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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Final adverse determination revoking a 501(c)(3) charity's exemption for failing to substantiate that its emergency-relief spending served exempt purposes
A small charity that had obtained § 501(c)(3) status through the streamlined Form 1023-EZ application lost that status after an examination. The organization said its purpose was emergency assistance …
Final adverse determination revoking a 501(c)(3) supporting organization's exemption because it never became operational
A nonprofit that had been recognized as a § 501(c)(3) organization, and classified as a Type I supporting organization under § 509(a)(3), lost its exemption because it never actually operated. The org…
Final adverse determination revoking a 501(c)(3) exemption, back to its start, for a members-only military social organization that failed both the organizational and operational tests
An organization that had obtained § 501(c)(3) status through the streamlined Form 1023-EZ application lost that status, and lost it retroactively to the day the exemption began. In substance the group…
Final adverse determination revoking a 501(c)(3) exemption, back to its start, because the organizing document failed the organizational test
A nonprofit that had obtained § 501(c)(3) status through the streamlined Form 1023-EZ application lost that status retroactively to the day it began. On its Form 1023-EZ the organization had attested …
Final adverse determination revoking a Type III supporting organization's 501(c)(3) exemption for becoming inactive after its supported organization went bankrupt
A charity that had been recognized as a § 501(c)(3) organization and classified as a Type III (non-functionally integrated) supporting organization under § 509(a)(3) lost its exemption after it stoppe…
Final adverse determination revoking a private foundation's 501(c)(3) exemption for private inurement to its sole trustee
A private non-operating foundation, created under a person's will to support the arts and provide scholarships to musicians, composers, and lyricists, lost its § 501(c)(3) exemption for private inurem…
Final adverse determination revoking a 501(c)(4) civic league's exemption after it stopped operating
A social welfare organization exempt under § 501(c)(4), organized as a local post with officers such as a Commander and an Alternate Treasurer and affiliated with a state and national parent under a g…
When short-term (vacation) rental income is hit with self-employment tax under section 1402(a)(1)
This Chief Counsel Advice addresses short-term rentals, the kind listed on online marketplaces like Airbnb or VRBO, and whether the owner's net rental income is subject to self-employment (SECA) tax. …
A supplemental ruling that letting one company officer also sit on the spun-off company's board will not disturb an earlier tax-free spin-off ruling
A parent company (Distributing) had already received a private letter ruling in July 2021 blessing a tax-free spin-off, in which it would separate part of its business into a subsidiary (Controlled) a…
Late-filing relief letting a partnership self-certify as a qualified opportunity fund after it missed the Form 8996 deadline
Qualified opportunity zones let investors defer and reduce tax on capital gains by putting the money into a qualified opportunity fund (QOF). To become a QOF, an entity self-certifies by filing Form 8…
Late-election relief to make a portability (DSUE) election for an estate that was not required to file an estate tax return
When one spouse dies without using all of the federal estate and gift tax exclusion, the survivor can inherit the unused amount (the deceased spousal unused exclusion, or DSUE) through a "portability"…
A tax-free spin-off separating two businesses, with rulings that the parent can use the deal's borrowed cash and stock to retire its own debt without triggering tax
A publicly traded parent company (Distributing) runs two business lines and wants to separate one of them (Business B) into a standalone public company (Controlled) and hand Controlled's stock to its …
Pension plan granted seven-year approval to use its own substitute mortality tables for funding calculations
A single-employer defined benefit pension plan normally computes its minimum required funding using standard IRS mortality tables. Section 430(h)(3) lets a plan sponsor apply to use its own "substitut…
Private foundation gets advance approval for its scholarship, arts, and business-development grant procedures
A private foundation that hands out grants to individuals for study or similar purposes normally owes an excise tax on those payments (a "taxable expenditure") under Internal Revenue Code § 4945, unle…
