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.
No determinations match these filters
Try a different search term or clear the filters.
A lower-tier partnership gets 120 extra days to make a late § 754 basis-adjustment election
This is a companion ruling to another § 754 relief request on the same facts. A partner in an upper-tier partnership died, and the interest passed to his estate. A § 754 election lets a partnership ad…
A lower-tier partnership gets 120 extra days to make a late § 754 basis-adjustment election
This is a companion ruling to another § 754 relief request on the same facts. A partner in an upper-tier partnership died, and the interest passed to his estate. A § 754 election lets a partnership ad…
A lower-tier partnership gets 120 extra days to make a late § 754 basis-adjustment election
This is a companion ruling to another § 754 relief request on the same facts. A partner in an upper-tier partnership died, and the interest passed to his estate. A § 754 election lets a partnership ad…
A lower-tier partnership gets 120 extra days to make a late § 754 basis-adjustment election
This is a companion ruling to another § 754 relief request on the same facts. A partner in an upper-tier partnership died, and the interest passed to his estate. A § 754 election lets a partnership ad…
A lower-tier partnership gets 120 extra days to make a late § 754 basis-adjustment election
This is a companion ruling to another § 754 relief request on the same facts. A partner in an upper-tier partnership died, and the interest passed to his estate. A § 754 election lets a partnership ad…
A lower-tier partnership gets 120 extra days to make a late § 754 basis-adjustment election
This is a companion ruling to another § 754 relief request on the same facts. A partner in an upper-tier partnership died, and the interest passed to his estate. A § 754 election lets a partnership ad…
A lower-tier partnership gets 120 extra days to make a late § 754 basis-adjustment election
This is a companion ruling to another § 754 relief request on the same facts. A partner in an upper-tier partnership died, and the interest passed to his estate. A § 754 election lets a partnership ad…
A lower-tier partnership gets 120 extra days to make a late § 754 basis-adjustment election
This is a companion ruling to another § 754 relief request on the same facts. A partner in an upper-tier partnership died, and the interest passed to his estate. A § 754 election lets a partnership ad…
A lower-tier partnership gets 120 extra days to make a late § 754 basis-adjustment election
This is a companion ruling to another § 754 relief request on the same facts. A partner in an upper-tier partnership died, and the interest passed to his estate. A § 754 election lets a partnership ad…
A lower-tier partnership gets 120 extra days to make a late § 754 basis-adjustment election
This is a companion ruling to another § 754 relief request on the same facts. A partner in an upper-tier partnership died, and the interest passed to his estate. A § 754 election lets a partnership ad…
A lower-tier partnership gets 120 extra days to make a late § 754 basis-adjustment election
This is a companion ruling to another § 754 relief request on the same facts. A partner in an upper-tier partnership died, and the interest passed to his estate. A § 754 election lets a partnership ad…
A lower-tier partnership gets 120 extra days to make a late § 754 basis-adjustment election
This is a companion ruling to another § 754 relief request on the same facts. A partner in an upper-tier partnership died, and the interest passed to his estate. A § 754 election lets a partnership ad…
A partnership gets 120 extra days to make a late § 754 basis-adjustment election
A partner in an upper-tier partnership died, and that partner's interest passed to his estate. A § 754 election lets a partnership adjust the inside basis of its assets when a partnership interest tra…
Investment advisory fees paid out of an annuity's cash value are not a taxable distribution to the owner
A life insurance company plans to offer non-qualified deferred annuity contracts designed to be managed with the help of an investment adviser. The owner authorizes the insurer to deduct the adviser's…
S corporation election restored after a trust failed to convert to a QSST and the company later merged away
This is a companion ruling on the same fact pattern as its two siblings. A small business corporation taxed as an S corporation had a shareholder die, and his stock passed to a testamentary trust. Tha…
S corporation election restored after a botched QSST conversion, contingent on a late QSST election
A small business corporation taxed as an S corporation ran into the same trap addressed in its companion ruling. When a shareholder died, his stock passed to a testamentary trust, which may hold S cor…
An S corporation's election is restored after a trust failed to convert to a QSST
A small business corporation had elected to be taxed as an S corporation. When a shareholder died, his stock passed into a testamentary trust, which is only allowed to hold S corporation stock for two…
A nuclear utility's spent-fuel storage costs count as "decommissioning costs" payable from its qualified fund
A public utility owns a majority interest in a nuclear plant with three reactors. For each reactor it maintains a qualified nuclear decommissioning reserve fund (a QNDRF) under § 468A, a fund whose co…
Basis, retained-share, and debt-exchange rulings for a leveraged spin-off that splits one business from another
A corporate group wants to separate two lines of business (call them Business A and Business B) through a chain of steps: an internal split-off that moves a foreign subsidiary in exchange for surrende…
A Blue Cross Blue Shield insurer's spin-off into a mutual holding company is tax-free and keeps its special § 833 status
A nonprofit, nonstock health insurance company (an existing Blue Cross Blue Shield organization) is the parent of a group of companies that files one consolidated federal tax return. It asked the IRS …
