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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Surviving spouse may roll a deceased spouse's estate-payable IRA into her own IRA
A person died owning a traditional IRA that named no living beneficiary, so the custodian treated the decedent's estate as the beneficiary and moved the money into a beneficiary IRA in the estate's…
Consent to revoke a captive insurer's § 831(b) small-company election
A small captive insurance company (a foreign captive that had elected to be treated as a U.S. company under § 953(d)) had elected under § 831(b) to be taxed only on its investment income rather than…
120-day extension to make a late estate-tax portability election
An estate wanted to transfer a deceased spouse's unused estate-tax exclusion (the DSUE amount) to the surviving spouse through a "portability" election. That election is made on a timely filed…
Extension to file the original Form 3115 for an accounting-method change treated as timely
A corporate parent filing a consolidated return wanted to change how its group depreciates certain qualified improvement property under § 168, an automatic accounting-method change. Under the…
Rural telephone cooperative's gain on sale of a broadband partnership is patronage-sourced income
A rural telephone cooperative (now taxable, because it no longer meets the 85% member-income test for exemption under § 501(c)(12)) had invested through a subsidiary in a partnership that built and…
120-day extension for a foreign entity to file a late Form 8832 electing partnership status
A foreign business entity wanted to be treated as a partnership for U.S. federal tax purposes. Under the "check-the-box" rules, an eligible entity makes that choice by filing Form 8832, but this…
120-day extension to make a late estate-tax portability election
When someone dies, their estate can "port" (transfer) the deceased spouse's unused estate-tax exclusion to the surviving spouse, but only by filing a timely estate tax return (Form 706) that makes…
Late self-certification as a Qualified Opportunity Fund is treated as timely
A limited liability company (taxed as a partnership) was set up to invest in a qualified opportunity zone. To get the tax benefits, it had to "self-certify" as a Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF) by…
IRS approves a private foundation's contingent set-aside for grant funds frozen by a court order
A private foundation must pay out a minimum amount each year for charitable purposes or face an excise tax on its undistributed income under Section 4942. Here a court order arising from litigation…
IRS denies 501(c)(3) status to a soccer team's independent supporters' club
A membership group applied for tax-exempt charity status under 501(c)(3), describing itself as an independent supporters' group for a soccer team (referred to as C). Its activities center on the…
IRS denies 501(c)(3) status because the applicant never documented what it actually does
An organization applied for tax-exempt charity status under 501(c)(3) using the short Form 1023-EZ, describing its mission as serving "religious and funeral purposes." The Form 1023-EZ is mostly a…
IRS denies 501(c)(7) social-club status to a corporation running a seasonal trailer park
A corporation applied for tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(7) social club. It owns and operates a seasonal trailer park in which each mobile-home site corresponds to a share of the company's stock, so…
IRS denies 501(c)(6) business-league status to a single-vendor customer user group
An organization applied to be recognized as a tax-exempt "business league" under 501(c)(6). It operates as the customer and user community for the products of one for-profit technology company…
IRS denies 501(c)(3) status to a health care sharing ministry that operates like a commercial insurance business
A startup applied for recognition as a tax-exempt charity under 501(c)(3) so it could run a "health care sharing ministry," a program where members pay a monthly "share" into a common resource that…
9100-3 extension to make a late portability (DSUE) election for a small estate
A surviving spouse can inherit a late spouse's unused federal estate-tax exclusion (the "DSUE" amount), but only if the deceased spouse's estate makes a "portability" election on a timely filed…
9100-3 extension to self-certify a late qualified opportunity fund (Form 8996) election
A newly formed LLC taxed as a partnership was set up to be a qualified opportunity fund (QOF), which requires self-certifying each year by filing Form 8996 with a timely partnership return. The…
9100-3 extension to make a late portability (DSUE) election for a small estate
A surviving spouse can inherit a late spouse's unused federal estate-tax exclusion (the "DSUE" amount), but only if the deceased spouse's estate makes a "portability" election on a timely filed…
9100-3 extension to make a late portability (DSUE) election for a small estate
A surviving spouse can inherit a late spouse's unused federal estate-tax exclusion (the "DSUE" amount), but only if the deceased spouse's estate makes a "portability" election on a timely filed…
9100-3 extension to make a late portability (DSUE) election for a small estate
A surviving spouse can inherit a late spouse's unused federal estate-tax exclusion (the "DSUE" amount), but only if the deceased spouse's estate makes a "portability" election on a timely filed…
A REIT's section 481(a) accounting-method-change adjustment is excluded from the REIT gross-income tests
A company that plans to elect to be taxed as a real estate investment trust (REIT) changed one of its accounting methods, capitalizing certain administrative and service costs tied to its properties…
9100-3 extension to make a late portability (DSUE) election for a small estate
A surviving spouse can inherit a late spouse's unused federal estate-tax exclusion (the "DSUE" amount), but only if the deceased spouse's estate makes a "portability" election on a timely filed…