202150034: IRS revokes a veterans charity's 501(c)(3) status for inurement, finding its two officers skimmed solicited cash to fund gambling
A small charity said it helped veterans by running sober-living rooming houses and giving out basic necessities, funded by "bucket" cash solicitations outside retail stores. On audit, the IRS conclude…
202150033: IRS revokes a ministry's 501(c)(3) status for inurement after its president used the organization's account for personal spending
A one-person ministry doing life coaching, mentoring, Bible study, and athletic coaching lost its tax-exempt charity status. The organization's founder and president had sole control of its single che…
202150032: IRS revokes a fraternity house corporation's 501(c)(7) social club status because all of its income came from rent and investments, not members
A tax-exempt social club under Internal Revenue Code § 501(c)(7) is meant to be a members' club for pleasure and recreation, supported mainly by member dues, fees, and assessments. Federal law (P.L. 9…
202150031: IRS denies 501(c)(3) status to a family fund that covers funeral and emergency costs for the descendants of one ancestor
A membership fund applied to be recognized as a tax-exempt charity under Internal Revenue Code § 501(c)(3). Its members were the blood-related male descendants of a single ancestor, and the fund's pur…
202150030: IRS revokes a charity's 501(c)(3) status after it stopped filing returns and did not respond to the audit
A public charity recognized under Internal Revenue Code § 501(c)(3) lost its exemption for the simplest of reasons: it stopped filing its annual return and never responded to the IRS. Every exempt org…
202150029: IRS revokes a charity's 501(c)(3) status after it ignored the audit and never filed its returns
A small charity that had been recognized as tax-exempt under Internal Revenue Code § 501(c)(3) lost that status because it went silent. The organization had obtained exemption through the streamlined …
202150028: IRS revokes a homeowners' association's 501(c)(4) status for serving its members, not the community, and for ignoring the audit
A homeowners' association that had ended up treated as a tax-exempt "social welfare" organization under Internal Revenue Code § 501(c)(4) lost that status for two independent reasons. First, it never …
202150027: IRS revokes a defunct diagnostic charity's 501(c)(3) status for failing both the organizational and operational tests and not producing records
A charity originally recognized under Internal Revenue Code § 501(c)(3) to run a diagnostic center for people with developmental disabilities lost its exemption after it effectively stopped operating.…
202150026: IRS revokes a cemetery association's 501(c)(3) status because running a cemetery is not a charitable purpose
A cemetery association that had obtained recognition as a charity under Internal Revenue Code § 501(c)(3) through the streamlined Form 1023-EZ lost that status on audit, because operating a cemetery i…
202150025: IRS revokes a terminated charity's 501(c)(3) status after it stopped responding and never filed its final return
A charity recognized under Internal Revenue Code § 501(c)(3) told the IRS it had terminated, but then never wrapped things up on paper, so the IRS revoked its exemption. During the examination the rev…
202150024: IRS disqualifies a hunting club's 501(c)(7) status because oil and gas royalties, not membership, drive its income
A social club, a hunting and shooting club that also does firearm-safety education and land conservation, had never gotten an IRS determination letter but had filed for years as a self-declared tax-ex…
202150023: IRS revokes a social club's 501(c)(7) status for recurring nonmember income from renting apartments above its clubhouse
A social club recognized as tax-exempt under Internal Revenue Code § 501(c)(7) lost that status because too much of its money came from outside its membership. A § 501(c)(7) club must be operated subs…
202150022: IRS revokes a defunct fraternity chapter's 501(c)(7) status: no members for a decade, income only from investments
A local chapter of a national fraternity that had been recognized as a tax-exempt social club under Internal Revenue Code § 501(c)(7) lost that status because it no longer functioned as a club at all.…
202150021: IRS revokes a charity's 501(c)(3) status after it never produced records for the audit despite months of attempted contact
A public charity recognized under Internal Revenue Code § 501(c)(3) through the streamlined Form 1023-EZ lost its exemption because the IRS could never complete an examination of it. Over many months …
202150020: IRS denies 501(c)(3) status to an ethnic community mutual-aid group that mainly pays benefits to its own members
