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 200317047: Government excess benefit arrangement qualifies, but FICA issue remains open
A state retirement system established a separate arrangement to pay pension benefits that exceed the limits in § 415. It asked whether the arrangement qualified under § 415(m), when its benefits…
PLR 200317046: Government employer may pick up mandatory pension contributions
A political subdivision planned to pay the mandatory pension contributions otherwise owed by a group of its employees. Its resolution would make the employer responsible for the payments and give…
PLR 200317045: Rehired teachers recover their after-tax pension contributions as basis
A state retirement plan let retired teachers return to work while continuing to receive their original pensions. During the new employment, they made after-tax contributions that the plan tracked…
PLR 200317044: Inherited IRA may be split, but trust beneficiaries share the eldest child's payout period
A deceased IRA owner's trust divided its interest among three children, and the IRA custodian created a separate inherited IRA for each child's subtrust. The IRS permitted the post-death division of…
PLR 200317043: Eldest trust beneficiary may use his life expectancy for inherited IRA payouts
A deceased IRA owner's trust divided its interest among three children, and separate inherited IRAs were established for their subtrusts. The IRS allowed the IRA to be divided after death. Because…
PLR 200317042: Puerto Rico plan merger does not currently tax participant balances
A company planned to merge its existing qualified retirement plan for Puerto Rico employees into a new Puerto Rico plan. The new plan would not qualify under § 401(a), but its trust was represented…
PLR 200317041: Inherited IRA division allowed, but eldest trust beneficiary sets payout period
A deceased IRA owner's trust provided separate shares for three children, and the IRA was split into an inherited IRA for each child's subtrust. The IRS allowed the post-death division but rejected…
PLR 200317040: Surviving spouse may roll estate's 403(b) proceeds into her IRA
A 403(b) plan participant named his estate as beneficiary, and his will left the remainder of the estate to his surviving spouse, who was also the executor. Ordinarily, passing retirement proceeds…
PLR 200317039: Health system retirement plan qualifies as a church plan
A health system sponsored a retirement plan for employees of its affiliated organizations and another church-affiliated health care organization. The IRS found that the sponsoring organizations were…
PLR 200317038: Two hospital retirement plans qualify as church plans
Two hospitals established retirement plans in 1982 and later joined a reorganized health system associated with a church. The IRS found that the participating nonprofit employers were associated…
PLR 200317037: Extra time to recharacterize two Roth IRA conversions
A taxpayer converted two traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs in 2000, then learned that the couple's adjusted gross income exceeded the limit for Roth conversions. The taxpayer sought to recharacterize…
TAM 200317036: Aggregating a VEBA with another welfare benefit fund
An employer maintained a nonexempt welfare benefit fund for retiree life insurance and also sponsored an exempt voluntary employees' beneficiary association (VEBA). It asked whether it could combine…
PLR 200317035: Nursing home retirement plan qualifies as a church plan
A church-affiliated nursing home established a retirement plan in 1995. The IRS found that the nursing home remained under church control through successive reorganizations and that its employees…
PLR 200317034: Government pension plans may treat service credit payments as employer contributions
A state retirement system asked whether employees could pay for prior service credit through binding payroll reductions that employers would contribute to three governmental pension plans. The IRS…
PLR 200317033: Surviving spouse may roll inherited IRA into her own IRA
A surviving spouse was the sole beneficiary of her deceased husband's property, including his IRA. She proposed to take the IRA proceeds and deposit them into an IRA in her own name within 60 days,…
PLR 200317032: Surviving spouse may roll estate IRA proceeds into her own IRA
A deceased IRA owner's account named his estate as the default beneficiary. His surviving spouse was both the estate's sole executor and the sole residuary beneficiary under his will. Ordinarily, a…
PLR 200317031: Matched savings plan satisfies § 403(b) requirements
A tax exempt employer and related organizations sponsored a matched savings plan with salary deferrals, employer matching contributions, and rollovers. The IRS reviewed its eligibility,…
PLR 200317030: Laboratory employees' pension plan qualifies as a church plan
A nonprofit hospital corporation sponsored a defined benefit plan covering employees of its laboratory subsidiary. The IRS found that the hospital corporation, its sponsoring religious organization,…
PLR 200317029: Laboratory employees' pension plan qualifies as a church plan
A nonprofit hospital corporation maintained a defined benefit plan for employees of its laboratory subsidiary. The hospital corporation, its sponsoring religious organization, and the subsidiary…
PLR 200317028: Extra time to reverse an ineligible Roth IRA conversion
A taxpayer converted a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA in 1998, then learned that mutual fund income had pushed her adjusted gross income above the conversion limit. Her 1998 return was filed late, so…
