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 200051030: Corporation receives relief for missing S election
A corporation intended to be an S corporation from its first tax year, and its sole shareholder believed a signed Form 2553 had been sent to the IRS. The service center had no record of the…
PLR 200051029: Limited partnership gets more time to elect corporate tax classification
A domestic limited partnership intended to elect corporate tax classification from its formation date but missed the Form 8832 filing deadline. The IRS concluded that the requirements for…
PLR 200051028: Missing S election may be filed within 60 days
A corporation with two shareholders intended to be an S corporation from its first tax year, but the IRS had no record of a timely Form 2553. The corporation had filed S corporation returns for that…
PLR 200051027: Business contribution and spinoff receive nonrecognition treatment
A corporation planned to put one of its two business lines into a new subsidiary, sell a minority stake in that subsidiary in an initial public offering, and distribute its remaining shares to…
PLR 200051026: Partnership gets more time to request alternative basis allocation
A partnership with a § 754 election missed the deadline to request an alternative way to allocate basis adjustments arising from transfers of partnership interests. The IRS found that the…
PLR 200051025: Partnership gets extension to request alternative basis allocation
A partnership with a § 754 election missed the deadline to request an alternative way to allocate a basis adjustment after a partner purchased interests in it. The IRS found that the requirements…
PLR 200051024: Corporation receives relief for late S election
A corporation intended to elect S status from its incorporation date but missed the filing deadline. The IRS found reasonable cause under IRC § 1362(b)(5) and ruled that the corporation would be…
PLR 200051023: Late S election granted effect from incorporation
A corporation intended to elect S status from its incorporation date but missed the filing deadline. The IRS found reasonable cause under IRC § 1362(b)(5) and ruled that the corporation would be…
PLR 200051022: Late S election granted effect from incorporation
A corporation intended to elect S status from its incorporation date but missed the filing deadline. The IRS found reasonable cause under IRC § 1362(b)(5) and ruled that the corporation would be…
PLR 200051021: Asset transfers leave prior distribution rulings in effect
Taxpayers proposed to place groups of assets into new operating entities, contribute interests in those entities to another limited liability company, and move other assets into a partnership. They…
PLR 200051020: Foreign company gets time to elect partnership classification
A foreign limited liability company was classified as a corporation under the default federal tax rules because all its members had limited liability. It intended to elect partnership classification…
PLR 200051019: Securities partnership may aggregate gains for section 704(c) allocations
Two investment funds planned to contribute securities to a new partnership. The partnership asked to use a partial netting method for allocations after revaluing assets and to combine built-in gains…
PLR 200051018: Stock option adjustments retain performance-based treatment
A subsidiary's value fell after distributions to its parent, and its compensation committee adjusted outstanding stock options and granted cash payment rights to preserve their value. The IRS ruled…
CCA 200051017: Substantiated sanctions may be included in Tax Court settlements
Several petitioners in Tax Court cases involving the same investment program wanted to settle consistently with earlier test cases. Those test cases had imposed sanctions on the government under IRC…
CCA 200051016: Value partnership assets in a partnership-level audit
Corporate partners transferred interests in a domestic partnership through foreign partnerships to a foreign corporation and elected treatment based on their shares of the domestic partnership's…
PLR 200051015: Property tax rebates require no income information returns
A state agency planned to issue one-time rebates of school district real property taxes to eligible homeowners. Each rebate would be less than $600. The IRS ruled that the agency had no reporting…
PLR 200051014: Missing shareholder consent treated as inadvertent S election invalidity
One shareholder of a corporation did not sign the consent required for its S corporation election. The IRS held that the missing consent made the election invalid, but that the invalidity was…
PLR 200051013: Corporation may file late S election for its first year
A corporation and its shareholders relied on an attorney to file an S corporation election, but the IRS had no record of a timely Form 2553. They had filed tax returns consistently with S status…
PLR 200051012: Active property rental income is not passive investment income
A corporation with accumulated earnings and profits planned to elect S status and asked about rental income from commercial stores and offices. It provided security, repairs, maintenance,…
CCA 200051011: Insurance sale triggers reserve income and limited estimated tax credit
A holding company sold its property and casualty insurer subsidiary's stock with a joint IRC § 338(h)(10) election. Under the deemed asset sale and liquidation, Chief Counsel concluded that the…
CCA 200051010: Amended joint return remains valid despite duress claim
