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 200049021: Nuclear fund transfers qualify, with limits on buyer's asset basis
A buyer planned to acquire interests in nuclear plants, their decommissioning funds, and the associated cleanup liabilities. The IRS ruled that the sellers' qualified decommissioning funds would…
PLR 200049020: Late S corporation election treated as timely if Form 2553 is filed
A corporation intended to be an S corporation from its incorporation but discovered that its election had not been filed on time. The IRS granted relief under section 1362(b)(5) and treated the…
PLR 200049019: Late S corporation election treated as timely if Form 2553 is filed
A corporation intended to be an S corporation for a taxable year after its incorporation but discovered that its election had not been filed on time. The IRS granted relief under section 1362(b)(5)…
PLR 200049018: Radio programming fees are not passive investment income
An S corporation with accumulated C corporation earnings and profits arranged for an unrelated programmer to run some day to day operations of its radio stations and pay monthly fees. The company…
PLR 200049017: Late S corporation election accepted for reasonable cause
A corporation's shareholders intended to elect S corporation status effective on a redacted date, but the election was filed late. The IRS found reasonable cause for the missed deadline and granted…
PLR 200049016: Late S election recognized from corporation's start date
A corporation's shareholder intended to elect S corporation status from the day the company began doing business, but the election was filed late. The IRS found reasonable cause for the delay and…
PLR 200049015: Savings bank receives time to complete bad debt accounting method election
A savings bank sought to change how it accounted for bad debts, from the specific charge-off method under section 166 to the reserve method under section 593. It missed one requirement of the…
PLR 200049014: Actively managed property rents excluded from S corporation passive investment income
A corporation planning an S election owned commercial and residential rental properties. Its full-time employees leased and maintained the properties, collected rent, handled tenant matters, and…
PLR 200049013: Cash taxi medallion lease payments count toward reporting threshold
A business leased taxi medallions to drivers and received weekly cash payments under each driver's lease. It asked whether those payments escaped the cash receipt reporting rule in section 6050I.…
CCA 200049012: Foreign sales corporation commission change was untimely
A U.S. supplier and its foreign sales corporation sought to recompute commissions for an earlier tax year, increasing the supplier's deduction and the subsidiary's income. Chief Counsel advised that…
PLR 200049011: Partition of older trust preserves generation-skipping tax exemption
Two family groups settled a dispute over an older trust by proposing to divide it into two separate trusts. One group wanted to retain company stock, while the other wanted to sell some or all of…
CCA 200049010: Danish surcharge is outside the foreign tax credit
A U.S. company claimed indirect foreign tax credits for tax paid by its Danish subsidiary. Chief Counsel considered an 11.75% surcharge the subsidiary paid after choosing a method that deferred its…
TAM 200049009: Power contract transfer qualified as a sale of property
A power plant operator transferred its long-term electricity supply contract to a power marketer for payment. The marketer immediately ended that contract and entered a replacement contract with the…
PLR 200049008: Group separation qualifies for stock distributions and D reorganizations
A corporate group proposed a series of stock distributions and transfers to separate two operating businesses. The IRS ruled that specified distributions would generally produce no recognized gain…
TAM 200049007: Employee children's education grants are taxable wages
An employee benefit association gave education grants to the children of its members. Almost every applicant received a grant, and a grant generally ended if the parent's employment ended. The IRS…
TAM 200049006: Custom stock index option falls outside retroactive straddle rule
An insurer used options on a private custom stock index to hedge a stock portfolio and claimed a loss on one option. An examiner sought to defer that loss under a special retroactive rule for stock…
TAM 200049005: Domestic legs of international flights qualify, but fuel refund claims fail
An airline used aviation fuel on domestic legs of flights that continued between the United States and a foreign country. The IRS advised that the aircraft were engaged in foreign trade even while…
CCA 200049004: Failed merger fees are not proceeds of an involuntary conversion
A company received termination payments after its planned merger fell through and the target merged with another company. It acquired a different company and sought to defer gain under section 1033,…
CCA 200049003: Family company liquidation restriction may be ignored in estate and gift valuations
A person placed cash and securities in a family limited liability company, gave interests to three children, and later died. The family claimed large discounts from the value of the underlying…
CCA 200049002: Asset gain after subsidiary's entity election is foreign personal holding company income
