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 200139021: Return to birth country lacked tax avoidance purpose
A former U.S. long-term resident retired and returned to the country where he was born. He planned to claim residence there under a tax treaty, and his net worth exceeded the threshold that raised a…
PLR 200139020: Cooperative LLC qualifies as an eligible entity
A planned cooperative LLC asked whether it would be an eligible entity under the federal entity classification rules. Its state statute described a cooperative association without calling it…
PLR 200139019: Inadvertent S election termination cured after stock transfer
An S corporation's election terminated when two shareholders sold its stock to a C corporation, which was not an eligible S corporation shareholder. After an accountant identified the problem, the C…
CCA 200139018: IRS-prepared return does not start collection period
Chief Counsel addressed whether the ten-year collection rule in § 6502(a)(1) changed the rule for returns prepared by the IRS under § 6020(b). Section 6501(b)(3) says that the IRS's execution of…
PLR 200139017: Early S corporation reelection permitted
A corporation revoked its S election and later sought to elect S status again before the five-year waiting period expired. After the revocation, stock passed from the former shareholders through a…
PLR 200139016: Late partnership classification election allowed
A foreign limited duration company intended to elect partnership treatment for U.S. federal tax purposes when it began operations, but failed to file the entity classification election on time. Its…
PLR 200139015: Late S election recognized from incorporation date
A corporation intended to elect S corporation status from its incorporation date but did not file the election on time. The IRS found reasonable cause for the missed deadline under § 1362(b)(5).…
PLR 200139014: Late S corporation election treated as timely
A corporation intended to elect S corporation status from the start of a taxable year but missed the filing deadline. The IRS found reasonable cause for the late filing and agreed under § 1362(b)(5)…
PLR 200139013: Fuel for public paratransit qualifies for state-use treatment
A public transit authority asked how federal fuel taxes applied to four ways of buying fuel for its paratransit vehicles, which private contractors operated. The IRS found that the authority was a…
PLR 200139012: Late S election relief requires amended returns
A corporation intended to be an S corporation from its incorporation date, but its adviser did not file Form 2553 on time. The IRS found reasonable cause and granted relief under § 1362(b)(5). To…
PLR 200139011: Ending dual-class stock structure leaves earlier split-off rulings intact
A company had used two classes of voting stock in transactions covered by earlier § 355 rulings. After the split-off, the two classes traded at different prices and created business difficulties.…
CCA 200139010: Conditions for restoring a defaulted tax installment agreement
Chief Counsel considered proposed conditions for reinstating a taxpayer's defaulted installment agreement. Under § 6159, the IRS could require the taxpayer to catch up on estimated tax payments and…
PLR 200139009: Business separation qualifies as a Type D reorganization
A publicly traded parent planned to separate two businesses into a new corporation while keeping another business. It would contribute the two businesses' assets and liabilities to the new…
CCA 200139008: Foreign service fees accrue before related withholding tax credits
A U.S. corporation provided services to foreign subsidiaries while local law barred them from paying service fees abroad. Chief Counsel concluded that the corporation properly accrued the service…
PLR 200139007: Advance refunding taxable bonds is not barred by § 149(d)(2)
A public issuer planned to use new bonds to advance refund taxable bonds that financed a parking structure. The earlier bonds would have been private activity bonds, but they had never carried…
PLR 200139006: Returning to tax-exempt status avoids deemed asset transfer
A nonprofit corporation had lost its federal tax exemption and sought to regain it. The IRS ruled that, if it became tax-exempt under § 501(a) within three years after January 28, 1999, it would…
PLR 200139005: Clinic billing contract creates no partnership and fees are deductible
A medical clinic planned to hire a billing company owned by a related health system to collect patient accounts for a negotiated fee. The clinic would keep ownership of its receivables and records,…
PLR 200139004: More time to make a joint § 338(h)(10) election
The parents of a buyer and seller intended to make a joint § 338(h)(10) election for a stock acquisition but missed the filing deadline. The IRS found that they had acted reasonably and in good…
PLR 200139003: Extension granted for personal holding company consent dividends
A personal holding company missed the elections needed to treat certain amounts as consent dividends under § 565(a). It had relied on its outside accounting firm to identify and prepare appropriate…
PLR 200139002: Corporate merger and LLC interest exchange treated together under § 351
An S corporation and minority investors planned to transfer their interests in an LLC to a new C corporation, which would then own the LLC outright. The IRS treated the S corporation's merger into…
PLR 200139001: Spin-off qualifies, but new employee plans need their own approval