PLR 200317027: Direct 401(k) transfers to buy governmental pension service credit
A state retirement system asked about direct transfers from a governmental 401(k) plan to two qualified defined benefit plans to buy service credit. The IRS ruled that the transfers would not create…
PLR 200317026: Governmental pension plan's excess benefit arrangement
A state pension system proposed a separate arrangement to pay benefits that its qualified plan could not pay because of the limits in § 415. The IRS ruled that the arrangement met the requirements…
PLR 200317025: State pension excess benefit arrangement qualifies under § 415(m)
A state pension system proposed a separate arrangement to pay the portion of retirement benefits barred by the limits in § 415. The IRS ruled that the arrangement qualified under § 415(m) because it…
PLR 200317024: Government employer may pick up irrevocably elected plan contributions
A governmental employer proposed a defined contribution plan in which eligible employees could make a one-time, irrevocable choice to have the employer contribute part of their pay. The IRS ruled…
PLR 200317023: ESOP spin-off triggers diversification rules for transferred stock
A company planned to move employer stock from its profit sharing plan into a new employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). The IRS rejected its request to treat the stock as acquired by an ESOP before…
PLR 200317022: Church plans qualify, but annuity transfer would be taxable
A church-affiliated retirement home asked about three employee retirement plans and a proposed transfer from its tax-deferred annuity plan to a profit sharing plan. The IRS ruled that all three were…
CCA 200317021: IRS cannot replace a filed Form 1040 with its own Form 1040NR
Chief Counsel advised a service center about returns filed on Form 1040 by taxpayers with individual taxpayer identification numbers. An alien who does not meet the tax residency tests and has not…
PLR 200317020: Only operating business sale proceeds qualify for partial liquidation
A parent company sold a subsidiary's operating business and distributed sale proceeds to trusts that held its shares. The IRS treated the subsidiary's assets and activities as the parent's for the…
PLR 200317019: Corporate conversion qualifies as a recapitalization
A taxable, nonprofit parent corporation converted to a for-profit stock corporation as part of a broader restructuring and stock offering. The IRS ruled that the conversion was a recapitalization…
PLR 200317018: Extension granted for late QSub election
An S corporation bought all the shares of another corporation and intended to treat it as a qualified subchapter S subsidiary (QSub) from the purchase date. It missed the deadline to file the…
PLR 200317017: Late GST exemption allocation effective at trust termination
A taxpayer created separate annuity trusts for three children, with part of each trust's property passing to a generation-skipping transfer (GST) trust when the annuity trust ended. The taxpayer's…
CCA 200317016: Worker leasing company bears the limit on meal deductions
A worker leasing company paid workers and classified part of their compensation as per diem reimbursement for meals while traveling for lessee companies. The IRS advised that the leasing company, as…
PLR 200317015: Extra time to split a marital trust and make a reverse QTIP election
An estate made a QTIP election for a marital trust, but its attorney did not advise it to divide the trust or make a reverse QTIP election for generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax purposes. The…
PLR 200317014: Permission to undo an unintended installment sale election
A married couple sold privately held stock with payments due after the sale year. Their accountant reported the entire gain on the sale year's return without considering installment method…
PLR 200317013: Late GST exemption allocation to three family trusts
A couple transferred company stock to three trusts for their children and descendants. Their accounting firm filed gift tax returns but failed to allocate their generation-skipping transfer (GST)…
PLR 200317012: Extra time for a living trustor's GST exemption allocations
A couple transferred company stock to three trusts for their children and descendants. They filed gift tax returns, but their accounting firm failed to allocate generation-skipping transfer (GST)…
PLR 200317011: Spouses can exchange assets and contribute them to a partnership without gain
A married couple planned to exchange interests in their individually owned and jointly owned assets so each would hold an undivided interest in every asset. They then planned to contribute those…
PLR 200317010: Late S corporation election accepted with timely filing
A corporation's sole shareholder intended to elect S corporation status from the company's formation date and believed the tax adviser had filed Form 2553. The form was not filed on time. The IRS…
PLR 200317009: Utility excludes a generator's interconnection facilities from income
An electricity generator paid for facilities connecting its power plant to a public utility's grid and transferred part of the interconnection equipment to the utility. The IRS ruled that the…
PLR 200317008: Extra time to elect a family business estate tax deduction
An estate included a family farming operation held through a limited partnership. Its co-executors elected special use valuation under § 2032A but missed the separate § 2057 family business…