How the depreciation normalization proration formula applies to a utility's two-part projected transmission rate base
A regulated electric utility sets its wholesale transmission rates using a formula that projects a yearly revenue requirement and then trues it up to actual results in the next cycle. The projected…
9100-3 extension to make a late portability (DSUE) election for a small estate
A surviving spouse can inherit a late spouse's unused federal estate-tax exclusion (the "DSUE" amount), but only if the deceased spouse's estate makes a "portability" election on a timely filed…
IRS approves a private foundation's contingent set-aside for funds a court order barred it from distributing
A private foundation must pay out a minimum amount each year or face an excise tax on the money it holds back (Section 4942). Here the foundation could not make some of its required distributions…
IRS rules a family-owned company's split-off to one of its three owner families is a tax-free D reorganization
A company owned equally by three families wants to separate part of its business and give it to one of those families, letting that family exit as owners of the parent. The company will form a new…
IRS rules non-voting preferred stock in a buyout vehicle is "plain vanilla" preferred that does not break affiliation under Section 1504(a)(4)
A corporate parent that files a consolidated tax return set up a new subsidiary to buy a public company in an all-cash merger. To fund the deal, the subsidiary took on debt and also raised equity…
IRS grants a REIT 90 days to make a late taxable-REIT-subsidiary election after a mix-up over who would file Form 8875
A real estate investment trust (REIT) and its wholly owned subsidiary asked the IRS for extra time to jointly elect, under Section 856(l), to treat the subsidiary as a "taxable REIT subsidiary"…
IRS grants an S corporation 120 days to make a late QSub election for its wholly owned subsidiary
An S corporation asked the IRS for extra time to elect to treat its wholly owned subsidiary as a qualified subchapter S subsidiary (QSub). A QSub election lets the parent treat the subsidiary as…
IRS grants a partnership 45 days to make a late Opportunity Zone gain-deferral election after its CPA missed the investor filing
A real estate investment LLC (taxed as a partnership) asked the IRS for extra time to make an Opportunity Zone election. Section 1400Z-2 lets a taxpayer defer capital gain by reinvesting it in a…
IRS rules a utility may not fold cost-of-removal into the formula that returns excess deferred taxes to ratepayers after the TCJA rate cut
A regulated electric and gas utility asked the IRS a normalization question created by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. When the corporate tax rate dropped from 35% to 21%, utilities ended up holding…
IRS grants a partnership 120 days to make a late Section 754 basis-adjustment election after a partner's death
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership asked the IRS for extra time to make a Section 754 election. That election lets a partnership adjust the tax basis of its property when a partner's…
IRS rules a REIT's "coverage product" fee (a limited waiver of the landlord's liability shield) is rents from real property
A company that plans to elect real estate investment trust (REIT) status asked the IRS whether a particular monthly fee it collects from tenants counts as "rents from real property." REITs must earn…
IRS waives a pension plan's minimum funding requirement for one year on COVID-19 hardship, with PBGC collateral and contribution conditions
An employer that sponsors a defined-benefit pension plan asked the IRS to waive the plan's minimum funding requirement for one plan year. Tax law lets the IRS grant this waiver when the employer…
IRS approves a foundation's grant procedures for funding tenured professors' interdisciplinary research
A private foundation asked the IRS to approve, in advance, the way it plans to award grants to individuals. Private foundations normally owe an excise tax on grants to individuals for study or…
IRS approves a foundation's grant procedures for a game-design stipend program
A private foundation asked the IRS to approve, in advance, the way it plans to award grants to individuals. Private foundations normally owe an excise tax on grants to individuals for study or…
IRS approves a foundation's scholarship procedures for students at historically black colleges
A private foundation asked the IRS to approve, in advance, the way it plans to award scholarships. Private foundations normally owe an excise tax on grants to individuals for study, but Section…
Accountable care organization denied Section 501(c)(4) status
An accountable care organization owned by a Section 501(c)(3) health system asked to be recognized as a Section 501(c)(4) social-welfare organization. It coordinated patient care under the federal…
IRS denies 501(c)(3) status to a cannabis-sacrament church because its worship uses a federally illegal drug
A group applied to be recognized as a tax-exempt church under 501(c)(3). Its stated purpose is to advance a religion whose worship treats consecrated cannabis as a sacrament, comparable to how the…
IRS consents to a captive insurer revoking its small-insurance-company (Section 831(b)) election
A small property-and-casualty ("non-life") insurance company can elect under Section 831(b) to be taxed only on its investment income rather than on its underwriting income. Once made, that election…
Interests in a mortgage-backed investment fund count as obligations "in registered form"
Under Section 163(f), interest on certain debt obligations is only deductible if the obligation is "in registered form," meaning ownership is tracked through the issuer or a book-entry system rather…
Interests in a mortgage-backed investment fund count as obligations "in registered form"