A public company planned to move one business to a new corporation and distribute that corporation's stock to its shareholders. The IRS ruled that the asset transfer and distribution qualified as a…
PLR 200138028: Family partnership gifts valued under § 2701 subtraction method
A parent and her two sons proposed to form a family limited partnership. The parent would retain a general partner interest with a preferred return and rights to withdraw or compel liquidation,…
PLR 200138027: Trust receives more time to elect prior-year charitable treatment
A trust made a charitable payment after its tax year ended and wanted to treat it as paid in the earlier year under § 642(c)(1). Its original return classified the payment as a beneficiary…
CCA 200138026: Federal redemption period starts at Colorado public foreclosure sale
Chief Counsel addressed when the federal redemption period begins after a Colorado public trustee forecloses a property subject to a federal tax lien. It concluded that the sale date under § 7425(d)…
PLR 200138025: Shareholder dispute resolved through tax-free business split-off
Four shareholders disagreed about how to manage and expand two operations of their corporation. The corporation proposed to place one operation in a newly formed company and give that company's…
PLR 200138024: Revised spin-off steps preserve earlier rulings
A company changed several steps of a planned distribution of a subsidiary's stock after receiving an earlier ruling. The changes included exchanging preferred shares, revising asset transfers, and…
PLR 200138023: Late S election effective when business began
A corporation's sole shareholder intended to elect S corporation status from the date the business began, but the election was not filed on time. The IRS found reasonable cause for the missed…
PLR 200138022: S election recognized from incorporation despite late filing
A corporation intended to be an S corporation from its incorporation date but did not file its election on time. The IRS found reasonable cause for the delay under § 1362(b)(5). It agreed to…
PLR 200138021: Late S election effective from start of business
A corporation's shareholder intended S corporation treatment from the date the business began, but the election was filed late. The IRS found reasonable cause for the delay and granted relief under…
PLR 200138020: Late S election relief states a different effective date
A corporation's shareholders intended an S election to take effect on a date labeled D1, but the election was late. The IRS found reasonable cause and granted relief under § 1362(b)(5). The…
PLR 200138019: Late S election effective when operations began
A corporation's shareholders intended to elect S corporation status from the date it began business, but the election was not timely filed. The IRS found reasonable cause and granted relief under §…
PLR 200138018: Charitable lead annuity trust gift is deductible and excluded from estate
A donor placed stock in an irrevocable trust that would pay a fixed annuity to charity for ten years, then distribute the remainder to descendants or trusts for them. The donor was also a director…
PLR 200138017: S corporation receives extension for subsidiary election
An S corporation intended to treat its wholly owned subsidiary as a qualified subchapter S subsidiary (QSub) from the same date as its own S election. It inadvertently missed the QSub election…
PLR 200138016: Missed trust election does not end S corporation status
An S corporation's shares were transferred to a trust whose trustees, relying on tax advice, missed the election to treat it as an electing small business trust (ESBT). That failure terminated the…
PLR 200138015: Revised ESOP stock formula leaves earlier distribution rulings in place
A company requested a supplement to earlier rulings about distributions of controlled corporation stock. It proposed to change the formula for how much stock an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP)…
CCA 200138014: Intervening § 831(b) year bars insurer's acquired loss carryover
A small mutual insurer acquired another insurer that had net operating losses. During the merger year, the surviving company had elected under § 831(b) to be taxed only on investment income; it…
PLR 200138013: Extension for § 338(g) election on foreign acquisitions
A U.S. parent sought more time to make a § 338(g) election for a foreign subsidiary's purchases of two foreign corporations. A valid election had not been filed by the deadline, although the parent…
PLR 200138012: Acquired group may use tax book value for interest apportionment
A domestic corporate group acquired a subsidiary whose former group used fair market value to value assets when apportioning interest expense. The acquiring group consistently used tax book value…
PLR 200138011: Extensions granted for three related QSub elections
An S corporation intended to treat two directly owned subsidiaries and one subsidiary owned through them as qualified subchapter S subsidiaries (QSubs). It missed the elections for the first two,…
PLR 200138010: Vehicle breakdown contracts qualify as insurance
A company sold motor vehicle service contracts through a related dealership to cover specified breakdown and repair costs beyond manufacturer warranties. It bore the obligation to reimburse covered…
PLR 200138009: Ineligible shareholder transfer treated as inadvertent S termination
