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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TAM 200234069: Changing when pension contributions are deducted changes the accounting method
A taxpayer deducted contributions to collectively bargained pension plans in the prior tax year whenever it paid them before the return deadline, even when the employees performed the related…
PLR 200234068: Transfer of one private foundation's assets to another receives favorable rulings
A private foundation organized as a trust planned to transfer all its assets to a nonprofit corporation that was also a private foundation. The same people effectively controlled both organizations,…
PLR 200234067: Transfer of one private foundation's assets to another receives favorable rulings
A private foundation organized as a trust planned to transfer all its assets to a nonprofit corporation that was also a private foundation. The same people effectively controlled both organizations,…
PLR 200234066: Private foundation merger transfers assets and tax attributes to successor
Two private foundations controlled by the same people proposed to merge, with one transferring all its assets to the other. The IRS approved twenty requested rulings on the transfer's tax treatment.…
PLR 200234065: Private foundation merger transfers assets and tax attributes to successor
Two private foundations controlled by the same people proposed to merge, with one transferring all its assets to the other. The IRS approved twenty requested rulings on the transfer's tax treatment.…
PLR 200234064: Worldwide business separation qualifies for corporate reorganization treatment
A publicly traded corporate group planned to separate two active businesses that it had operated together. The plan involved foreign subsidiary transfers, domestic restructuring, and a final…
CCA 200234063: Acquired corporation's earlier research expenses count in group credit calculation
A corporate group bought all the stock of another corporation and later merged it into the parent. The acquired company had paid research expenses before joining the group's consolidated return. The…
PLR 200234062: Trusts retain GST treatment and QSST status after property distribution
An S corporation planned to place property and cash in a new limited liability company, distribute its interests to shareholders that included 26 family trusts, and then merge the new company into…
PLR 200234061: Family business split qualifies for three corporate reorganizations
Shareholders of an S corporation disagreed about how to run its three businesses. The company planned to move business assets into three new corporations and distribute their shares to different…
PLR 200234060: Former permanent resident's departure lacked a principal tax avoidance purpose
A former U.S. lawful permanent resident surrendered her green card and returned to the country where she was born and remained a citizen. Her net worth exceeded the threshold that triggered a…
PLR 200234059: Late S corporation election treated as timely if Form 2553 is filed promptly
A corporation with one shareholder intended to be an S corporation but did not file its Form 2553 on time. The IRS found reasonable cause for the late election under IRC § 1362(b)(5) and agreed to…
PLR 200234058: Late S election allowed from corporation's formation date
A corporation's shareholder wanted S corporation treatment from the date the company was formed, but the election was not filed on time. The IRS found reasonable cause for the missed deadline and…
PLR 200234057: Partnership receives 60 days to make late basis adjustment election
A buyer purchased a partnership interest, but the partnership missed the deadline to elect basis adjustments under IRC § 754 after its accountant failed to advise it to file. The IRS found that the…
PLR 200234056: Utility restructuring leaves prior financing tax ruling intact
A regulated electric utility had received an earlier ruling on a financing order, special charges, and notes issued through a separate entity. It later moved its transmission and distribution assets…
CCA 200234055: Executor may cure missing signatures on family business deduction agreement
An executor filed an estate tax return with Schedule T for the qualified family-owned business interest deduction, but did not sign the agreement required by IRC § 2057(h). Chief Counsel advised…
PLR 200234054: REIT may apply stated rent, service, subsidiary, and asset rules to its ventures
A real estate investment trust asked how several arrangements involving its partnerships and taxable REIT subsidiaries would affect its rent and asset tests. The IRS ruled that a joint venture's…
PLR 200234053: Business separation qualifies as a tax-free corporate reorganization
A corporation planned to transfer one of its businesses to a new corporation and distribute the new corporation's stock to holders of its common stock. It said the separation would reduce borrowing…
PLR 200234052: Subsidiary receives more time to file its LIFO inventory election
A corporation requested more time to file Form 970 for its subsidiary's election to use the last-in, first-out (LIFO) inventory method. The subsidiary had used LIFO on its returns and financial…
PLR 200234051: LLC receives more time to elect corporate tax treatment
A single-owner limited liability company intended to be taxed as a corporation from its formation date but missed the deadline to file Form 8832. It asked the IRS for more time to make the entity…
PLR 200234050: IRS reaffirms spin-off ruling after revised stock issuance plans
