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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Once a corporation makes the CARES Act election, the refundable minimum tax credit is not prorated in a short tax year
An exempt organization that owed tax on unrelated business income had built up an old alternative minimum tax (AMT) credit under section 53. The CARES Act (2020) made that leftover corporate AMT…
Supplemental letter re-dating an earlier grant of extra time to make the success-based-fee safe harbor election
A taxpayer had earlier won an extension of time under Treasury Regulations §§ 301.9100-1 and 301.9100-3 to make the safe harbor election for success-based fees in Revenue Procedure 2011-29, which…
Inadvertent-defect relief for an S corporation election that was invalid because the sole shareholder never signed the consent
A limited liability company elected to be taxed as an S corporation, but the election was defective: the company's sole shareholder never signed the consent statement on Form 2553, and an S election…
Extra time to self-certify as a Qualified Opportunity Fund after the accountant left Form 8996 off the return
An LLC taxed as a partnership was set up to invest in opportunity-zone property and intended to certify itself as a Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF), which requires attaching Form 8996 to a timely…
Extra time for a manufacturer to make the section 59(e) election to amortize research costs over 10 years
A vehicle and engine manufacturer that files a consolidated return meant to elect under section 59(e) to write off its research and experimental (R&E) costs ratably over 10 years instead of…
Extra time for a foreign entity to file a late check-the-box election to be disregarded, when the IRS had no record of its Form 8832
A foreign business entity, whose default U.S. tax classification was a corporation, wanted to be treated as a disregarded entity (ignored as separate from its owner) for federal tax purposes. Its…
Extra time to allocate a grantor's GST exemption to a trust after the attorney never filed the gift tax return
A grantor set up an irrevocable trust for a son and his descendants and intended the trust to be fully exempt from the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax, meaning an inclusion ratio of zero. To…
Inadvertent-termination relief for an S corporation after a shareholder trust missed its ESBT election following the owner's death
An S corporation had shares held by a grantor trust, which is an allowed S corporation shareholder while the grantor is alive. When the grantor died, the trust could keep holding the stock for only…
Extra time for a foreign entity to file a late check-the-box election to be treated as a partnership
A foreign business entity meant to be treated as a partnership for U.S. federal tax purposes as of a chosen date, which requires filing Form 8832, the entity classification (check-the-box) election.…
Inadvertent-termination relief for an S corporation after two successive shareholder trusts each missed the ESBT election
An S corporation had its stock pass through two trusts, and each time the trustee failed to file the election needed to keep the trust an eligible shareholder. When the original shareholder died,…
Two internal upstream distributions of a subsidiary's stock qualify as tax-free spin-offs under section 355
A corporate group wanted to move one lower-tier subsidiary ("Controlled") up its ownership chain without triggering tax. After an internal merger, the group carried out two back-to-back…
Inadvertent-termination relief after an LLC operating agreement's partnership provisions created a second class of stock
An S corporation converted into an LLC but kept being taxed as a corporation, and then adopted an operating agreement written with partnership-style provisions: capital accounts maintained under the…
Advance approval of a private foundation's procedures for student travel and conference stipends under section 4945(g)
A private foundation asked the IRS to approve, in advance, its procedures for a new set of educational grants: travel stipends and conference stipends for graduate fellows and undergraduate scholars…
In a restitution-assessment case, section 6511 does not govern payments the Service parked in excess collections for the same tax year
This is informal Chief Counsel advice, sent by email, about a Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) case involving a criminal restitution-based assessment, the interest on it, and how the refund-claim…
Adding the title "Member" next to a signature on Form 8979 does not invalidate a Partnership Representative appointment
Under the centralized partnership audit rules (the BBA regime), a partnership designates a Partnership Representative (PR) to act for it before the IRS, using Form 8979. Someone asked Chief Counsel…
An IRS appraiser's proposed disclosures to complete a property investigation are permissible investigative disclosures under section 6103(k)(6)
Section 6103 makes tax return information confidential, but it has exceptions. Chief Counsel was asked whether an IRS appraiser could share certain information with outside parties while…
Extra time for a foreign corporation to file a late check-the-box election to be disregarded, after new section 245A rules retroactively changed the tax of two earlier distributions
A foreign corporation (X) sat at the bottom of a chain owned by a U.S. consolidated group. X had made two distributions up to its foreign parent, and one of them generated gain under section 311(b)…
A corporation's tax-free spin-off of one of its two businesses into a new subsidiary qualifies as a "D" reorganization
A corporation runs two separate businesses (Business A and Business B) and wants to split them apart for business reasons. It plans to form a new corporation (Controlled), move Business B's assets…
Extra time for an estate to make a late "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 passed to their surviving spouse (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability"…