An S corporation shareholder transferred stock to a person she did not know was a nonresident alien. That transfer ended the corporation's S election because a nonresident alien cannot be an S…
PLR 200138008: Some police line-of-duty benefits are excludable, others taxable
A city asked whether disability and survivor benefits under its police plan were excluded from recipients' income as workers' compensation. The IRS treated the plan's line-of-duty disability and…
CCA 200138007: General welfare principles for Native American housing aid
Chief Counsel discussed housing assistance under the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-determination Act. Prior IRS rulings treated need-based housing subsidies as general welfare payments…
PLR 200138006: Settlement trust qualifies as fund for missed GST elections
A law firm settled claims arising from missed gift tax returns and generation-skipping transfer (GST) exemption allocations for a family trust. The settlement created a reimbursement trust to cover…
TAM 200138005: Subsidiary stock loss is not disallowed by built-in gain rule
A consolidated group claimed a loss when it sold a subsidiary's stock. Lower-tier subsidiaries had previously recognized gains on assets that appreciated before acquisition, raising stock basis…
PLR 200138004: Tracking-stock split-off qualifies as Type D reorganization
A corporation separated two businesses to help raise capital for one of them. It transferred the other business to a controlled company and planned to distribute that company's shares to holders of…
CCA 200138001: Excess levy proceeds cannot offset unasserted tax liabilities
The IRS kept receiving levied funds after the covered tax debts had been paid and applied the excess to years with no filed returns or assessed liabilities. Chief Counsel advised that the IRS could…
CCA 200137059: Partnership allocations require further factual development
Chief Counsel reviewed special allocations of income, losses, and nonrecourse deductions in a partnership that leased assets. It could not yet determine whether the allocations had substantial…
PLR 200137058: Revised funding schedule approved for a nuclear decommissioning fund
An electric utility asked the IRS to approve a revised schedule of annual payments to its nuclear decommissioning fund. The utility owned an interest in a nuclear plant and used cost estimates and…
PLR 200137057: Revised nuclear decommissioning fund payment schedule approved
An electric utility that co-owned a nuclear plant asked the IRS to approve a revised schedule of annual payments to its nuclear decommissioning fund. Several regulators had approved decommissioning…
PLR 200137056: Revised funding schedule approved for a co-owned nuclear plant
An electric utility that co-owned a nuclear plant requested a revised schedule of annual payments to its nuclear decommissioning fund. The utility calculated separate qualifying percentages for…
PLR 200137055: Revised schedule approved for nuclear decommissioning costs
An electric utility asked the IRS to approve a revised schedule of payments to its nuclear decommissioning fund. The plant's decommissioning costs were included in rates overseen by several public…
PLR 200137054: Parent receives more time to file a statement of allowed stock loss
The parent of a consolidated group said that its subsidiary's stock became worthless, but it did not file the statement needed to claim an allowed stock loss under the consolidated return rules. It…
CCA 200137053: Faxed signatures may authenticate delinquent returns with safeguards
Chief Counsel considered whether an IRS service center could accept delinquent tax returns bearing faxed copies of taxpayers' signatures. It concluded that a faxed signature could satisfy the…
CCA 200137052: Certified mail records may omit taxpayer ID numbers from postal copy
Chief Counsel considered a proposed procedure for documenting certified mail notices of tax deficiency. Under the proposal, the IRS would send the Postal Service a postmarked Form 3877 list without…
CCA 200137051: IRS may bypass offset against a nonrebate erroneous refund
A taxpayer received a second, erroneous refund for one tax year and later requested a hardship refund of an overpayment for another year. Chief Counsel considered whether the IRS had to offset the…
CCA 200137050: PCS license costs are capitalized and licenses qualify under section 197
Chief Counsel reviewed a proposed technical paper about personal communication service licenses issued by the FCC. It agreed that costs incurred to acquire a license and to relocate existing…
CCA 200137049: IRS must offset an overpayment against another federal agency's debt
The IRS acknowledged that it had wrongly levied a taxpayer's wages, but it applied the resulting overpayment to a debt owed to another federal agency. Chief Counsel considered whether the IRS could…
CCA 200137047: Election history controls amortization of a covenant not to compete
Chief Counsel reviewed whether a four-year covenant not to compete acquired under a stock purchase agreement had to be amortized over 15 years under § 197. It said the answer depended on the…
CCA 200137046: Owner remains liable when a disregarded LLC reports employment taxes
Chief Counsel addressed employment tax collection when a disregarded single-member LLC had reported payroll taxes under its own name and employer identification number. The sole owner remained the…
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.