A husband filed a separate return, then both former spouses signed and filed an amended return using joint status. The wife said she signed under duress in response to a divorce court's order to…
CCA 200051009: Examining a claimed refund does not violate the bankruptcy stay
In two Chapter 13 examples, the IRS held claimed refunds while examining whether the taxpayers had overpaid for prepetition years. Chief Counsel advised that withholding payment during that…
PLR 200051008: Corporation receives relief for late S election
A corporation's shareholders intended S treatment from the date it began business, but the election was not filed on time. The IRS found reasonable cause for the missed election under IRC §…
PLR 200051007: Corporation receives relief for late S election
A corporation's shareholders intended S treatment from the date it began business, but the election was not filed on time. The IRS found reasonable cause for the missed election under IRC §…
PLR 200051006: Bank restructuring satisfies specified reorganization subissues
A mutual savings bank planned two charter conversions, a mutual holding company structure, a merger with another banking company, and a stock offering. The IRS ruled on selected issues relevant to…
CCA 200051005: Disallowed partnership depreciation may trigger valuation penalties
The Tax Court disallowed all deductions claimed by several partnerships after finding that they had not acquired the benefits and burdens of owning the property. Chief Counsel advised that the…
PLR 200051004: Trust partition preserves generation-skipping tax exemption
A trust that became irrevocable before September 25, 1985 had been divided among family branches. A court authorized splitting one branch's trust into two subtrusts and allowing separate successor…
PLR 200051003: Former green card holder gets time to request expatriation ruling
A former green card holder's adviser mailed a request for an IRC § 877 expatriation ruling one day after its deadline, after finding two post offices closed on the due date. The IRS found that the…
CCA 200051002: Receiver must file group-wide returns and seek refund through court
An insolvent subsidiary's receiver needed to file returns because the common parent's officer refused to do so. Chief Counsel advised that severing the parent's agency did not end consolidated…
TAM 200051001: Bond swap payments affect yield despite missed hedge identification
A university used interest rate swaps to reduce risk on tax-exempt bonds issued by an authority. The swaps did not qualify as hedges under the bond regulations because the actual issuer failed to…
PLR 200050051: State pension plan may treat picked-up service credit contributions as employer contributions
A state pension plan asked how to treat voluntary contributions that employees make through payroll reductions to buy or restore service credit. The IRS ruled that the contributions qualify as…
PLR 200050050: Church retirement account qualifies for section 403(b) treatment
A religious organization adopted a retirement plan for ministers connected with its network of churches. The IRS ruled that the plan is a retirement income account under section 403(b)(9) and meets…
PLR 200050049: Direct rollover of an age 60 plan distribution to an IRA is excluded from income
An employee's retirement plan proposed lowering its normal retirement age to 60 and allowing participants at that age to take an in-service lump sum distribution if they ended their plan…
PLR 200050048: Transfer of remaining foundation assets avoids termination tax
A private foundation proposed transferring about half its assets to a public charity for a donor advised fund, then transferring the rest to a related private foundation. The IRS ruled that the…
PLR 200050047: Reasonable fees to a related trust department are not self-dealing
Two private foundations proposed paying a related bank's trust department to hold and manage their assets. The bank and affiliated people were disqualified persons for the foundations, so payments…
PLR 200050046: Dividing an IRA in divorce does not disrupt adjusted periodic payments
A taxpayer had been receiving periodic IRA payments before a planned divorce. The spouses proposed transferring about one third of the IRA to the other spouse under the divorce agreement, then…
PLR 200050044: Complete expatriation submission rebuts a tax avoidance presumption
A former long-term U.S. resident gave up his permanent resident status and returned to his country of birth. His net worth exceeded the threshold that would ordinarily create a presumption that he…
PLR 200050043: S corporation split does not trigger LIFO inventory recapture
An S corporation planned to divide its business by transferring assets, including inventory valued under the LIFO method, to a newly formed S corporation and distributing the new company's stock to…
PLR 200050042: Late S corporation election allowed when IRS had no Form 2553 record
A corporation said it had mailed a timely Form 2553 to elect S corporation status from its first tax year, but the IRS service center had no record of the form. The corporation and its shareholders…
PLR 200050041: Trust combination and division preserve GST exemption
The trustees of two older family trusts proposed combining them and then dividing the assets among four new trusts for the settlor's grandchildren. They asked whether this would create taxable gain…
PLR 200050040: Late S corporation election treated as timely if filed within 60 days
