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 200306020: Taxpayer receives extra time to allocate GST exemption to two trusts
A taxpayer and spouse planned to allocate their generation-skipping transfer (GST) exemptions to gifts for separate trusts benefiting their sons and descendants. Tax preparers omitted allocations…
PLR 200306019: Corporation receives relief for a late S election
A newly incorporated company intended S corporation treatment from a redacted effective date but missed the election deadline. The IRS found reasonable cause under § 1362(b)(5) and ruled that the…
PLR 200306018: Late GST exemption allocation allowed for family trust
A taxpayer and spouse funded an irrevocable trust for their daughter and her descendants and intended to allocate their generation-skipping transfer (GST) exemptions to the gifts. Their estate…
PLR 200306017: Estate may allocate decedent's GST exemption to family trust
A couple transferred stock to an irrevocable trust for their daughter and her descendants and intended to allocate their generation-skipping transfer (GST) exemptions to it. Their estate planning…
PLR 200306016: Taxpayer may make late GST allocations for two trusts
A taxpayer and spouse made gifts to trusts for their sons and descendants and intended to allocate their generation-skipping transfer (GST) exemptions. Their tax preparers failed to make the…
PLR 200306015: Spouses receive more time to allocate GST exemptions to trust
A grantor funded an irrevocable trust for three children and their descendants. The grantor and spouse split the gift on their gift tax returns and intended to allocate their generation-skipping…
PLR 200306014: Shareholder dispute split-up qualifies as a reorganization
A corporation with three shareholder factions proposed to place parts of its operating business in two new corporations, redeem one shareholder's stock for cash and notes, and distribute the new…
PLR 200306013: Parent receives extra time for QSub election
A corporation acquired all shares of a subsidiary on its incorporation date and timely elected S corporation status effective that same date. It intended to elect qualified subchapter S subsidiary…
PLR 200306012: Post-merger business restructuring leaves earlier ruling intact
After a distribution and merger addressed in an earlier private letter ruling, the surviving company proposed to place manufacturing and distribution operations in a wholly owned limited liability…
PLR 200306011: Anticipated expatriation loses tax avoidance presumption
A U.S. citizen living in his country of birth intended to renounce U.S. citizenship within 12 months. His net worth was expected to exceed the statutory threshold that ordinarily creates a…
PLR 200306010: Partition of two trusts preserves GST exemption and tax basis
The descendants of one beneficiary asked to divide each of two older irrevocable trusts so their shares could be held separately from other family branches. Each new trust would receive a…
PLR 200306009: Reformed trust qualifies for charitable estate tax deductions
A decedent's trust provided a fixed annual payment to a son for life, with the remainder passing to a university. A state court reformed it to pay a total annuity equal to 5 percent of the trust's…
PLR 200306008: Reformed trust qualifies for charitable remainder annuity trust treatment
A decedent's trust provided an annual payment to a son for life, with the remaining trust property passing to a university for a scholarship fund. A state court changed the trust so its annual…
PLR 200306007: Company granted more time to elect corporate tax classification
A business entity intended to be treated as an association taxable as a corporation but did not timely file Form 8832 because of inadvertence. The IRS determined that the requirements for relief…
PLR 200306006: Foreign entity granted more time to elect disregarded status
A foreign entity intended to be treated as disregarded from its owner for federal tax purposes but did not timely file Form 8832. The IRS found that the requirements for relief under the extension…
PLR 200306005: Company granted relief for late S corporation election
A company intended to be taxed as an S corporation but discovered that it had not timely filed its election. The IRS found that the company had reasonable cause for the failure and was eligible for…
PLR 200306004: Emergency recovery bonds are not outstanding longer than necessary
A public authority issued bonds to finance recovery costs and refund earlier notes after a sudden event caused severe economic harm to a city. Some proceeds paid cleanup costs, while other proceeds…
PLR 200306003: Refunding bonds may extend a housing project's qualified project period
A housing authority planned to refund bonds that had financed a multifamily residential project and extend the debt's maturity. The project had met the required low or moderate income occupancy…
TAM 200306002: Will contest settlement did not qualify for charitable deduction
An estate paid part of a settlement from a will contest to a charity that had been named in an older will. The decedent's six later wills and one codicil did not name the charity, and the IRS…
PLR 200306001: Utility issuer's bonds qualify for governmental use treatment
A nonprofit utility organization formed by political subdivision members planned to issue bonds to refund taxable bonds and finance improvements to an integrated cogeneration plant. The IRS treated…