A mutual-aid association organized around an ethnic community applied for recognition as a tax-exempt charity under Internal Revenue Code § 501(c)(3), and the IRS denied it because the group mainly se…
202150019: IRS revokes a motorcycle festival charity's 501(c)(3) status for operating primarily for private benefit
A charity had been recognized under Internal Revenue Code § 501(c)(3), stating in its exemption application that it would hold convention-style motorcycle rallies to raise money for other IRS-approved…
202150018: IRS revokes an inactive charity's 501(c)(3) status for failing to produce records
A small charity had been recognized as tax-exempt under Internal Revenue Code § 501(c)(3) after filing the streamlined Form 1023-EZ application. When the IRS selected it for audit, the organization co…
Chief Counsel advises that a state-court receiver's fee is not a reasonable expense payable ahead of federal tax liens
This is informal Chief Counsel advice, sent by email, about a property sale in a state-court receivership where the IRS held federal tax liens. The receiver proposed to take a fee out of the sale proc…
Chief Counsel advises that a Chapter 7 trustee may receive a debtor's returns on written request, and return information without one
This is informal Chief Counsel advice, sent by email, about what tax information the IRS may hand over to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee in a "no-asset" case. Tax returns and return information are co…
Chief Counsel advises that section 6103 does not bar disclosure of information a person learned only after leaving employment
This is informal Chief Counsel advice, sent by email, about the confidentiality rules for tax return information under Internal Revenue Code § 6103. Section 6103(a) bars former employees from disclosi…
IRS rules that a REIT's fees from oil-storage terminals and pipelines qualify as rents from real property
A company that invests in energy infrastructure (petroleum storage terminals and pipelines) planned to elect to be taxed as a real estate investment trust (REIT). To keep REIT status, at least 95 perc…
IRS grants a late-filing estate 120 days to make a portability election for the deceased spouse's unused exclusion
When one spouse dies, the estate can "port" the deceased spouse's unused estate-and-gift-tax exclusion (the DSUE amount) over to the surviving spouse, but only by making an election on a timely filed …
IRS rules on a multi-step tax-free separation of a public subsidiary through internal and external distributions
A publicly traded parent company owned a majority stake in a separately public subsidiary ("Controlled") through a chain of holding companies, and it wanted to fully separate that subsidiary and hand …
IRS grants a partnership 120 more days to make a section 754 basis-adjustment election
When a partnership interest changes hands, the partnership can make a "section 754 election" to adjust the tax basis of its assets, which usually benefits the incoming partner by aligning the inside b…
IRS grants a historic-rehab entity 60 more days to elect out of "tax-exempt controlled entity" treatment
This ruling involves a historic building rehabilitation financed with federal historic tax credits (under Internal Revenue Code § 47). The taxpayer is an LLC wholly owned by a § 501 tax-exempt nonprof…
IRS rules that a parent company's pro rata spin-off of a subsidiary business qualifies as a tax-free reorganization
A publicly traded parent company wanted to separate one of its two businesses into a new, independent public company and give the new company's stock to its own shareholders. To do that, the parent fo…
IRS grants a corporation 120 more days to elect to amortize research expenses over 10 years
A corporation that files a consolidated return for its group wanted to elect, under Internal Revenue Code § 59(e), to deduct its research and experimental (R&E) expenditures ratably over 10 years inst…
IRS grants a company 60 more days to make the 70/30 safe-harbor election for success-based fees
When a company pays fees that are contingent on closing a merger or acquisition ("success-based fees"), the tax rules presume the whole fee must be capitalized (spread out) rather than deducted, unles…
IRS grants a corporation 120 more days to make section 59(e) elections its accountant forgot to attach
A corporation that files a consolidated return decided to elect, under Internal Revenue Code § 59(e), to deduct its research and experimental (R&E) expenditures ratably over 10 years rather than all a…
IRS lets a royalty company treat its adjacent nonoperating mineral interests as a single property for depletion
A company that owns oil, gas, and mineral royalty interests (but does not itself drill, develop, or operate the properties) asked the IRS for permission to combine many separate "nonoperating" mineral…
IRS rules that gaps in revenue do not stop a research business from being an "active trade or business" for a spin-off
