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 200339006: Contract accounting technician is a federal agency employee for tax purposes
A federal agency hired an accounting technician under a personal services contract and asked for the worker's employment tax status. The agency trained, supervised, equipped, and evaluated the…
PLR 200339005: Historic rehabilitation certification application treated as timely
A property owner renovated a building for retail and residential use and intended to claim the historic rehabilitation credit. The owner did not know that an application for historic status had to…
PLR 200339004: Shareholder split-off qualifies as a type D reorganization
Two shareholder groups disagreed over the operation of a holding company that had elected S corporation status and treated several subsidiaries as qualified subchapter S subsidiaries. The company…
TAM 200339003: Non-dividend-paying stock qualifies in marital trust
A decedent's marital trust held both income-producing assets and closely held stock that had never paid dividends. The question was whether the stock kept that part of the trust from qualifying for…
PLR 200339002: Homeowners' land-purchase assessments are capital contributions
A nonprofit membership corporation operated a mobile-home community whose residents owned their homes but had rented the underlying land. After the corporation bought the land with a mortgage,…
PLR 200339001: Tax treatment of domestic partner health coverage
An employer asked how to tax medical and dental coverage for employees' same-gender domestic partners. Under the law applied in this 2003 letter, the IRS said a partner who met the then-applicable…
PLR 200338023: Transfers among employee benefit trusts preserve tax exemption
A company that had merged with another business wanted to reorganize several employee benefit trusts. It proposed moving assets and liabilities among voluntary employees' beneficiary associations,…
PLR 200338022: Government pension contributions treated as employer contributions
A state sponsored a defined contribution retirement plan for employees of eligible public employers. It asked whether mandatory employee contributions paid by those employers would count as employer…
PLR 200338021: Medical center retirement plan qualifies as a church plan
A medical center affiliated with a church asked whether its retirement plan had qualified as a church plan since it began. Most eligible employees worked for the center or affiliated exempt…
PLR 200338020: Social-services retirement plan qualifies as a church plan
A nonprofit social-services agency asked whether its retirement plan had been a church plan since the plan's redacted effective date. The agency was listed in the church's official directory, and a…
PLR 200338019: Retirement home plan qualifies as a church plan
A nonprofit retirement home asked whether its employee pension plan was a church plan. The home served retired ministers and missionaries, appeared in church directories, and had trustees chosen…
PLR 200338018: City utility may treat supplemental pension contributions as employer payments
A city utility proposed letting a group of employees irrevocably elect supplemental pension contributions of one or two percent of pay. Its plan amendment and employer resolution would require the…
PLR 200338017: Nonprofit health system receives a minimum funding waiver for its pension plan
A nonprofit health system requested relief from the minimum funding requirement for its money purchase pension plan for the year ended December 31, 2001. The IRS granted a waiver under section…
PLR 200338016: Pension plan funding waiver denied because hardship was not shown to be temporary
A company sought a waiver of the minimum funding standard for its defined benefit pension plan for the year ended December 31, 2001. It reported losses, negative net worth across several years, and…
PLR 200338015: Moving a foreign trust to the United States does not trigger the specified taxes
A grantor created a foreign trust for grandchildren while living outside the United States, then became a U.S. resident and was treated as its owner for income tax purposes. The trustees planned to…
CCA 200338014: Mississippi transportation agency qualifies for tax information sharing
Chief Counsel considered whether the Mississippi Department of Transportation could receive federal tax returns and return information under section 6103(d). State law assigned the department duties…
CCA 200338013: Who may sign a reporting agent form for a sole proprietor or LLC
An IRS service center asked whose signature it may accept on Form 8655, which authorizes a reporting agent to handle employment tax filings and payments. Chief Counsel advised that an LLC taxed as a…
CCA 200338012: Disregarded LLC is not another person liable for its owner's payroll taxes
Chief Counsel considered whether a single member LLC that paid its workers' wages could be liable as an “other person” under section 3505(a) for unpaid employment tax withholding. The LLC was…
TAM 200338011: Trading limits do not defer alternative minimum tax on option shares
An executive exercised incentive stock options and argued that restrictions on selling the acquired shares should reduce or defer income for alternative minimum tax purposes. The restrictions…
TAM 200338010: Temporary stock trading limits do not reduce option income for alternative minimum tax
An executive exercised incentive stock options and included the resulting stock value in alternative minimum taxable income. After the company's bankruptcy, the taxpayers filed an amended return…