A corporation asked the IRS to supplement an earlier ruling about its distribution of a controlled corporation's stock and related transactions. The earlier request described the controlled…
PLR 200234049: Spouses receive more time to group their rental real estate interests
Two spouses omitted the required election statement from their joint return for the year in which they wanted to treat all their rental real estate interests as one activity. They requested more…
PLR 200234048: Subsidiary receives more time to file its LIFO inventory election
A corporation requested more time to file Form 970 for its subsidiary's election to use the last-in, first-out (LIFO) inventory method. The subsidiary had used LIFO on its returns and financial…
PLR 200234047: Trust payment amendment preserves GST exemption and spouse's limited power
Trustees sought to change the payment terms of trusts created under a decedent's will so they could distribute the greater of trust income or an amount up to five percent of each trust's value. The…
PLR 200234046: Former resident avoids tax-avoidance presumption but gets no purpose ruling
A former U.S. lawful permanent resident gave up her green card and returned to the country where she was born. Her net worth exceeded the threshold that would otherwise trigger a presumption that…
PLR 200234045: Late S corporation election may be treated as timely
A corporation intended to elect S corporation status for its first taxable year but did not file Form 2553 on time. Its application for an employer identification number had identified it as an S…
PLR 200234044: Business spin-off and follow-on merger qualify as reorganizations
A corporation proposed transferring one business to a subsidiary, distributing the subsidiary's stock to its shareholders, and immediately merging the subsidiary into an acquiring corporation. Based…
PLR 200234043: Merging sibling trusts preserves tax status, basis, and holding periods
Trustees proposed consolidating two trusts for a daughter and two trusts for a son into one trust for each child. The trusts had substantially similar terms, and their assets and beneficiaries'…
PLR 200234042: Late S corporation election may take effect when operations began
A corporation's shareholders said they intended it to be an S corporation from inception, but the corporation missed the Form 2553 filing deadline. It had filed S corporation returns late for its…
PLR 200234041: Corporation obtains relief for late S election
A corporation's shareholder intended S corporation status to begin on the company's incorporation date, but the election was not filed on time. The IRS found reasonable cause for the missed deadline…
PLR 200234040: IRS revokes two earlier excise tax rulings
The IRS had issued two rulings to a taxpayer about how IRC § 6416(b)(4)(B) applied to its sales. The second ruling had revoked the first. This letter revokes both earlier rulings, LTR 8910041 and…
CCA 200234039: Exclusive use for an asset's full useful life is treated as a sale
Chief Counsel considered whether an agreement granting a user exclusive rights to certain assets, and shared rights to related assets, was a sale or a lease for federal income tax purposes. The user…
PLR 200234038: Charitable trust reformation supports estate tax deductions
An estate obtained a court order dividing and reforming a trust that benefited family members and two charities. Two new trusts would make seven percent annual unitrust payments to individual…
PLR 200234037: Estate's late alternate valuation election receives relief
An estate timely filed Form 706 but omitted the IRC § 2032 election to value its assets on the alternate valuation date because of a misunderstanding between the executor and the CPA. After…
PLR 200234036: Former resident gets more time to request an expatriation ruling
A former U.S. permanent resident surrendered his green card and missed the deadline to request an expatriation ruling under IRC § 877 and Notice 97-19. He asked for an extension before the IRS…
PLR 200234035: Partnership gets more time to elect basis adjustments
A partner's spouse died, and a fraction of his partnership interest passed to her estate under state law. The partnership filed its return without an IRC § 754 basis adjustment election after…
PLR 200234034: Partnership gets more time to elect basis adjustments
A partner's spouse died, and a fraction of his partnership interest passed to her estate under state law. The partnership filed its return without an IRC § 754 basis adjustment election after…
PLR 200234033: Partnership gets more time to elect basis adjustments
A partner's spouse died, and a fraction of his partnership interest passed to her estate under state law. The partnership filed its return without an IRC § 754 basis adjustment election after…
PLR 200234032: Partnership gets more time to elect basis adjustments
A partner's spouse died, and a fraction of his partnership interest passed to her estate under state law. The partnership filed its return without an IRC § 754 basis adjustment election after…
PLR 200234031: Partnership gets more time to elect basis adjustments
A partner's spouse died, and a fraction of his partnership interest passed to her estate under state law. The partnership filed its return without an IRC § 754 basis adjustment election after…
PLR 200234030: Merger target's officers are outside the pay cap under stated disclosure facts
A company asked how the IRC § 162(m) executive compensation deduction limit applied to officers of a merger target. It represented that the target would not send shareholders and file with the SEC a…