PLR 200317007: Late S corporation election effective from incorporation
A company's shareholders intended S corporation treatment from the company's incorporation, and the company filed an S corporation tax return for its first year. It had not filed Form 2553 on time.…
PLR 200317006: Late S election for a limited liability company treated as a corporation
A limited liability company elected to be classified as a corporation for federal tax purposes and intended S corporation status from its formation. Its accountant filed Form 2553 late, so the…
PLR 200317005: Land and restricted bond proceeds excluded as capital contributions
A local government offered a retailer land and bond proceeds to encourage a new store and warehouse in a redevelopment district. The IRS ruled that the land's value above the retailer's purchase…
PLR 200317004: Active commercial property rents are not passive investment income
A commercial real estate company planned to elect S corporation status and asked whether rents from its properties counted as passive investment income under § 1362. The company developed and…
PLR 200317003: Late capital gain election accepted after return deadline error
A trust treated as a partnership chose to make the capital asset election under § 311(e) of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. Its law firm worked on asset valuations but confused the partnership…
PLR 200317002: Active rental income from specified properties is not passive investment income
An S corporation with accumulated earnings and profits held interests in many real estate entities. It asked whether its share of rent from a specified group of properties counted as passive…
PLR 200317001: Corporation gets 60 days to file its late S election
A corporation with two shareholders intended to be an S corporation from a specified tax year but discovered its election had not been filed on time. The IRS found reasonable cause for the missed…
PLR 200316044: Hospital retirement plans qualify as church plans
A nonprofit hospital maintained three retirement plans for its employees and was connected through a chain of affiliated organizations to a church. The affiliated organizations were listed in the…
PLR 200316043: Hospital consolidation preserves supporting organization's tax status
A tax-exempt hospital supporting organization and another nonprofit hospital operator consolidated the operations of their hospitals into a single tax-exempt organization. Each party appointed seven…
PLR 200316042: Supplemental ruling on health report transfer and self-dealing
This letter supplements an earlier private ruling about a tax-exempt organization's publication of an annual report on state health statistics. It clarifies the report's publication history and says…
PLR 200316041: Government employer's picked-up pension contributions excluded from wages
A municipal employer proposed to pay its employees' required pension contributions to a governmental plan through an employer pickup arrangement. Its resolution would make the payments for all…
PLR 200316040: Settlement fund payments generally avoid class member reporting and withholding
A qualified settlement fund paid claims arising from alleged physical injuries and sickness tied to a company's products. The IRS ruled that specified medical monitoring reimbursements, product cost…
PLR 200316039: Extra time to file dual consolidated loss agreements
A corporate group missed the deadline to file agreements required for its foreign branch's dual consolidated losses for two tax periods. It sought relief before the IRS discovered the omission. The…
PLR 200316038: Stock repurchases do not alter equity issuance milestones after spin-off
A company had received earlier rulings about a corporate distribution and had stated that the distributed company intended to issue specified amounts of equity within two and three years. The…
PLR 200316037: Expatriate rebuts tax avoidance presumption without a finding on motive
A person born in another country later became a U.S. citizen, returned to the country of birth, and relinquished U.S. citizenship. The person's net worth exceeded the threshold that created a tax…
PLR 200316036: Late GST exemption allocations for life insurance trust gifts
A couple made annual gifts to an irrevocable life insurance trust for descendants but did not initially file gift tax returns or allocate their generation-skipping transfer (GST) exemptions. After…
PLR 200316035: Estate gets time to allocate GST exemption to insurance trust gifts
A decedent made annual gifts to an irrevocable life insurance trust for descendants, but gift tax returns and generation-skipping transfer (GST) exemption allocations were missed. The surviving…
PLR 200316034: Six years of late GST exemption allocations permitted
A spouse transferred stock and cash to a trust for a daughter and her descendants over six years. The couple elected to split the gifts on their gift tax returns, but the taxpayer's attorney and…
PLR 200316033: Gift donor gets six years of late GST exemption allocations
A taxpayer transferred stock and cash to a trust for a daughter and her descendants over six years. The taxpayer and spouse elected to split the gifts, but their attorney and accountant did not…
PLR 200316032: Extra time to elect qualified S subsidiary status
An S corporation formed a wholly owned subsidiary and intended to elect qualified subchapter S subsidiary (QSub) treatment from the subsidiary's incorporation date. Form 8869 was not filed on time…
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.