Extra time for a foreign entity to file a late check-the-box election to be treated as a disregarded entity
A foreign business entity was eligible to be treated as a disregarded entity (ignored as separate from its single owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes as of a chosen date, but it never filed the…
Extra time for a foreign entity to file a late check-the-box election to be treated as a disregarded entity
A foreign business entity was eligible to be treated as a disregarded entity (ignored as separate from its single owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes as of a chosen date, but it never filed the…
Extra time to file a late section 336(e) election so an S corporation stock sale can be treated as an asset sale
A section 336(e) election lets certain stock sales be treated, for tax purposes, as if the company sold its assets instead, which can give the buyer a stepped-up basis in the underlying assets. Here…
Extra time for an estate to make a late "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 pass to their surviving spouse (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability" election,…
An S corporation's accidentally terminated election is restored after three shareholder trusts missed their ESBT elections
An S corporation can only have certain types of shareholders. A trust generally must file an "electing small business trust" (ESBT) election to qualify as an eligible shareholder. Here, stock of the…
A utility's solar facilities sold at competitive market rates are not "public utility property," so the depreciation normalization rules do not apply
Regulated utilities that recover their costs through traditional "rate-of-return" ratemaking must use a slower "normalization" method of accounting for their depreciation on "public utility…
An S corporation's accidentally terminated election is restored after two successive shareholder trusts missed their ESBT elections
An S corporation can only have eligible shareholders. When a shareholder died, his stock passed to a trust, which qualified as an eligible shareholder for two years but then needed to file an…
An S corporation's accidentally terminated election is restored after two successive shareholder trusts missed their ESBT elections
An S corporation can only have eligible shareholders. When a shareholder died, his stock passed to a trust, which qualified as an eligible shareholder for two years but then needed to file an…
A utility's nuclear decommissioning trust funds stay qualified after it gives up leased reactor interests but keeps the decommissioning liability
Under section 468A, a utility that owns an interest in a nuclear power plant can set aside money in a special tax-favored "qualified nuclear decommissioning fund" (QNDT) to pay the eventual cost of…
A consolidated group gets consent to undo an inadvertent election to capitalize intercompany underwriting fees, even though a later tax-rate cut makes revocation valuable
A regulation (section 1.263(a)-5(d)(4)) lets a taxpayer elect to capitalize certain employee-compensation-type costs of a borrowing rather than deducting them right away. Here a corporate group, by…
IRS denies 501(c)(3) status to a fund that gives college scholarships to all children of a cooperative's employees, with no need or merit test
An organization applied to be recognized as a tax-exempt charity under section 501(c)(3). Its only activity was giving college scholarships to the children of employees of a particular cooperative,…
Extra time for an estate to make a late "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 pass to their surviving spouse (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability" election,…
Extra time for an estate to make a late "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 pass to their surviving spouse (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability" election,…
An S corporation's election is saved after one shareholder trust was mismanaged and eight others missed their ESBT elections
An S corporation can only have eligible shareholders, and trusts that hold its stock generally must qualify as grantor trusts or file "electing small business trust" (ESBT) elections. Here the…
Extra time for an estate to make a late "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 pass to their surviving spouse (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability" election,…
A captive insurance company gets consent to revoke its section 831(b) small-company tax election, on condition it not re-elect for five years
Section 831(b) lets a small non-life insurance company elect to be taxed only on its investment income, instead of on its underwriting income, if its premiums stay under a dollar cap and it meets…
Extra time for an estate to make a late "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 pass to their surviving spouse (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability" election,…
Extra time for a foreign entity to file a late check-the-box election to be disregarded, matching how its owner has reported all along
A foreign business entity was eligible to be treated as a disregarded entity (ignored as separate from its single owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes as of a chosen date. Its owner had in fact…
A REIT that botched a dividend-carryback election gets extra time to file deficiency-dividend forms and fix its distribution shortfall
A real estate investment trust (REIT) must distribute at least 90% of its taxable income each year to keep its favorable tax status. This REIT expected an unusually large gain and planned to use a…
Married investors get consent to make a retroactive QEF election for a foreign fund their advisors failed to flag as a PFIC
When a U.S. person owns shares in a "passive foreign investment company" (PFIC), the default tax rules are punitive, but the investor can soften them by making a "qualified electing fund" (QEF)…