PLR 200234029: Corporation obtains relief for late S election
A corporation's shareholder intended S corporation status to begin on the company's incorporation date, but the election was not filed on time. The IRS found reasonable cause for the missed deadline…
PLR 200234028: Buyer and seller receive time to file a stock purchase election
A buyer and seller intended to elect under IRC § 338(h)(10) to treat a stock purchase as an asset acquisition, but they did not file a valid election by its due date. The IRS found that they…
PLR 200234027: Buyer and seller receive time to file a stock purchase election
A buyer and seller intended to elect under IRC § 338(h)(10) to treat a stock purchase as an asset acquisition, but they did not file a valid election by its due date. The IRS found that they…
PLR 200234026: Spouses receive time to allocate GST exemption to family trust
A married couple established a trust for children and later generations and treated their contribution as a split gift. They intended to allocate generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption to…
PLR 200234025: Separation of two businesses qualifies as a reorganization
An S corporation planned to place one of its two businesses in a new corporation and distribute the new corporation's stock to its shareholders. It said the separation would help each business focus…
PLR 200234024: Tax treatment of disability and survivor payments depends on work connection
A retirement system asked which disability and survivor payments under its governing statute could be excluded from income as workers' compensation under IRC § 104(a)(1). The IRS allowed the…
PLR 200234023: Insolvent partner may make late basis reduction election
A partner reported his share of a partnership's debt discharge income even though he was insolvent when the debt was settled. His tax advisers had not told him about the IRC § 108(b)(5) election to…
PLR 200234022: Rescission of LLC shares cures an invalid S election
A corporation elected S status from its first tax year, unaware that one subscriber was an LLC taxed as a partnership and therefore an ineligible shareholder. When it discovered the issue, the LLC…
PLR 200234021: Planned spin-off qualifies as a corporate reorganization
A publicly traded corporation planned to distribute its remaining stock in a subsidiary after an earlier public offering of some subsidiary shares. It said the separation would resolve operating…
CCA 200234020: Merger breach damages must be allocated across all gross income
A taxpayer's subsidiary paid a settlement after a predecessor breached a merger agreement. The taxpayer treated the damages as a stock loss and allocated the deduction solely to U.S. source income…
PLR 200234019: Estate may assign retirement accounts to charitable beneficiaries
An estate proposed assigning its interests in retirement accounts to charities to satisfy their percentage shares under the decedent's will. The IRS ruled that the assignments would not create…
PLR 200234018: Corporation obtains relief for late S election
A corporation's shareholder intended S corporation status to begin on the company's incorporation date, but the election was not filed on time. The IRS found reasonable cause for the missed deadline…
TAM 200234017: Spouse's lifetime appointment power defeats marital trust deduction
An estate claimed the estate tax marital deduction for a trust intended to be qualified terminable interest property. The decedent's will allowed the surviving spouse, during her life, to appoint…
PLR 200234016: S corporation return supports relief for missing election form
A corporation intended to be an S corporation for its first taxable year but never filed Form 2553. It filed an S corporation income tax return for that year, and its shareholders filed consistently…
PLR 200234015: Corporation obtains relief for late S election
A corporation's shareholder intended S corporation status to begin on the company's incorporation date, but the election was not filed on time. The IRS found reasonable cause for the missed deadline…
PLR 200234014: Corporation receives relief for missed S election deadline
A corporation's shareholder intended S corporation treatment to begin on a specified date after incorporation, but the corporation did not file its election on time. The IRS found reasonable cause…
CCA 200234013: Insurer nets bond premium but cannot reduce tax-exempt interest for parent reserves
Chief Counsel advised on a captive insurer's calculation of the IRC § 832(b)(5)(B) reduction to its deduction for losses incurred. The insurer should measure tax-exempt bond interest after…
PLR 200234012: Directory design site does not qualify as a bond-financed manufacturing facility
A borrower planned to finance a facility leased to a directory publisher with qualified small issue bonds. At the facility, the publisher would create advertisements, design pages, and prepare final…
PLR 200234011: Transfer of bare title does not recapture housing credits
A partnership that owned a low-income housing project planned to deed bare legal title to a public authority and lease the project back, seeking property tax treatment available under state law. It…
PLR 200234010: Transfer of bare title does not recapture housing credits
A partnership that owned a low-income housing project planned to deed bare legal title to a public authority and lease the project back, seeking property tax treatment available under state law. It…
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.