A one shareholder company intended to be an S corporation but discovered it had missed the deadline to file its election. It asked the IRS to treat the election as effective from the start of a…
PLR 200050039: Late S election effective from incorporation if Form 2553 is filed
A company with several shareholders said it had intended to be an S corporation since incorporation but had not filed its election on time. It asked the IRS to treat the election as effective from…
PLR 200050038: Attorney's missed S election deadline qualifies for conditional relief
A newly incorporated company intended to elect S corporation status from its first tax year. Its two shareholders had relied on an attorney to file Form 2553, but the attorney missed the filing…
PLR 200050037: Late reverse QTIP election and trust severance allowed
An estate had elected QTIP treatment for a marital trust but missed the deadline to divide that trust and make a reverse QTIP election for one part. It also failed to allocate the decedent's…
PLR 200050036: Late tax year change application treated as timely
A taxpayer filed Form 1128 late to request a change in its accounting period. The late filing arose from an error or misunderstanding, and the request for an extension came within 90 days of the…
PLR 200050035: Active rental business income is not passive investment income for S corporation test
An S corporation with accumulated earnings and profits rented commercial and residential property. It provided maintenance, repairs, marketing, leasing, and other services through employees and…
PLR 200050034: Refunded equipment payments excluded from small issue bond limit
An issuer used proceeds of small issue bonds for progress payments on equipment for a manufacturer's facility. After discovering a calculation error that could push capital spending above the $10…
PLR 200050033: Missed S election allowed after attorney and accountant misunderstanding
A company's sole shareholder intended S corporation status from its first tax year and told the company's attorney so. The attorney mistakenly thought the accountant would prepare and file Form…
PLR 200050032: Member's guarantee keeps mortgage liability allocated to that member
A member planned to contribute mortgaged real estate to a limited liability company in exchange for additional ownership units. The company would assume the mortgage, while the contributing member…
PLR 200050031: Former resident's expatriation lacked a principal tax avoidance purpose
A long-term U.S. resident gave up permanent resident status and sought a ruling about the tax avoidance purpose test for expatriation. His net worth exceeded the threshold that ordinarily raises a…
PLR 200050030: Estate receives 30 days for reverse QTIP election and trust split
An estate made a QTIP election for its marital trust, but its estate tax return left Schedule R incomplete. It therefore missed the reverse QTIP election and did not divide the marital trust into…
PLR 200050029: Late S election allowed after attorney missed filing deadline
A newly incorporated company and its two shareholders intended S corporation status from the first tax year. They relied on an attorney to file Form 2553, but the attorney missed the deadline. The…
PLR 200050028: LLC stock transfer preserves S status; late parent and QSUB elections allowed
An S corporation's sole shareholder transferred its stock to a single member LLC and later to a newly formed corporation. The IRS concluded that the first transfer did not end the subsidiary's S…
PLR 200050027: Estate gets 30 days to make missed QTIP election
An estate's trust terms gave the surviving spouse a life interest in property, with the remainder passing to the decedent's children. An audit of the estate tax return found that the estate had not…
PLR 200050026: Nearby campus purchase is insubstantial change to bond notice
A nonprofit medical campus borrower wanted to use unspent bond proceeds to buy and convert a property that became available after the bonds were issued. The published public notice described other…
PLR 200050025: Late S election for six shareholder company treated as timely
A company with six shareholders intended to elect S corporation status from a specified tax year but discovered it had missed the filing deadline. It asked the IRS to treat the election as timely…
PLR 200050024: Extension granted for retroactive section 197 intangible election
A taxpayer acquired assets with contingent payments that were later allocated to intangible assets. It missed the deadline for a retroactive election to apply section 197 treatment to qualifying…
CCA 200050023: Utility subsidiaries withdraw easement depreciation method request
This Chief Counsel memorandum tells a district director that utility subsidiaries withdrew part of their Form 3115 request after the IRS expressed a tentative adverse position. The withdrawn issue…
PLR 200050022: Four shareholder company receives conditional late S election relief
Four shareholders intended their newly incorporated company to be an S corporation and relied on an attorney to file its Form 2553. The attorney missed the deadline. The IRS found reasonable cause…
PLR 200050021: Voided stock gift leaves corporation's S election in effect
A shareholder transferred S corporation stock to a proposed private foundation, believing it was tax exempt and eligible to hold the shares. The foundation had been incorporated under the wrong…
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.