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 9952077: Active property rents excluded from S corporation passive income
A real estate company planning to elect S corporation status asked whether rents from properties held through partnerships and wholly owned subsidiaries would count as passive investment income…
PLR 9952076: Inadvertently invalid S election receives relief
A company sought relief after learning that its common stock had different liquidation and distribution rights when its S corporation election took effect. It redeemed one class of common stock to…
TAM 9952075: Cleanup costs split by when property was contaminated
A public utility sought technical advice on the tax treatment of cleaning up contamination at a former gas plant site where it was building a new operations facility. The IRS concluded that cleanup…
PLR 9952074: Tax treatment of a nuclear plant sale and decommissioning funds
A utility planned to sell a nuclear power plant, its related assets, and interests in decommissioning funds. The IRS ruled that transferring the qualified decommissioning fund would not disqualify…
PLR 9952073: City redevelopment authority treated as part of the city
A city helped create a nonprofit authority to hold and manage property for redevelopment. The city controlled its board, approved its budget, supplied its employees, and provided nearly all its…
PLR 9952072: Early S corporation reelection denied after ESOP stock sale
A corporation revoked its S election just before its shareholders sold stock to an employee stock ownership plan and elected to defer gain under § 1042. The plan later acquired all of the company's…
PLR 9952071: Unitrust and unrelated business income rulings on REIT investment
A partnership planned to donate interests in a real estate operating partnership to a charitable remainder unitrust, which could later exchange those interests for REIT shares. The IRS ruled that…
PLR 9952070: Active rental income excluded from S corporation passive income
An S corporation with accumulated earnings and profits received rent from commercial property, including a tenant that had bought one of its businesses. It provided tenant services, maintained the…
TAM 9952069: Costs of obtaining long-term service contracts must be capitalized
A service provider incurred employee pay and travel costs while pursuing five ten-year customer contracts. The IRS advised that those costs must be capitalized under § 263 because the contracts were…
PLR 9952068: Foreign company gets more time to elect partnership treatment
A foreign limited liability company with two owners intended to be taxed as a partnership in the United States, but its owners missed the deadline to file an entity classification election. Under…
PLR 9952067: Late S corporation election allowed after attorney missed filing
A corporation and its shareholders intended to elect S corporation status, but their attorney did not file Form 2553 for the first tax year. The corporation filed an S corporation return, and the…
General Litigation Bulletin 470: Tax penalties, liens, and collection cases
This Office of Chief Counsel bulletin summarizes court decisions on tax penalties, federal tax liens, bankruptcy, levies, and collection procedure. Its lead article describes a Third Circuit…
PLR 9952065: Former resident rebuts tax avoidance presumption; purpose undecided
A former U.S. long-term resident relinquished lawful permanent resident status and had net worth above the threshold for a presumption of tax avoidance under § 877. He sought a ruling that avoiding…
PLR 9952064: Former resident rebuts tax avoidance presumption; purpose undecided
A former U.S. long-term resident relinquished lawful permanent resident status and had net worth above the threshold for a presumption of tax avoidance under § 877. She sought a ruling that avoiding…
PLR 9952063: Fund receives late election relief for prior-year dividends
A fund sought to make a § 855(a) election to treat a dividend declared and paid after year end as paid in the prior tax year. Its accountant missed the deadline to request a return filing extension…
PLR 9952062: Former citizen rebuts tax avoidance presumption; purpose undecided
A person who had been a U.S. citizen from birth renounced that citizenship while living in another country. His net worth exceeded the statutory threshold for a presumption that expatriation had a…
PLR 9952061: Parent receives more time for three QSUB elections
An S corporation acquired all the stock of three subsidiaries and intended to elect qualified subchapter S subsidiary treatment from the acquisition date. It missed the election deadline. The IRS…
PLR 9952060: Different tax treatment for police and firefighter benefits
A public benefit administrator asked how payments to police officers, firefighters, and their survivors were taxed under § 104(a)(1). The IRS ruled that specified line-of-duty death payments and…
PLR 9952059: Family ranch division receives reorganization rulings
Two family groups that owned a ranching corporation disagreed over how to operate it. The corporation proposed transferring about half its business assets to a controlled corporation and…
PLR 9952058: Former QSUB may elect S status without five-year wait
An S corporation distributed the stock of its subsidiary to shareholders, ending the subsidiary's status as a qualified subchapter S subsidiary. The subsidiary sought to elect S corporation status…
PLR 9952057: Late S election accepted from start of business
A corporation began business after incorporation and its shareholders intended S corporation treatment from the date business began. They missed the deadline to file the election. The IRS found…
PLR 9952056: Late S election accepted from incorporation
A corporation's shareholder intended S corporation treatment from the date the company was incorporated, but the election was not filed on time. The IRS found reasonable cause for the missed…
PLR 9952055: Late tax-year change application treated as timely
A taxpayer filed Form 1128 late to request a change in its tax year. The letter says the delay arose from an error or misunderstanding and that the form was filed within 90 days of its due date. The…
PLR 9952054: Late S election accepted from incorporation
A corporation's shareholder intended S corporation treatment from the date the company was incorporated, but the election was not filed on time. The IRS found reasonable cause for the missed…
PLR 9952053: S status preserved after trust held stock too long
A shareholder's trust continued to hold S corporation stock more than two years after her death. Once that two-year period expired, the trust was no longer an eligible shareholder, and the company's…
PLR 9952052: Former resident rebuts tax avoidance presumption; purpose undecided
A former U.S. long-term resident returned to his birth country, where his parents were also born, and later relinquished lawful permanent resident status. His net worth exceeded the threshold that…
PLR 9952051: Former resident rebuts tax avoidance presumption; purpose undecided
A former U.S. long-term resident returned to her birth country, where her parents were also born, and later relinquished lawful permanent resident status. Her net worth exceeded the threshold that…
PLR 9952050: Two distributions of subsidiary stock qualify for nonrecognition
A corporate group completed two distributions that moved all the stock of one subsidiary up two levels in its ownership chain. The group said the move would help the subsidiary attract independent…
PLR 9952049: District controlled trust qualifies for government income exclusion
A district formed and controlled a nonprofit trust to preserve natural resources in an urban setting. The trust proposed to amend its articles so its remaining assets would go to the district upon…
PLR 9952048: Benefit trust must withhold tax on retirees' make-up benefits
A multiemployer plan used a separate trust to pay retirees benefits that its qualified pension plan could not pay because of section 415 limits. Employers funded a holding account, while trustees…
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.