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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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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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"…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
IRS denies 501(c)(6) business-league exemption to a members-only referral and networking group
An organization applied to be recognized as a tax-exempt business league under section 501(c)(6). It ran as a closed referral and networking group: membership was capped at one business per line of…
IRS revokes a church's exemption for private benefit and a circular flow of tithes back to its members
An organization recognized as a 501(c)(3) church was examined under the special church-audit rules of Internal Revenue Code section 7611, and the IRS revoked its exemption on three grounds. First,…
IRS revokes a doctor-run free-clinic charity for private inurement and unaccounted cash flowing to its founder
An organization had been recognized as a 501(c)(3) public charity to provide free medical care to homeless and underprivileged people. It was founded and controlled by a single physician, who was…
IRS revokes a youth baseball team's veterans-auxiliary exemption because its members are minor athletes, not war veterans
A community youth baseball team had been recognized as tax-exempt as an auxiliary unit under a local veterans post's group exemption, which rests on Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(19) (posts…
IRS revokes a recycling charity's exemption after it abandoned recycling to manage a bankrupt landfill
An organization was recognized as a 501(c)(3) public charity (under section 509(a)(2)) to run recycling centers, teach the public about recycling, and give disabled people employable skills through…
IRS consents to revoke a Section 83(b) election filed within the 30-day window
A taxpayer received restricted units from an employer that were subject to a substantial risk of forfeiture, then filed an election under section 83(b). An 83(b) election accelerates income tax to…
IRS grants extension of time to make a Section 336(e) election for an S corporation stock sale
A purchaser bought all the stock of an S corporation from its shareholder in a deal the parties intended to treat, for tax purposes, as a sale of the company's assets rather than its stock. That…
IRS grants extension to make a Section 59(e) election to amortize R&E expenditures over 10 years
The parent company of an affiliated corporate group (a retail distributor of children's and infants' apparel) intended to elect under section 59(e) to deduct part of its research and experimental…
In a spin-off, temporarily retaining Controlled stock is not a tax-avoidance plan under Section 355(a)(1)(D)(ii)
A publicly traded parent corporation (Distributing) planned a spin-off to separate two businesses. It would convert a wholly owned LLC (Controlled) into a corporation, distribute at least 80 percent…
IRS grants a REIT extra time to make a taxable REIT subsidiary election it failed to file
A real estate investment trust (REIT) acquired a hotel, planning to own it through the REIT and lease it to a subsidiary that would be treated as a "taxable REIT subsidiary" (TRS). A REIT generally…
IRS grants late S corporation election relief and forgives two inadvertent terminations
A corporation meant to be an S corporation from its first day, but it never filed its Form 2553 election on time. Two other problems also surfaced. First, a shareholder's spouse, a nonresident…
IRS grants extension to self-certify as a Qualified Opportunity Fund (Form 8996)
An LLC was formed to invest in a qualified opportunity zone and to act as a Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF), the vehicle that lets investors defer tax on capital gains they reinvest in distressed…
IRS grants a decedent's estate more time to make the portability (DSUE) election
When one spouse dies without using all of their federal estate and gift tax exclusion, the unused amount (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) can be transferred to the surviving…
IRS grants a decedent's estate more time to make the portability (DSUE) election
When one spouse dies without using all of their federal estate and gift tax exclusion, the unused amount (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) can be transferred to the surviving…
How basis and other "non-income" adjustments feed a BBA partnership's imputed underpayment
This is informal Chief Counsel advice, written as an email from a Senior Counsel to an examiner, about how the centralized partnership audit regime (BBA) computes an "imputed underpayment" (IU). The…
IRS grants extra time to elect a taxable REIT subsidiary after a law-firm and fund each assumed the other would file
A real estate fund set up a structure to hold hotels through a REIT and a taxable REIT subsidiary (TRS), a common "RIDEA" arrangement that lets a REIT lease its lodging facilities to a TRS that…
IRS gives a REIT 90 days to make a late taxable REIT subsidiary election after a law-firm and fund each assumed the other would file
A real estate fund built a structure to hold hotels through a REIT and a taxable REIT subsidiary (TRS), a common "RIDEA" arrangement that lets a REIT lease its lodging facilities to a TRS which then…
IRS gives a GRAT settlor extra time to opt out of automatic GST-exemption allocation after the attorney never advised it
A person (the settlor) set up a grantor retained annuity trust (GRAT) and transferred property into it, reporting the gift on a timely Form 709. When the settlor's retained annuity interest ended…
IRS gives a GRAT settlor extra time to opt out of automatic GST-exemption allocation after the attorney never advised it
A person (the settlor) set up a grantor retained annuity trust (GRAT) and transferred property into it, reporting the gift on a timely Form 709. When the settlor's retained annuity interest ended…
IRS gives an S corporation 60 days to make a late safe-harbor election for success-based transaction fees
A holding company taxed as an S corporation paid "success-based fees" (fees contingent on a deal closing) to an advisor in connection with a business acquisition and reorganization. Under the…
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.