CCA 200338009: Equipment sale and leaseback may lack economic substance
Chief Counsel reviewed an equipment sale and leaseback in which a U.S. company claimed depreciation and interest deductions. The advice said circular payments and limited economic risk suggested…
PLR 200338008: Farmland rental income is not passive investment income for an S corporation
An S corporation with accumulated earnings and profits asked whether rent from managed property counted as passive investment income under section 1362. Through a shareholder, it performed services…
PLR 200338007: Late trust elections receive relief from S corporation termination
Shares of an S corporation were transferred to two trusts, but their beneficiaries did not file timely qualified subchapter S trust elections. The IRS concluded that the transfers terminated the…
PLR 200338006: Court correction of unitrust payment terms avoids adverse tax effects
A trust intended to pay its beneficiaries a fixed percentage of asset value, but its document used a different charitable remainder unitrust payment formula. A court ordered a correction effective…
PLR 200338005: Late generation-skipping exemption allocations allowed after trust division
A settlor funded a life insurance trust for children and grandchildren but did not file gift tax returns allocating generation-skipping transfer tax exemption. A court later divided the trust into…
PLR 200338004: School construction bonds will not be hedge bonds
A city school district planned to issue bonds for a long public school construction program funded jointly with its state. It expected to assign more than 85 percent of the spendable bond proceeds…
PLR 200338003: Late S corporation election allowed after initial S return
The founders of a corporation intended S corporation status from its formation and filed an S corporation income tax return for its first year. They did not timely file Form 2553, the election form.…
PLR 200338002: Late GST exemption allocations allowed after accountant's omission
Two taxpayers transferred partnership interests to a trust for descendants. Their accounting firm filed gift tax returns but omitted the requested generation-skipping transfer tax exemption…
PLR 200338001: Proposed exchange intermediary is not disqualified by its manager's connections
Married taxpayers planned a deferred like kind exchange of investment land using a proposed intermediary company. Their son helped manage the intermediary through a law firm that had recently…
PLR 200337017: Restoring wrongly withheld pension funds does not count as new contributions
A hospital's pension plan lost part of its assets when an annuity company imposed a surrender fee that a court later found improper. The hospital planned to restore the withheld amount and related…
PLR 200337016: Optional pension contributions qualify as employer pick-up payments
A local government and a pension board proposed paying four percent optional contributions for employees who irrevocably elected additional retirement benefits. The IRS ruled that payroll deductions…
PLR 200337015: IRS revokes earlier pension vesting ruling after proposed plan merger
An employer planned to merge a newer cash balance plan with an older frozen pension plan. The IRS revoked an earlier letter saying that employees who had only joined the newer plan would not need…
PLR 200337014: Return of mistaken IRA rollover amount is excluded from income
A retiree rolled a lump sum pension distribution into an IRA after receiving information about the amount eligible for rollover. The IRS concluded that the retiree reasonably relied on erroneous…
PLR 200337013: Employer's annuity plan contributions qualify for section 403(b) treatment
A tax-exempt employer asked whether contributions to its employee retirement plan would be treated as contributions for annuity contracts under section 403(b). The plan uses a group annuity contract…
TAM 200337012: Value-limited partnership gift clause is ineffective
A taxpayer assigned a fractional partnership interest to a trust, describing the gift as the fraction worth a stated dollar amount. The trust received a specified percentage interest, and the…
PLR 200337011: Revised worker agreement preserves employment tax relief
A firm had treated its workers as independent contractors and previously received a no-change result in an employment tax audit. A federal agency asked the firm to revise its worker agreement to…
PLR 200337010: Governmental deferred compensation plan qualifies under section 457
An eligible governmental employer asked whether its employee deferred compensation plan qualified under section 457. Employees could defer pay, subject to annual and catch-up limits, and the plan…
PLR 200337009: Late partnership classification election gets a filing extension
A foreign entity converted into a form eligible to elect partnership treatment for federal tax purposes, but its Form 8832 was not filed on time. The IRS found that the requirements for…
PLR 200337008: Late trust elections receive inadvertent S corporation termination relief
Two trusts received shares of an S corporation, but their beneficiaries did not file qualified subchapter S trust (QSST) elections on time. The IRS concluded that the transfers ended the…
TAM 200337007: Pull-tab sales do not qualify for the in-person game exclusion
A tax-exempt organization sold pull-tab tickets during its charitable gaming sessions and asked whether those sales qualified for an exclusion from the federal wagering tax. Winners were identified…
