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.
No determinations match these filters
Try fewer or different words, check the spelling, or clear the filters to browse everything.
PLR 200002012: Possessions credit revocation permits deemed asset sale election
A corporation operating in Puerto Rico was sold to a new owner, who wanted the stock purchase treated as an asset sale under section 338(h)(10). Its existing section 936 election would keep it from…
PLR 200002011: Charitable gifts of deferred compensation and stock options at death
An executive planned to designate charities to receive deferred compensation at death and to leave them nonstatutory stock options by will. The IRS ruled that the estate could claim a section 2055…
PLR 200002010: Tax treatment of mutual insurer conversion and policyholder credits
A foreign mutual life insurer planned to convert to a stock company under a new holding company. Policyholders would receive stock, cash, or credits to retirement plan insurance contracts for their…
CCA 200002009: Consolidated group's stock loss may be disallowed after asset gain
A consolidated group claimed a loss after selling a subsidiary's stock, following an earlier distribution of an asset that produced deferred gain. Chief Counsel advised that the distribution could…
TAM 200002008: Farm cargo truck bodies taxable; earlier exemption advice withdrawn
A farm equipment dealer sold self unloading truck bodies used to haul crops and other farm cargo. The IRS had previously advised that the bodies were exempt from the retail tax on truck bodies. It…
TAM 200002007: No refund interest when net operating loss claim was paid within 45 days
A taxpayer sought interest on a refund from carrying a net operating loss back to an earlier tax year. The first amended return lacked information needed to verify the loss calculation and used an…
TAM 200002006: Retail tax applies to multipurpose farm truck bodies
A farm equipment dealer sold truck bodies with conveyor belts and powered rear doors for unloading crops. An earlier technical advice memorandum had said the bodies were exempt from the retail truck…
CCA 200002005: Time barred refund amount may offset a related carryback deficiency
A fiscal-year taxpayer had an overpayment for an earlier year, but part of its refund claim was disallowed as untimely. The IRS later reduced loss and credit carrybacks into that year, creating a…
CCA 200002004: Successor corporation can act for former consolidated group
A consolidated group's former parent had merged into another corporation, leaving questions about who could sign a limitations extension and receive tax notices for the old group. Chief Counsel…
CCA 200002003: Premerger losses face separate return limits after reverse acquisition
After a bankruptcy merger, the shareholders of one consolidated group gained control of another group's surviving parent, creating a reverse acquisition. Chief Counsel advised that the former…
CCA 200002002: One spouse's Tax Court judgment does not consume the other's refund share
A couple filed a joint return and later claimed a refund, while one spouse had a final Tax Court deficiency decision for the same year. Chief Counsel advised that the refund claim was timely and…
CCA 200002001: Greek nonresident cannot claim the standard deduction under treaty
A Greek citizen filed a United States nonresident income tax return and claimed the standard deduction. The taxpayer argued that denying it violated the nondiscrimination article of the United…
PLR 200045014: Corporation receives relief for late S election
A corporation's shareholders wanted S corporation status from the date it began conducting business, but the election was not filed on time. The IRS found reasonable cause for the delay and ruled…
PLR 9952095: Land conservation purchases qualify for foundation set-aside
A private foundation planned to reserve income to buy two parcels of land for environmental conservation. It represented that the money would be spent on the project within 60 months and that…
PLR 9952094: VEBA may use excess assets for related employees' benefits
An employer's tax-exempt welfare benefit trust had more assets than needed for expected retiree obligations. The employer wanted to use trust assets for qualifying, collectively bargained benefits…
PLR 9952093: Early charitable annuity payment avoids three excise tax issues
A charitable lead annuity trust proposed paying its private foundation beneficiary the entire remaining annuity amount early, without discount, before distributing the remainder to the trust…
PLR 9952092: Endowment grants to three private foundations approved
A private foundation proposed cash and securities grants for endowment or other capital purposes to three other private foundations. Together, the grants were less than 25 percent of its net assets,…
PLR 9952091: Extra time granted for consent dividend election
A corporation failed to file the forms for consent dividend elections for two tax years after its advisers overlooked the election and the corporation's personal holding company status. The omission…
PLR 9952090: Foundation termination tax abatement requires statutory procedures
A private foundation had asked the IRS to remove a condition from an earlier ruling about abating the tax on termination of private foundation status. The IRS had amended that ruling but now…
PLR 9952089: Later foreign subsidiary dividends avoid debt-financed income
Two partnerships with tax-exempt limited partners had borrowed to invest in foreign real estate entities and a separate beneficial interest. They proposed repaying those borrowings before receiving…
PLR 9952088: Shared nonprofit administration preserves exemption
A new parent organization coordinated four related tax-exempt nonprofits and provided shared administrative services to them. The nonprofits planned to share funds, assets, services, and personnel,…
PLR 9952087: Health system restructuring preserves exemption and avoids UBIT
A tax-exempt health system planned to put its medical practice and two affiliated organizations under a new parent. The parent would coordinate planning, budgets, fundraising, and other system…
PLR 9952086: Foreign subsidiary dividends avoid unrelated business income for trust
A charitable remainder unitrust planned to fund a wholly owned foreign corporation that would invest in a U.S. partnership using debt to buy securities. The trust itself would incur no debt to fund…
PLR 9952085: Golf club initiation fees and course assessments receive capital treatment
A nonexempt golf club asked how to treat three types of member payments. The IRS ruled that incoming Regular members' initiation fees were received in exchange for an equity interest under §…
PLR 9952084: REIT property fees qualify as rents, but joint venture fees receive separate treatment
A real estate investment trust asked whether property management, tenant services, capital improvements, and joint venture fees would qualify as rents from real property. The IRS ruled that the…
PLR 9952083: Hospital authority income excluded and contributions deductible
A county hospital authority and four nonprofit corporations it controlled asked whether their income was excluded from federal gross income. The IRS ruled that their healthcare operations served an…
PLR 9952082: Poisoned crops partly qualify for involuntary conversion relief
A grower asked whether damage caused by applying a product to its perennial plants qualified as an involuntary conversion under § 1033. The IRS concluded that the plants and fields were destroyed…
PLR 9952081: Gas property buyer holds economic interest and receives fuel credits
A buyer of gas producing properties asked who held the economic interest in the properties and who could claim the § 29 fuel production credit. The IRS ruled that the buyer held the entire economic…
PLR 9952080: Physical injury damages excluded but judgment interest taxable
A worker injured in a logging accident and his spouse asked whether their jury awards were taxable. The IRS ruled that damages for the worker's lost wages, unpaid medical bills, and pain and…
PLR 9952079: Late stock purchase election receives 30-day extension
A corporate buyer and the individual sellers of an S corporation missed the deadline to jointly file a § 338(h)(10) election for a stock purchase. They had reported the transaction as though the…
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.