A housing bond issuer gets its late-filed carryforward election for unused private-activity bond volume cap treated as timely
States and local authorities get an annual "volume cap" limiting how much tax-exempt private-activity bond financing they can issue. If an authority does not use all of its cap in a year, it can…
Extra time for an estate to make a late "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 pass to their surviving spouse (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability" election,…
Extra time for a fund to file a late Form 8996 self-certifying as a Qualified Opportunity Fund from its formation
The Opportunity Zone rules let investors defer and reduce tax on capital gains they reinvest in a "Qualified Opportunity Fund" (QOF). To be a QOF, an entity must self-certify by filing Form 8996…
Extra time for a fund to file a late Form 8996 self-certifying as a Qualified Opportunity Fund from its formation
The Opportunity Zone rules let investors defer and reduce tax on capital gains they reinvest in a "Qualified Opportunity Fund" (QOF). To be a QOF, an entity must self-certify by filing Form 8996…
Extra time for an estate to make a late "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 pass to their surviving spouse (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability" election,…
Late relief to revoke a 501(h) lobbying election, effective retroactively
A public charity had earlier filed Form 5768 to make a section 501(h) election, which swaps the vague "no substantial part" limit on lobbying for a dollar-based expenditure test. It later decided…
Late relief to make the Rev. Proc. 2011-29 safe-harbor election for success-based fees
When a company pays advisors fees that are contingent on a deal closing (success-based fees), the tax rules presume those fees must be capitalized rather than deducted, unless the taxpayer documents…
Late relief to make a § 59(e) election to amortize R&E costs over 10 years
Section 59(e) lets a taxpayer choose to spread certain deductions, including research or experimental (R&E) costs otherwise deductible under § 174(a), ratably over 10 years instead of all at once.…
NOL attributable to accelerated depreciation must be reflected in a water utility's excess deferred tax offset to rate base
A regulated water and wastewater utility uses accelerated depreciation for federal tax but must follow the tax "normalization" rules, which stop it from passing the accelerated-depreciation tax…
Moving 1042 replacement property into a grantor trust is not a disposition that triggers deferred gain
Section 1042 lets someone who sells company stock to an ESOP defer the capital gain if they reinvest the proceeds in "qualified replacement property" (QRP). That deferral is clawed back under §…
Court-approved trust modification keeps grandfathered GST-exempt status; only appointed property enters the child's estate
A trust created under a will became irrevocable when the grantor died before September 25, 1985, so it is "grandfathered" and exempt from the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax as long as it is…
Late relief to make the Rev. Proc. 2011-29 success-based fee election omitted from a timely return
Success-based fees (advisor fees contingent on a deal closing) are presumed to be non-deductible capital costs unless the taxpayer documents otherwise, but Rev. Proc. 2011-29 offers a safe harbor:…
Late relief for an estate to make a portability election for the unused estate tax exclusion
When someone dies, any unused portion of their federal estate tax exclusion can be passed to a surviving spouse (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability" election.…
Late relief to make a taxable REIT subsidiary election after a Form 8875 signature was missing
A real estate investment trust (REIT) and a related corporation can jointly elect to treat the corporation as a "taxable REIT subsidiary" (TRS) under § 856(l), which lets the subsidiary run active…
Late relief to make a taxable REIT subsidiary election after a Form 8875 signature was missing
A real estate investment trust (REIT) and a related corporation can jointly elect to treat the corporation as a "taxable REIT subsidiary" (TRS) under § 856(l), which lets the subsidiary run active…
Late relief to make a taxable REIT subsidiary election after a Form 8875 signature was missing
A real estate investment trust (REIT) and a related corporation can jointly elect to treat the corporation as a "taxable REIT subsidiary" (TRS) under § 856(l), which lets the subsidiary run active…
Late relief to make a taxable REIT subsidiary election after a Form 8875 signature was missing
A real estate investment trust (REIT) and a related corporation can jointly elect to treat the corporation as a "taxable REIT subsidiary" (TRS) under § 856(l), which lets the subsidiary run active…
Late relief to make a taxable REIT subsidiary election after a Form 8875 signature was missing
A real estate investment trust (REIT) and a related corporation can jointly elect to treat the corporation as a "taxable REIT subsidiary" (TRS) under § 856(l), which lets the subsidiary run active…
IRS may share an employee's background-check results with a state, but not any return information without consent
This is informal Chief Counsel advice, delivered by email, about whether the IRS may hand a state (Wisconsin) background-check information on an IRS employee so the employee can get access to a…
Section 280E bars the Work Opportunity Tax Credit for a marijuana business
This Chief Counsel Advice answers whether a business that traffics in marijuana can claim the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) under § 51 for wages paid to employees from targeted groups. The…
IRS denies a six-year-late election to exclude discharged real-property business debt as based on hindsight
Section 108(c)(3)(C) lets a non-corporate taxpayer elect to exclude from income the cancellation of "qualified real property business indebtedness," in exchange for reducing the basis of depreciable…
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.