PLR 200337006: Public utility support corporation's income is excluded under section 115
An authority serving municipal electric utilities proposed creating a nonprofit corporation to buy power and provide utility-related services and purchasing pools. The corporation would serve…
PLR 200337005: Late QSub election receives a 60-day filing extension
An S corporation transferred its assets to a wholly owned subsidiary during a restructuring. It intended to elect qualified subchapter S subsidiary (QSub) treatment effective on the transfer date,…
PLR 200337004: Education plan qualifies under section 127, fringe benefit ruling declined
A company asked whether its employee education reimbursements were excluded from employees' income and deductible by the company. The IRS ruled that the plan qualified under section 127, so payments…
PLR 200337003: Real estate company stock qualifies as ESOP sale replacement property
Taxpayers proposed selling company stock to its employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) and reinvesting the proceeds in stock of a new real estate business. They asked whether the new company's stock…
PLR 200337002: Parent receives extension for a late section 338 election
A corporate parent acquired stock of a foreign target and intended to make a section 338(g) election, but the election was not filed on time. The IRS found that the parent reasonably relied on a…
PLR 200337001: Corporate business split qualifies as a tax-free reorganization
A corporation proposed transferring part of its business to a new subsidiary and distributing the subsidiary's stock to several shareholders in exchange for their original corporation stock. The…
PLR 200336037: Pension plan receives a conditional minimum funding waiver
A company requested a waiver of its defined benefit pension plan's minimum funding standard after debt, operating losses, and financial restructuring strained its finances. The IRS granted a…
PLR 200336036: Return of excess pension contributions preserves plan qualification
An employer asked for a determination that certain defined benefit pension plan contributions could be treated as nondeductible so they could be returned to the employer. The IRS determined that the…
PLR 200336035: Picked-up police pension contributions are excluded from wages
A municipality resolved to pick up mandatory contributions that its police officers otherwise owed to a governmental pension plan. The officers could not choose to receive those amounts in cash, and…
PLR 200336034: Puerto Rico plan trust may invest in an exempt group trust
A company maintained a Puerto Rico profit-sharing plan whose participants lived or worked primarily in Puerto Rico. It wanted the plan's trust to invest in a group trust holding assets of two other…
CCA 200336033: Permanent disability plan payments do not qualify for section 105(c) exclusion
Chief Counsel analyzed payments under an employer's injury and disability plan for a taxpayer who suffered a coronary artery spasm and was declared permanently disabled. The advice recommends…
PLR 200336032: Insolvent partnership may treat seller debt forgiveness as a price adjustment
A partnership bought several businesses using cash borrowed from a third party and a note owed to the seller. After the partnership fell behind on payments and became insolvent, the seller planned…
PLR 200336031: Late S corporation election may be treated as timely
A corporation's shareholder intended to elect S corporation status, but Form 2553 was not filed on time. The IRS found reasonable cause for the late election under section 1362(b)(5). It ruled that…
PLR 200336030: Tribal housing aid is excluded from income, debt reporting question remains
A federally recognized tribe provided need-based housing assistance to members through grants and mortgage loans that were partly forgiven over time. The IRS ruled that both the payments and debt…
CCA 200336029: Tax shelter registration records are the registrant's return information
Chief Counsel advised IRS staff on who may receive information about a tax shelter's registration. It concluded that the application, registration status, IRS registration letter, and registration…
PLR 200336028: Late accounting year application is treated as timely filed
A taxpayer filed Form 1128 shortly after the deadline to seek a March 31 accounting year, citing an error or misunderstanding. The IRS found that the taxpayer acted reasonably and in good faith and…
PLR 200336027: Late dual consolidated loss elections receive filing relief
A taxpayer discovered that elections and agreements for dual consolidated losses of several foreign branches had not been filed for years listed in an attached schedule. Affidavits described…
PLR 200336026: Late Form 1128 is accepted for filing consideration
A taxpayer filed Form 1128 shortly after the deadline for requesting a March 31 accounting year, citing an error or misunderstanding. The IRS found reasonable and good faith conduct and no prejudice…
PLR 200336025: Extra time to submit dual consolidated loss documentation
A taxpayer sold a foreign branch and omitted documentation from its U.S. return intended to rebut a presumed dual consolidated loss triggering event. The taxpayer said the omission resulted from an…
PLR 200336024: Former citizen's expatriation lacked a principal tax avoidance purpose
A person born in another country later became a U.S. citizen, returned to the country of birth, and relinquished U.S. citizenship. His net worth exceeded the statutory threshold that could trigger a…
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.