A publicly traded company in a highly regulated industry does research and development on two separate product lines. It wanted to split the newer product line into a separate company and give that co…
IRS rules a gas pipeline may return TCJA excess deferred taxes to ratepayers over a revised regulatory life without a normalization violation
A regulated interstate natural gas pipeline uses accelerated depreciation for tax purposes, which is allowed for utilities only if they follow the "normalization" rules. Those rules govern the timing …
IRS treats an S corporation's accidental election termination as inadvertent and restores its status
An S corporation can only have certain kinds of shareholders. One of its shareholders was a grantor trust, which is a permitted shareholder. But the trust was amended, and after that amendment it no l…
IRS denies a day-trader's request to make a late mark-to-market election, citing hindsight
A securities trader wanted to elect the "mark-to-market" method of accounting under Internal Revenue Code § 475(f), which lets a trader in securities treat trading gains and losses as ordinary (rather…
IRS approves a private foundation's scholarship procedures under Section 4945(g)
A private foundation asked the IRS to bless the way it hands out scholarships before it starts writing checks. Foundations normally owe an excise tax on grants to individuals for study, but Section 49…
IRS revokes a charity's 501(c)(3) status for failing to produce records for an audit
A small organization recognized as a 501(c)(3) charity was selected for audit and then went silent. The IRS repeatedly mailed and called, but the group never produced the records needed to show it was…
IRS revokes a hospital's 501(c)(3) status after it sold its assets and stopped operating
A tax-exempt hospital sold all of its assets and stopped providing hospital services under its own name. After the sale, the corporate entity conducted no activities at all. It never filed articles of…
IRS revokes a private foundation's 501(c)(3) status for never operating and serving private interests
A private foundation set up to fund small businesses and charities never actually did any charitable work. Houses tied to the founder's family were put in the foundation's name but kept running under …
IRS revokes a housing charity's 501(c)(3) status for private inurement and failure to produce records
An organization formed to house and train homeless, needy, and disabled people lost its 501(c)(3) exemption after an audit uncovered signs that its founders were using it for private benefit. Bank rec…
IRS revokes a squadron morale club's 501(c)(3) status for non-exempt social purpose and failure to produce records
An organization set up to improve the health, welfare, and morale of members of a specified military work unit lost its 501(c)(3) exemption. Its main activities were social and recreational, such as h…
IRS revokes a supporting organization's 501(c)(3) status where it had no assets or activities
An organization had been recognized as a 509(a)(3) supporting organization, a type of public charity that exists to support another specified charity. On audit, it turned out the organization had no i…
IRS revokes a girls' field hockey booster club's 501(c)(3) status for funneling fundraising to member families
A club formed to teach high-school-aged girls field hockey and field a travel team lost its 501(c)(3) exemption after an audit examined how it handled fundraising money. The club kept a separate accou…
IRS revokes a charity's 501(c)(3) status for failing the organizational test on a Form 1023-EZ
This organization got its 501(c)(3) status through the short-form application, Form 1023-EZ, on which it attested that its organizing documents met the legal requirements. On audit, the IRS found that…
IRS revokes a 501(c)(3) that stopped responding to its audit and never produced records
An organization that had been recognized as a 501(c)(3) charity through the streamlined Form 1023-EZ application was selected for audit to confirm its actual activities matched its approved exempt pur…
IRS revokes an animal-sanctuary foundation's 501(c)(3) status after it became unreachable for audit
A foundation set up as a vegan animal sanctuary and education center, providing permanent sanctuary to animals (with a stated specialty in horses) and experiential education about human-animal relatio…
IRS revokes a historic-preservation foundation's 501(c)(3) status as an instrument of a related private social club
A foundation had been recognized as a 501(c)(3) public charity to preserve the history and architecture of a downtown area, with particular focus on one historic building. On audit the IRS found it wa…
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.