PLR 200305033: Scholarship grant procedures approved
An organization proposed funding scholarships for children of a company's employees through a tax-exempt organization that would administer the program. The administrator would select recipients…
PLR 200305032: Hospital and clinic integration preserves tax exemption
A tax-exempt hospital planned to combine operations with a for-profit medical clinic. The clinic would transfer assets to the hospital, and the clinic's physicians would provide services under a…
PLR 200305031: Health system retirement plan qualifies as a church plan
A nonprofit health system asked whether its employee retirement plan qualified as a church plan under section 414(e). The system operated hospitals and clinics through organizations connected to two…
PLR 200305030: Surviving spouse may roll an inherited plan payment into an IRA
A surviving spouse was both executor and sole beneficiary of a deceased participant's estate. The spouse received the participant's entire benefit from a qualified retirement plan and deposited the…
PLR 200305029: IRS grants conditional pension funding waivers
Two defined benefit pension plans did not meet their minimum funding standards for plan years ending in 2000. Their sponsor was in bankruptcy, and another company that had recently emerged from…
CCA 200305028: Tax treatment of interest and theft losses in a Ponzi scheme
Chief Counsel considered investors who had received payments labeled as interest on notes connected to a Ponzi scheme. The advice said those payments generally were taxable interest when received.…
PLR 200305027: Foreign corporation receives more time for real property interest filings
A foreign corporation transferred interests in two domestic corporations to another foreign corporation. It failed to obtain statements that the transferred interests were not U.S. real property…
PLR 200305026: Limited partnership's subchapter K exclusion election was invalid
A limited partnership asked for permission to revoke an election that it had filed to stay outside the usual federal partnership tax rules. The election relied on the rule for investors who own…
PLR 200305025: Investment partnership's subchapter K exclusion election was invalid
A limited partnership asked the IRS for permission to revoke an election it had filed to exclude itself from the federal partnership tax rules. The election relied on a rule for an investing group…
PLR 200305024: Trust modification preserves generation skipping tax exemption
Trustees of a trust that became irrevocable before September 25, 1985, wanted to change how its current beneficiaries received payments. The change would give them the greater of the trust's net…
PLR 200305023: Court reformation supports estate tax charitable deduction
An estate sought rulings after a court changed a trust intended to provide payments to two people and leave the remainder to charities. The original terms used provisions unsuitable for a trust…
PLR 200305022: Extra time to allocate generation skipping tax exemption
A person transferred stock to a trust for a child and the child's descendants and intended to use all of her available generation skipping transfer tax exemption. Her accountant reported the trust…
PLR 200305021: S corporation status continues after missed trust election
An S corporation's shares passed to a trust after a shareholder died. The trust beneficiary did not file the qualified subchapter S trust election, and the trust also failed to distribute all income…
PLR 200305020: Missed trust election treated as inadvertent S termination
An S corporation shareholder died, and shares passed under the will to a trust. The trust's income beneficiary intended to elect qualified subchapter S trust status but missed the filing. The IRS…
CCA 200305019: Acquisition related loss follows consolidated loss apportionment
A consolidated corporate group had a net operating loss in the year a subsidiary bought another company using debt. Part of the group's loss was subject to a rule restricting carrybacks of losses…
PLR 200305018: Tax treatment of payments under a variable annuity rider
A life insurer proposed a rider to a variable annuity contract that would pay income over one or two annuitants' lifetimes. During an initial phase, the owner could access the contract's surrender…
PLR 200305017: Subsidiary liquidation does not trigger a gain recognition agreement
A corporate group had entered a gain recognition agreement after an earlier transfer involving a foreign partnership and a domestic subsidiary. It proposed to merge that subsidiary into a limited…
CCA 200305016: U.S. shareholder must include foreign corporation's municipal bond interest
A U.S. shareholder owned a controlled foreign corporation that earned interest on U.S. municipal bonds in 1998 through 2000. The shareholder had included the interest in taxable subpart F income,…
PLR 200305015: Substitute construction costs may enter housing credit basis
A partnership developing a low income apartment building included substitute costs in the building's eligible basis for the low income housing credit. The state agency asked for a favorable IRS…
PLR 200305014: Taxpayers may undo mistaken election out of installment reporting
Taxpayers sold property for payments spread over more than one year, but their accountant reported all of the gain on the return for the sale year. That filing counted as an election to leave the…
