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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Whether Fast Track Settlement statements are shielded by 5 U.S.C. § 574 or FRE 408
This is an internal IRS Chief Counsel email about whether things a taxpayer says during Fast Track Settlement (FTS), a mediation-style program to resolve disputes with the IRS, can later be used…
9100 extension to make a late IC-DISC election (Form 4876-A) under § 992
A newly formed corporation wanted to be treated as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation (IC-DISC), a special export-tax structure, for its first tax year. To elect that…
9100 extension to make a late estate-tax portability election under § 2010(c)(5)(A)
When someone dies without using up their full federal estate-tax exemption, the leftover amount (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) can be passed to the surviving spouse, but only if…
Inadvertent S corporation termination relief under § 1362(f) (missed ESBT election)
A corporation ("X") elected to be taxed as an S corporation, a pass-through structure with strict rules about who may own the stock. All of X's stock was held by a trust. A trust can be an eligible…
9100 extension to make a late check-the-box election to be taxed as a corporation (301.7701-3)
A limited liability company wanted to be taxed as a corporation for federal tax purposes. Under the "check-the-box" rules (Treas. Reg. § 301.7701-3), an LLC can choose that treatment by filing Form…
IRS grants extra time to allocate GST exemption after a donor accidentally opted out of automatic allocation
A donor set up an irrevocable trust for a child and the child's descendants and made gifts to it. She wanted her generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption applied to those gifts so the trust…
IRS grants an LLC late relief to be taxed as a corporation and elect S-corp status
A single-owner limited liability company meant to be treated as a corporation and to elect S corporation status (which lets income pass through to the owner without a separate corporate-level tax)…
IRS grants an estate extra time to make a missed QTIP marital-deduction election
A married couple had a revocable trust. When the first spouse died, part of the trust became irrevocable and funded a marital trust for the surviving spouse, with the remainder eventually passing to…
IRS rules a foreign bank's trading records count toward its U.S. booked liabilities for interest allocation
A foreign bank, organized and regulated in another country, runs part of its lending and trading business through a U.S. permanent establishment operated from representative offices. Income from…
IRS rules stock sales tied to a family foundation are not self-dealing until the trustee irrevocably names the foundation
A family controls a closely held corporation and also funds a private foundation. Each family member has a revocable trust that, at death, could direct company stock to the foundation, but only if…
IRS rules stock sales tied to a family foundation are not self-dealing until the trustee irrevocably names the foundation
A family controls a closely held corporation and also funds a private foundation. Each family member has a revocable trust that, at death, could direct company stock to the foundation, but only if…
IRS rules stock sales tied to a family foundation are not self-dealing until the trustee irrevocably names the foundation
A family controls a closely held corporation and also funds a private foundation. Each family member has a revocable trust that, at death, could direct company stock to the foundation, but only if…
IRS rules stock sales tied to a family foundation are not self-dealing until the trustee irrevocably names the foundation
A family controls a closely held corporation and also funds a private foundation. Each family member has a revocable trust that, at death, could direct company stock to the foundation, but only if…
IRS rules stock sales tied to a family foundation are not self-dealing until the trustee irrevocably names the foundation
A family controls a closely held corporation and also funds a private foundation. Each family member has a revocable trust that, at death, could direct company stock to the foundation, but only if…
IRS blesses a publicly traded foreign parent's redomiciliation to a new country as a tax-free "F" reorganization
A publicly traded corporation organized in one country wanted to change its place of incorporation to a second country (a "redomiciliation"). To do it, the group planned to form a new parent company…
IRS grants extra time to make a late GST-exemption allocation after the accountant failed to advise it
A married couple set up an irrevocable trust for their children and grandchildren that could trigger generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax down the line. They funded it before 2001 and split the…
IRS rules a gas-station chain's fair-value hedge accounting on gasoline inventory does not break the LIFO conformity rule
An S corporation that runs convenience stores and gas stations values its inventory (food, beverages, and gasoline) using the last-in, first-out (LIFO) method for both tax and financial reporting.…
IRS rules a utility's customer "Fee" for energy infrastructure is taxable income, not a tax-free contribution to capital
A regulated electric utility collects a special state-authorized "Fee" from its retail customers to fund energy infrastructure and public-purpose projects, including certain costs tied to a plant it…
IRS rules a combined universal-life policy and its annuity rider are separate contracts for tax purposes
A life insurance company plans to sell a single product that bundles a universal life insurance policy (the "Base Contract") with a single-premium immediate annuity attached as a rider (the "Annuity…