IRS denies 501(c)(3) status to a group funding cannabis and psychedelic research because it promotes federally illegal activity
A nonprofit corporation applied for 501(c)(3) status to promote the medical and mental-health benefits of cannabis and psychedelic plants (psilocybin, peyote, ayahuasca, ibogaine), to fund research in…
IRS denies 501(c)(3) status to a sports-and-arts club operated for substantial recreational and social purposes
An organization applied for 501(c)(3) charitable status using the streamlined Form 1023-EZ, describing its mission as promoting sports and arts, running training and coaching programs, and organizing …
IRS grants an estate 120 extra days to make a late portability election for the deceased spouse's unused exclusion
When someone dies, their estate can make a "portability" election under IRC § 2010(c)(5)(A) so the surviving spouse can use the deceased spouse's unused estate-tax exclusion (the DSUE amount). That el…
IRS grants an estate 120 extra days to make a late portability election for the deceased spouse's unused exclusion
When someone dies, their estate can make a "portability" election under IRC § 2010(c)(5)(A) so the surviving spouse can use the deceased spouse's unused estate-tax exclusion (the DSUE amount). That el…
A granddaughter's testamentary power of appointment is limited, not general, so the grandfathered trust stays GST-exempt and out of her estate
A family trust traces back to a settlor who died before September 25, 1985, which makes the trust "grandfathered" and generally exempt from the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax. Over two generat…
IRS grants 45 more days to make a late Qualified Opportunity Fund self-certification after the accountant left Form 8996 off the return
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership was formed to invest in a qualified opportunity zone and intended to self-certify as a Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF) under IRC § 1400Z-2(d). To do…
Investment advisory fees deducted from an annuity's cash value are not an "amount received" by the owner under § 72(e)
A life insurance company planned to offer deferred annuity contracts designed to be managed with the help of the owner's own investment adviser, who allocates the contract's cash value among the avail…
IRS grants an estate 120 extra days to make a late portability election for the deceased spouse's unused exclusion
When someone dies, their estate can make a "portability" election under IRC § 2010(c)(5)(A) so the surviving spouse can use the deceased spouse's unused estate-tax exclusion (the DSUE amount). That el…
IRS grants an estate 120 extra days to make a late portability election for the deceased spouse's unused exclusion
When someone dies, their estate can make a "portability" election under IRC § 2010(c)(5)(A) so the surviving spouse can use the deceased spouse's unused estate-tax exclusion (the DSUE amount). That el…
IRS grants a private foundation advance approval of its scholarship procedures for vocational-training students (§ 4945(g)(1))
A private foundation asked the IRS to approve, in advance, the way it will run a scholarship program. This step matters because IRC § 4945 taxes a private foundation's "taxable expenditures," and a gr…
IRS revokes a 501(c)(7) social club's exemption for taking too much oil-and-gas royalty (non-member) income
A tax-exempt social club under IRC § 501(c)(7) leased part of its property to an exploration company and, for years, collected substantial oil-and-gas royalty income on a monthly basis. Section 501(c)…
IRS revokes a social club's § 501(c)(7) status because investment income exceeded the 35% limit and it stopped operating
A membership social club had been recognized as tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(7), which covers clubs operated substantially for the pleasure and recreation of their members. A social club can take i…
IRS revokes a self-declared 501(c)(3)'s exemption for funneling contractor donations into cash grants to individual homeowners (private benefit)
An organization that called itself a nonprofit public benefit corporation obtained streamlined 501(c)(3) recognition in 2016 by filing Form 1023-EZ and attesting that it was organized and operated exc…
IRS revokes a public charity's § 501(c)(3) status after it ignored an audit into suspected inurement and improper fundraising
A public charity recognized as tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) (it had been approved as a 509(a)(1)/170(b)(1)(A)(vi) public charity through a streamlined Form 1023-EZ application) was selected for …
IRS disqualifies a self-declared § 501(c)(4) social welfare group that ran a for-profit business and benefited its president
An organization had treated itself as a tax-exempt social welfare group under Section 501(c)(4), which allows exemption for civic leagues operated exclusively to promote social welfare (the common goo…
IRS revokes a charity's § 501(c)(3) status for failing to produce records for an audit
A small charity that had been recognized as tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) (it had applied using the streamlined Form 1023-EZ) was picked for a routine audit. The IRS mailed a series of certified …
For an interest-abatement overpayment with no refund claim filed, the 2-year look-back runs from the date the IRS allows the refund, not from how long processing took
This internal Chief Counsel email addresses how the refund "look-back" limitation works in an interest-abatement case, and whether the time the IRS takes to decide the abatement affects how much can b…
The Section 6511(c)(2) refund look-back reaches back to the first assessment-extension agreement, not just the most recent one
This is an internal Chief Counsel email answering a procedural question about refund claims. When a taxpayer and the IRS agree to extend the time to assess tax (a Section 6501(c)(4) agreement), Sectio…
120-day extension for an estate to make a late portability election
When someone dies without using all of their federal estate-tax exemption, the surviving spouse can inherit the unused portion (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability…