Under Section 163(f), interest on certain debt obligations is only deductible if the obligation is "in registered form," meaning ownership is tracked through the issuer or a book-entry system rather…
Interests in a mortgage-backed investment fund count as obligations "in registered form"
Under Section 163(f), interest on certain debt obligations is only deductible if the obligation is "in registered form," meaning ownership is tracked through the issuer or a book-entry system rather…
Estate granted extra time to make the "portability" election for the surviving spouse
A surviving spouse can inherit the unused part of a deceased spouse's federal estate-tax exclusion (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE, amount), but only if the deceased spouse's…
Surviving spouse may roll over a deceased spouse's IRA into her own, even though the IRA passed through the estate
A surviving spouse can usually roll over a deceased spouse's IRA into her own IRA and keep deferring taxes. That is normally not allowed when the IRA is left to the estate rather than directly to…
Buyer gets extra time to make late Section 338(g) elections for acquired foreign subsidiaries
When a corporation buys the stock of a target company, a Section 338 election lets the buyer treat the stock purchase as if it were an asset purchase for tax purposes, which can change the tax basis…
S corporation status restored after trustees missed the ESBT elections following a shareholder's death
An S corporation can only have certain kinds of shareholders. A trust can hold S corporation stock if it makes an "electing small business trust" (ESBT) election; without that election, the trust is…
Equipment-leasing partnership gets extra time to elect out of bonus depreciation after a software switch delayed its return
Businesses that buy qualifying property can take a large "bonus depreciation" deduction (100% first-year write-off) under Section 168(k), but they can also elect not to take it for a class of…
Tax-free spin-off rulings for an internal cross-border corporate restructuring
A corporate parent group planned an internal reorganization that ends with one foreign subsidiary ("Distributing") spinning off a lower-tier foreign corporation ("Controlled") up the chain to the…
Estate gets more time to allocate the decedent's generation-skipping tax exemption after the executor missed it on Form 706
When someone dies leaving property to trusts that may benefit grandchildren or later generations, the executor can allocate the decedent's generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption to those…
A misreported gift still triggered automatic allocation of the donor's generation-skipping tax exemption
The generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax applies when wealth passes to grandchildren or later generations, and each person has a GST exemption that can shelter such transfers. For gifts to certain…
Securities-trading partnership gets extra time to make a late "mixed straddle account" election after a tax-software glitch
A partnership that trades securities regularly makes a "mixed straddle account" election, which is a way to net gains and losses on offsetting positions under the Section 1092 straddle rules. The…
Estate granted extra time to make the "portability" election so the surviving spouse can use the decedent's unused estate-tax exclusion
A surviving spouse can inherit the unused portion of a deceased spouse's federal estate-tax exclusion (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE, amount), but only if the deceased spouse's…
Estate gets extra time to make a "portability" election so the surviving spouse can use the decedent's unused estate-tax exclusion
When someone dies, any unused portion of their federal estate-tax exclusion can be transferred to their surviving spouse (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE, amount). This…
Late "check-the-box" election granted so a foreign limited company can be taxed as a partnership
A limited company formed under foreign law wanted to be treated as a partnership for U.S. tax purposes, which requires filing Form 8832 (the "check-the-box" election) by a deadline. The company…
Quarterly tax-payment distributions by an S corporation are not partial-liquidation distributions
An S corporation adopted a plan of partial liquidation and distributed most of one business line's assets to its shareholders. Separately, the company has a standing obligation to make quarterly…
Spun-off company's stock stays "employer securities" for the net unrealized appreciation tax break, with the reinvestment window extended to 180 days
A publicly traded company runs a 401(k)/ESOP retirement plan whose participants hold the company's stock. When employees take employer stock out of such a plan, a special rule (net unrealized…
Late "check-the-box" election granted so a foreign entity can be taxed as a partnership
A foreign business entity wanted to be treated as a partnership for U.S. tax purposes. To do that, it had to file Form 8832 (the "check-the-box" entity classification election) on time, but it…
S corporation election saved after a trust beneficiary forgot to sign the Form 2553
A corporation had filed a Form 2553 to be taxed as an S corporation, and one of its shareholders was a trust. To keep an S corporation's tax status, a trust shareholder generally has to qualify as a…
Inadvertent-termination relief for an S corporation after a trust beneficiary missed the QSST election
A small business made an S corporation election, then transferred shares to a trust. The trust could have qualified to hold S corporation stock as a "qualified subchapter S trust" (QSST), but its…
IRS approves a private foundation's employer-related scholarship procedures under section 4945(g)(1)
A private foundation asked the IRS to approve, in advance, the way it runs an employer-related scholarship program, and the IRS approved it. This advance approval matters because a private…
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.