A foreign holding company agreed to sell its operating subsidiary. Just before the sale, the subsidiary elected to be disregarded for U.S. tax purposes, causing its assets to be treated as held by…
CCA 200049001: Unused overpayment credit delays deficiency interest
A corporation elected to apply a reported tax overpayment to the following year's estimated taxes. An audit later found a deficiency for the original year, but the corporation had paid every…
PLR 200048050: Merged hospital pension plan retains church plan status
Two hospitals with religious ties joined a regional health care system and proposed to merge their pension plans. The IRS ruled that the expanded Plan X remained a church plan under section 414(e),…
PLR 200048049: Pension plan receives conditional minimum funding waiver
A defined benefit pension plan's sponsor sought a waiver of the minimum funding standard for its plan year ending November 30, 1998. The IRS granted the waiver under section 412(d) because the…
PLR 200048048: Foundation may set aside funds for a public garden and park
A private foundation asked to count money reserved for a public garden and park as a qualifying distribution in its fiscal year ending September 30, 2000. The project required further design,…
CCA 200048047: Closing agreements for foreign ship leasing income
A foreign shipping group sought closing agreements for subsidiaries that had failed to file U.S. returns and pay tax on income from leasing ships. Chief Counsel advised that separate agreements…
CCA 200048046: Signatures on deficiency notices and assessment extension consents
After an IRS reorganization, Chief Counsel was asked who could sign deficiency notices and agreements extending the time to assess tax. It advised that authorized Small Business & Self Employed…
IRS 200048045: Collection and bankruptcy case bulletin with two advice memoranda
This September 2000 Chief Counsel bulletin summarizes 16 decisions involving bankruptcy, liens, collection, innocent spouse relief, and summonses. It also reproduces two earlier advice memoranda.…
CCA 200048043: Lost penalty files in collection hearings
Chief Counsel addressed collection hearings challenging old trust fund recovery penalty assessments when the IRS had destroyed its original recommendation files. A taxpayer generally may dispute the…
CCA 200048042: Lease stripping transaction and shareholder transferee liability
Chief Counsel analyzed a hypothetical series of equipment sale, leaseback, and stock transactions designed to create a large tax basis and losses. On the stated facts, it concluded that the lease…
PLR 200048041: Investment fund asset transfer qualifies as a reorganization
A closed-end investment fund proposed to transfer its assets and liabilities to an open-end fund for voting shares, distribute those shares to its investors, and dissolve. The IRS ruled that the…
PLR 200048040: Business division spin-off qualifies as a reorganization
Shareholders of a family-owned corporation disagreed over the direction of its two businesses. The corporation separated one business into a controlled company, then distributed that company's…
CCA 200048039: Sharing third-party tax information in a lease stripping audit
Chief Counsel addressed whether an audit team could obtain and disclose third-party information while examining a corporation's claimed tax basis from lease stripping transactions. Section…
IRS 200048038: Criminal Tax Bulletin reviews recent court decisions
This August 2000 Criminal Tax Bulletin summarizes recent court decisions rather than resolving a single taxpayer's request. It covers compelled document production and immunity, Miranda warnings,…
PLR 200048037: Partnership gets more time to elect corporate tax treatment
A domestic corporation converted into a limited partnership and intended to elect treatment as an association taxable as a corporation. The partnership missed the deadline to file Form 8832. The IRS…
PLR 200048036: Corporation receives relief for a missed S election
A corporation intended to elect S corporation status for its first taxable year, and its board recorded that decision. Its attorney failed to file Form 2553, so no election was made. The IRS found…
PLR 200048035: Extension to file joint stock purchase elections
A buyer's parent company and a seller missed the deadline for joint section 338(h)(10) elections covering four acquired subsidiaries. Both had reported the stock sale as though they had made the…
PLR 200048034: Intercompany royalty attributes for export commissions and tax credits
A parent company planned to transfer intangible property to a new U.S. subsidiary and pay that subsidiary royalties for its use. The property would support sales on which a foreign sales corporation…
PLR 200048033: Investment partnership may aggregate built-in gains and losses
An investment partnership sought to combine built-in gains and losses on contributed securities with gains and losses from revaluations of securities it already held for section 704(c) allocations.…
PLR 200048032: Partnership may count earlier historic building rehabilitation costs
A nonprofit rehabilitated a historic building in two phases before contributing it to a partnership. The second-floor apartments had already been rented, while the restored first-floor commercial…
PLR 200048031: Corporation receives relief for an unfiled S election