PLR 200305013: Disability benefits taxed according to premium treatment
An employer planned to change its long term disability plan so employees would have different ways of paying for coverage. For one group, the employer would pay premiums but include them in each…
PLR 200305012: Late S corporation election granted from incorporation
A corporation's shareholders intended it to be an S corporation from the date it was formed, but the election was filed late. The IRS found reasonable cause for the missed deadline under section…
PLR 200305011: Late S election may take effect on incorporation date
The shareholders of a newly incorporated company wanted S corporation treatment from its formation date but missed the election deadline. The IRS found reasonable cause for the late filing under…
CCA 200305010: Statutory safeguards cover software supplied to the IRS
During an examination, a company was willing to give the IRS software used to calculate parts of its international tax obligations but asked the IRS to sign a confidentiality agreement. Chief…
PLR 200305009: Family business separation qualifies for tax free reorganization
Owners of a corporation disagreed about which business lines to pursue. The corporation formed two controlled companies, transferred assets to them, and planned to distribute their shares to…
TAM 200305008: Exporter cannot selectively combine product groups for commission pricing
A corporation used a foreign sales corporation to earn commissions on export sales. It wanted to recalculate those commissions by grouping products using selected parts of Standard Industrial…
CCA 200305007: Accountants' purported royalties are wages for services
An accountant worked for an accounting corporation and arranged for payments labeled as royalties for the use of client lists to flow through a related partnership. Chief Counsel examined what…
TAM 200305006: Mandatory annuity contributions count as FICA wages
A tax-exempt organization affiliated with a university required employees in two retirement plans to contribute part of their salary toward section 403(b) annuity contracts. The organization argued…
PLR 200305005: State university hospital entity is a political subdivision
A state created an entity to manage a medical university hospital and related facilities. Its board was tied to the state university, its funds were limited to public purposes, and it had authority…
CCA 200305004: Edited consent still waived restrictions on assessment
A taxpayer signed an examination form consenting to immediate assessment and collection but crossed out a separate sentence about giving up IRS appeals and a Tax Court challenge. Chief Counsel…
200305003: IRS notice says determination was pulled as a duplicate
The official one-page release identifies number 200305003 and states “PULLED (Duplicate).” It contains no determination, legal analysis, or issue date. The notice does not identify the other copy.…
TAM 200305002: Farm trust distributions are separate from fees for services
A testamentary trust operated a farm, and its two beneficiaries also served as trustees and received fees for managing the farm and keeping its records. The IRS advised that income distributed to…
TAM 200305001: Farm trust distributions alone are not self-employment earnings
After a farmer died, his surviving spouse became trustee and beneficiary of two irrevocable trusts holding interests in farm property. The IRS advised that distributions of farm income from those…
PLR 200304042: Hospital physician lab venture preserves tax exemption
A hospital and its supporting organization planned a joint venture with physicians to operate an outpatient cardiac catheterization lab. The supporting organization would hold at least 52 percent of…
PLR 200304041: Outpatient cardiac lab venture preserves hospital tax status
A hospital and its supporting organization planned an outpatient cardiac catheterization lab with physicians as minority owners. The supporting organization would hold at least 52 percent of the…
PLR 200304040: Government pension pickup defers employees' income
A state agency planned to pay mandatory employee contributions to a state pension plan while reducing the employees' salaries by the same amounts. Employees could not choose cash instead of the plan…
PLR 200304039: Pension contribution pickup excludes current wages
A political subdivision planned to reduce employees' salaries and pay mandatory pension contributions directly to a qualified plan. The employees could not choose cash instead of having the…
PLR 200304038: Surviving spouse may roll over inherited IRA proceeds
An individual died before taking distributions from an IRA and named her estate as beneficiary. Her surviving spouse was the estate's personal representative and sole beneficiary, except for a…
PLR 200304037: Spouse may roll IRA proceeds through survivor's trust
A deceased spouse named a revocable trust as beneficiary of her IRA. The surviving spouse controlled the trust, could allocate the proceeds to a survivor's subtrust, and could withdraw all of that…
PLR 200304036: Student housing through charity-owned LLCs retains exemption
A public charity that provided low-income housing proposed to develop and operate student housing with colleges and local communities. It would own each facility through a wholly owned,…
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.