IRS rules a combined universal-life policy and its annuity rider are separate contracts for tax purposes
A life insurance company plans to sell a single product that bundles a universal life insurance policy (the "Base Contract") with a single-premium immediate annuity attached as a rider (the "Annuity…
IRS grants extra time to make a late GST-exemption allocation after the accountant failed to advise it
A married couple set up an irrevocable trust for their children and grandchildren that could trigger generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax down the line. They funded it before 2001 and split the…
IRS grants advance approval of a private foundation's scholarship-award procedures under 4945(g)(1)
A private foundation asked the IRS to pre-approve the procedures it uses to award scholarships to individual students, which IRC § 4945(g)(1) requires. Without advance approval, grants a private…
Church integrated auxiliary is not required to file Form 990
An exempt organization asked the IRS to be excused from filing Form 990, the annual information return most tax-exempt organizations must submit. The IRS determined the organization qualifies as an…
Social club denied 501(c)(7) exemption for excess nonmember income
An equine and rodeo club applied to be recognized as a tax-exempt social club under IRC § 501(c)(7). Social clubs get that exemption only if they are supported substantially by member dues and do…
120-day extension to make a late § 754 partnership basis-adjustment election
A state limited partnership meant to make a § 754 election but missed the deadline. A § 754 election lets a partnership adjust the tax basis of its assets when a partner's interest transfers (here,…
Inadvertent-ineffectiveness relief for a bad S-corp and QSub election
An LLC that had elected to be taxed as an S corporation discovered, while preparing to be sold, that its election was never valid. Its operating agreement and profits-interest awards gave it more…
Consent to aggregate nonoperating mineral (royalty) interests as single properties
A U.S. corporation that owns mineral, oil, and gas royalties (but does not drill or operate anything) asked the IRS for permission to combine many separate royalty interests into two larger…
120-day extension to make a late QSub election for a subsidiary
An S corporation owns a subsidiary and meant to elect to treat that subsidiary as a qualified subchapter S subsidiary (QSub), which makes the subsidiary invisible for tax purposes and folds its…
9100 relief for a late bonus-depreciation opt-out and § 174 method-change Form 3115
A corporate group meant to make two tax choices on its return: an election under § 168(k)(7) to opt out of bonus (additional first-year) depreciation for all qualified property, and an…
Government-beneficiary settlement trust is a QSF with income excluded under § 115
A statutory trust was set up under a court-approved bankruptcy plan to resolve mass claims (public nuisance, consumer-protection, fraud, and similar claims) against companies over a product tied to…
Estate-beneficiary IRA may be split into separate inherited IRAs, tax-free
A person died owning a traditional IRA, but the custodian had no beneficiary designation on file, so the decedent's estate is treated as the IRA's sole beneficiary. The decedent's will left the…
60-day IRA rollover deadline waived for a fraud-scheme victim
A taxpayer withdrew money from a traditional IRA and normally would have 60 days to roll it into another IRA to avoid tax. Before completing the rollover, the taxpayer fell victim to a fraud scheme:…
Large one-time foundation grant treated as an excludable "unusual grant"
A public charity (classified under IRC § 509(a)(2)) expected to receive a large one-time cash grant from a foundation, prompted by the loss of federal funding it had previously received. A grant…
Advance approval of a foundation's healthcare-scholarship procedures
A private foundation asked the IRS to approve, in advance, the procedures it uses to award scholarships. This approval matters because private foundations owe an excise tax on "taxable…
Set-aside approved for a matching grant to restore a historic property
A private foundation asked the IRS to approve a "set-aside" under IRC § 4942(g)(2). Private foundations must pay out a minimum amount each year, but a set-aside lets a foundation earmark money now…
501(c)(3) exemption denied to a member-funded cooperative water system
An organization that runs a cooperative water system applied for charity status under Section 501(c)(3) using the streamlined Form 1023-EZ. It maintains an iron pipeline from a spring to a set of…
501(c)(3) denied to a nonprofit LLC that failed the organizational test
A nonprofit limited liability company (LLC) applied for charity status under Section 501(c)(3) on Form 1023. Its actual work, running an online guide of educational resources and research for health…
9100 extension to make a late election to file a consolidated return (§ 1.1502-75)
A corporate parent asked the IRS for more time to make a late election to file a consolidated federal income tax return for its affiliated group. The election under Treasury Regulation §…
9100 extension to make a late election to file a consolidated return (§ 1.1502-75)
A corporate parent asked the IRS for more time to make a late election to file a consolidated federal income tax return for its affiliated group. The election under Treasury Regulation §…
Permission to revoke an inadvertent election out of the installment method (§ 453(d))
A married couple sold their business and a separately owned asset, taking part of the price for that asset as an installment note payable over several years. Normally the installment method lets a…
REIT's loans to and from its joint ventures excluded from assets up to its capital interest (§ 856)