A corporation's articles of incorporation stated its intent to comply with the S corporation rules, but no Form 2553 was filed. Its president said the omission arose from miscommunication among the…
PLR 200048030: Subsidiary liquidations and recapitalization precede a spin-off
A corporation proposed to separate a partially owned company so both businesses could improve their borrowing capacity and costs. The plan included two subsidiary liquidations, a recapitalization of…
PLR 200048029: Foreign entity gets more time for disregarded entity election
A foreign entity missed the deadline to file Form 8832 electing to be disregarded as separate from its owner for federal tax purposes. The IRS found that the submitted facts and representations…
PLR 200048028: Foreign entity gets more time for disregarded entity election
A foreign entity missed the deadline to file Form 8832 electing to be disregarded as separate from its owner for federal tax purposes. The IRS found that the submitted facts and representations…
PLR 200048027: Restructuring leaves earlier spin-off ruling intact
A corporation requested a supplement to an earlier ruling on separating a controlled company from its parent. Before the separation, it proposed transfers of assets among subsidiaries and…
PLR 200048026: Utility line relocation payment is a capital contribution
A foundation paid a natural gas utility to relocate two transmission lines so a school district could build a public high school on the site. State law barred the school project while the lines…
PLR 200048025: Foreign entity gets more time for disregarded entity election
A foreign entity missed the deadline to file Form 8832 electing to be disregarded as separate from its owner for federal tax purposes. The IRS found that the submitted facts and representations…
PLR 200048024: Corporation may file late S election after counsel withdrew
A corporation's sole shareholder wanted S corporation status from its first taxable year and told its attorneys at formation. The attorneys later ended their representation because of a conflict of…
PLR 200048023: One-shareholder company may cure missed S election
A one-shareholder corporation represented that it had intended to be an S corporation and had operated as one, but discovered after the relevant taxable year that its election was late. The IRS…
PLR 200048022: Parent receives extension to file allowed-loss statement
A consolidated group's parent sold stock in a subsidiary and deducted a loss, but failed to attach the statement of allowed loss required by Treasury Regulation § 1.1502-20(c)(3). The IRS found that…
CCA 200048021: Property sale to children fails deferred exchange rules
A taxpayer sold real property to his children and bought replacement property from another seller, claiming a deferred like-kind exchange under section 1031. Chief Counsel advised that the…
PLR 200048020: Two-shareholder company may cure missed S election
A corporation with two shareholders represented that it had intended to be an S corporation and had operated as one, but discovered after the relevant taxable year that its election was late. The…
CCA 200048019: Manufacturing royalties reduce possession credit cost sharing floor
A Puerto Rico manufacturer elected the profit split method for computing income eligible for section 936 benefits. Chief Counsel advised that royalties from an unrelated licensee reduce product area…
PLR 200048018: Investment trust and fund tax treatment
Two funds sought rulings on an investment trust in which they held interests. The IRS ruled that the trust would not be a publicly traded partnership under section 7704. Each fund could count its…
PLR 200048017: Late S corporation election accepted
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 late filing and granted relief under…
PLR 200048016: Relief for a late S corporation election
A corporation intended to elect S corporation status from its incorporation date but filed its election late. The IRS found reasonable cause for the delay and granted relief under section…
PLR 200048015: Late S corporation election accepted
A corporation intended to elect S corporation status from a specified date after its incorporation but missed the filing deadline. The IRS found reasonable cause for the late election and granted…
PLR 200048014: Late S election treated as timely
A corporation's sole shareholder instructed its attorney to file an S corporation election for its first tax year, but the IRS had no record of a timely Form 2553. The corporation and shareholder…
TAM 200048013: Repayment of untaxed tax sharing proceeds is not deductible
An Alaska Native corporation received a payment under an agreement allowing another company to use its tax losses. After a tax adjustment reduced the losses available, the corporation repaid part of…
CCA 200048012: Reallocating depreciable bank asset basis changes accounting method
Banks allocated part of acquisition premiums to depreciable core deposit assets. An examiner proposed moving some of that basis to nondepreciable goodwill. Chief Counsel advised that this shifts…
TAM 200048011: Dividend record date controls German treaty withholding rate
A bank paying dividends for a U.S. corporation withheld tax at the 5 percent U.S.-Germany treaty rate for a German corporate shareholder. The shareholder held more than 10 percent of the U.S.…
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.