemption
A tax-exempt community development organization proposed joining a lending venture with for-profit investors to make larger loans to small businesses that had difficulty obtaining conventional…
PLR 200351032: Partnership allocation shifts are tested under the fractions rule when they occur
A tax-exempt educational organization planned to invest in a partnership that would use borrowed funds to buy or improve real estate. The partnership might later admit more investors or change…
PLR 200351031: Foundation transfer qualifies and later termination carries no tax
A private foundation proposed transferring all its assets to a related supporting organization, then notifying the IRS that it would voluntarily end its private foundation status. The IRS ruled that…
PLR 200351030: Pension plan receives conditional funding waiver
The IRS granted a conditional waiver of the minimum funding standard for a company's pension plan for the year ending January 31, 2002. The company had reported losses in four of five fiscal years,…
PLR 200351029: Pension plan funding waiver requires later contributions
The IRS granted a conditional waiver of the minimum funding standard for a company's pension plan for the year beginning January 1, 2002. The company reported negative income and working capital for…
PLR 200351028: Pension plan receives funding and 100 percent tax waivers
The IRS granted a conditional minimum funding waiver for a company's pension plan for 2002 and addressed the 100 percent tax on earlier funding deficiencies. A late contribution covered the…
PLR 200351027: Investment fund receives relief for late dividend election
A regulated investment company intended to request more time to file its tax return, but its administrator failed to mail the prepared extension form. The fund later filed the return with a section…
PLR 200351026: Closed-end fund receives relief for late dividend election
A closed-end investment fund intended to request more time to file its tax return, but its administrator failed to mail the prepared extension form. The fund later filed its return with a section…
PLR 200351025: REIT and subsidiary receive relief for late joint election
A real estate investment trust formed a corporation for a foreign property venture and intended to elect taxable REIT subsidiary treatment for it. The REIT's advisers and accountant each expected…
PLR 200351024: Housing credit applicants choosing loans have no state credit income
A state housing agency asked about applicants for federal low-income housing credits who stated that they would take a state loan instead of a refundable state credit. The agency represented that it…
PLR 200351023: LLC receives time to file corporate and S corporation elections
The members of a newly formed limited liability company intended to elect corporate tax treatment and then S corporation status, both effective from formation, but the company missed both filing…
PLR 200351022: Partnership's late tax year change application is treated as timely
A partnership filed Form 1128 late to change its 52 to 53 week tax year from one ending near December 31 to one ending near September 30. It attributed the delay to an error or misunderstanding and…
PLR 200351021: Partnership's late tax year change application is treated as timely
A partnership filed Form 1128 late to change its 52 to 53 week tax year from one ending near December 31 to one ending near September 30. It attributed the delay to an error or misunderstanding and…
PLR 200351020: Partnership's late tax year change application is treated as timely
A partnership filed Form 1128 late to change its 52 to 53 week tax year from one ending near December 31 to one ending near September 30. It attributed the delay to an error or misunderstanding 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.