A real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns multi-tenant communications towers asked the IRS how to treat loans it makes to, and receives from, the joint ventures (JVs, taxed as partnerships) it…
9100 extension to make a late § 754 election after a partner's death
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership had one of its partners die. When a partnership interest transfers (including at death), the partnership's basis in its own assets (inside basis)…
Late relief for an LLC to elect corporate classification and S-corp status (§ 1362(b)(5), § 301.7701-3)
An LLC wanted to be taxed as an S corporation. Because an LLC is not a corporation by default, it first has to elect to be treated as one (the "check-the-box" election), then elect S status. The…
9100 extension to make a late § 754 election after a partner's death
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership had a partner die. A partner's death transfers the partnership interest, which can leave the partnership's basis in its assets (inside basis) out…
9100 extension to make a late § 754 election after a partner's death
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership had a partner die. A partner's death transfers the partnership interest, which can leave the partnership's basis in its assets (inside basis) out…
9100 relief denied for a late § 475(f) mark-to-market election (hindsight; § 481(a) prejudice)
A C corporation put part of its cash into securities trading, run by its CEO. A trader in securities can elect "mark-to-market" accounting under § 475(f)(1), which treats the securities as sold at…
9100 extension for a consolidated group to file Opportunity Zone election statements (§ 1.1502-14Z)
A corporate consolidated group missed a filing deadline for Opportunity Zone elections and asked the IRS for more time. Under section 1400Z-2, a taxpayer can defer capital gain by reinvesting it in…
9100 relief to self-certify as a Qualified Opportunity Fund via a late Form 8996 (§ 1400Z-2)
A newly formed LLC (taxed as a partnership) that intended to be a Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF) missed the deadline to self-certify as one. To become a QOF under section 1400Z-2(d), an entity…
9100 extension to file a late § 336(e) election treating an S-corp stock sale as an asset sale
When a buyer purchases all the stock of an S corporation, the parties can jointly elect under Code § 336(e) to treat the stock sale as if the company sold all its assets and liquidated. That…
Waiver of the actual-conveyance requirement for a QDOT after the surviving spouse became a U.S. citizen
When someone dies and leaves property to a spouse who is not a U.S. citizen, the usual estate-tax marital deduction is denied unless the property passes into a qualified domestic trust (QDOT), a…
9100 extension to file a late Form 1128 changing an S corporation's tax year-end
To change its annual accounting period (its tax year-end), a business normally must file Form 1128 asking for the IRS's consent by the due date of its short-period return. Here an S corporation…
Military vehicles do not qualify for the off-highway or mobile-machinery exemptions, so their first retail sale is subject to the § 4051 heavy-truck excise tax
The first retail sale of a heavy truck, trailer, or tractor chassis or body carries a 12 percent federal excise tax under Code § 4051. A company that builds specialized vehicles for the U.S.…
9100 extension to make a late QDOT election after a tax professional failed to advise filing an estate tax return
When a U.S. citizen dies leaving property to a spouse who is not a U.S. citizen, the estate normally cannot claim the estate-tax marital deduction unless the property passes into a qualified…
Advance approval of a foundation's scholarship procedures under § 4945(g)(1)
Private foundations owe an excise tax on "taxable expenditures," and a grant to an individual for study or travel is a taxable expenditure unless the IRS approves the foundation's grant-making…
Church integrated auxiliary is not required to file Form 990
Most tax-exempt organizations must file an annual Form 990 information return, but there are exceptions. One exception covers an "integrated auxiliary of a church," a church-affiliated organization…
Advance approval of a foundation's educational grant procedures for women's health research under § 4945(g)(3)
A private foundation must get IRS advance approval of the way it awards grants to individuals, or the grants can trigger an excise tax as "taxable expenditures." Here a foundation asked the IRS to…
Church integrated auxiliary is not required to file Form 990
Most tax-exempt organizations must file an annual Form 990 information return, but an "integrated auxiliary of a church" is exempt from that filing requirement. Here an organization asked the IRS to…
Church-affiliated organization is not required to file Form 990 (Rev. Proc. 96-10)
Most tax-exempt organizations must file an annual Form 990 information return, but the IRS has discretionary authority under § 6033(a)(3)(B) to excuse certain organizations from that requirement.…
Approval of a private foundation's § 4942(g)(2) set-aside to fund restoration of a historic property
Private foundations must pay out a minimum amount each year for charitable purposes. Instead of paying immediately, a foundation can "set aside" money for a specific project and still have it count…
Tax-free split-off of two businesses via a section 368(a)(1)(D) reorganization and section 355 distribution
A privately held corporation (Distributing) owned by five related shareholders runs two separate businesses: one directly, and the other through a wholly owned LLC that is ignored for tax purposes.…
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.