120-day extension for an estate to make a late portability election
When someone dies without using all of their federal estate-tax exemption, the surviving spouse can inherit the unused portion (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability…
75-day extension to file a late Section 336(e) election statement for an S-corporation stock sale
Buyers acquired all the stock of an S corporation and wanted the deal treated as an asset purchase for tax purposes, which a Section 336(e) election allows for a "qualified stock disposition." That el…
120-day extension for an estate to make a late portability election
When someone dies without using all of their federal estate-tax exemption, the surviving spouse can inherit the unused portion (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability…
120-day extension for an estate to make a late portability election
When someone dies without using all of their federal estate-tax exemption, the surviving spouse can inherit the unused portion (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability…
120-day extension for an estate to make a late portability election
When someone dies without using all of their federal estate-tax exemption, the surviving spouse can inherit the unused portion (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability…
120-day extension for an estate to make a late portability election
When someone dies without using all of their federal estate-tax exemption, the surviving spouse can inherit the unused portion (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability…
120-day extension for an LLC to make a late Section 754 basis-adjustment election
A state LLC taxed as a partnership had two new members buy interests in the same year and meant to make a Section 754 election, which lets the partnership adjust the tax basis of its assets when inter…
Court-ordered reformation of six GST-exempt trusts to fix scrivener's errors triggers no income, gift, estate, or GST tax
A grantor set up an irrevocable trust for his six children and later, through the trustee, split it into six near-identical child-specific trusts. Because the grantor and his spouse had allocated thei…
Court-ordered reformation of six GST-exempt trusts to fix scrivener's errors triggers no income, gift, estate, or GST tax
A grantor set up an irrevocable trust for his six children and later, through the trustee, split it into six near-identical child-specific trusts. Because the grantor and his spouse had allocated thei…
Court-ordered reformation of six GST-exempt trusts to fix scrivener's errors triggers no income, gift, estate, or GST tax
A grantor set up an irrevocable trust for his six children and later, through the trustee, split it into six near-identical child-specific trusts. Because the grantor and his spouse had allocated thei…
Court-ordered reformation of six GST-exempt trusts to fix scrivener's errors triggers no income, gift, estate, or GST tax
A grantor set up an irrevocable trust for his six children and later, through the trustee, split it into six near-identical child-specific trusts. Because the grantor and his spouse had allocated thei…
Court-ordered reformation of six GST-exempt trusts to fix scrivener's errors triggers no income, gift, estate, or GST tax
A grantor set up an irrevocable trust for his six children and later, through the trustee, split it into six near-identical child-specific trusts. Because the grantor and his spouse had allocated thei…
Court-ordered reformation of six GST-exempt trusts to fix scrivener's errors triggers no income, gift, estate, or GST tax
A grantor set up an irrevocable trust for his six children and later, through the trustee, split it into six near-identical child-specific trusts. Because the grantor and his spouse had allocated thei…
IRS denies § 501(c)(7) social-club status to a food buying club
A group that runs a food buying club applied to be recognized as a tax-exempt social club under Section 501(c)(7), and the IRS said no. Section 501(c)(7) is for clubs organized for pleasure and recrea…
IRS rules a merger of three GST-exempt trusts keeps them exempt from generation-skipping tax
A married couple set up three irrevocable trusts for their descendants and allocated enough generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption to each so that all three are fully GST-exempt (an inclusio…
IRS grants an estate 120 days to make a late portability election
When someone dies without using all of their federal estate-and-gift tax exclusion, a "portability" election lets the surviving spouse pick up the unused amount (the DSUE), but only if the deceased sp…
IRS grants late relief to file § 336(e) election statements for two S corporation stock sales
A buyer acquired the stock of two S corporations, and the parties wanted to treat those stock purchases as asset purchases for tax purposes, which a Section 336(e) election allows for a "qualified sto…
IRS grants late relief to self-certify as a qualified opportunity fund
An LLC taxed as a partnership was set up to invest in a qualified opportunity zone, a program that offers capital gains tax benefits for investing in designated low-income areas. To qualify, the entit…
IRS grants a late § 168(h)(6)(F)(ii) election to avoid tax-exempt-use depreciation on affordable housing
A taxable corporation wholly owned by a Section 501(c)(3) charity invests, through partnerships, in affordable housing for low-income tenants. Because a tax-exempt parent controls it, the corporation …
IRS grants an estate 120 days to make a late portability election
When someone dies without using all of their federal estate-and-gift tax exclusion, a "portability" election lets the surviving spouse pick up the unused amount (the DSUE), but only if the deceased sp…
IRS grants late relief for a book-conformity capitalization election after a missed COVID-era extension
A corporate parent that files a consolidated return wanted to make the election under Treas. Reg. Section 1.263(a)-3(n), which lets a business capitalize for tax purposes any repair and maintenance co…
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.