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.
IRS denies 501(c)(3) exemption to an adult men's softball team operated mainly for its members' recreation
A group that fields an adult men's softball team applied for 501(c)(3) charitable status using the short Form 1023-EZ, and the IRS denied it. The team holds weekly practices and monthly local…
IRS denies 501(c)(3) exemption to a group whose only activity is maintaining a family cemetery
An organization applied for tax-exempt charitable status under section 501(c)(3), and the IRS turned it down. The group's sole activity is preserving and maintaining a family cemetery: members of…
IRS denies 501(c)(3) exemption to a trust formed to fund a film based on its founder's copyrighted screenplay
An individual set up a trust, named himself its sole trustee and donor, and on the same day licensed the trust the rights to a film screenplay he had written and copyrighted. The trust's plan was to…
When overpayment interest starts running on a foreign corporation's refund claim when it had no obligation to file a return
When the IRS refunds an overpayment, it usually owes the taxpayer interest running from the date of the overpayment, but a special rule (section 6611(b)(3)) cuts off interest for any period before a…
A medical-software company counts as a "qualified trade or business," so its stock can qualify for the section 1202 gain exclusion
Section 1202 lets a taxpayer exclude much of the gain (50, 75, or 100 percent depending on when the stock was bought) from selling "qualified small business stock," but only if the company runs a…
A corporation gets 9100 relief to treat its late Form 1128 as timely, so it can change its tax year-end
A domestic corporation wanted to change its tax year-end from December 31 to November 30, which normally requires filing Form 1128 by the due date of the short-period return. Its board approved the…
A partnership gets 120 days of 9100 relief to make a late section 754 election
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership was supposed to make a section 754 election but missed the deadline. A section 754 election lets a partnership adjust the inside basis of its…
A partnership gets 120 days of 9100 relief to make a late section 754 election
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership was supposed to make a section 754 election but missed the deadline. A section 754 election lets a partnership adjust the inside basis of its…
A partnership gets 120 days of 9100 relief to make a late section 754 election
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership was supposed to make a section 754 election but missed the deadline. A section 754 election lets a partnership adjust the inside basis of its…
A partnership gets 120 days of 9100 relief to make a late section 754 election
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership was supposed to make a section 754 election but missed the deadline. A section 754 election lets a partnership adjust the inside basis of its…
A partnership gets 120 days of 9100 relief to make a late section 754 election
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership was supposed to make a section 754 election but missed the deadline. A section 754 election lets a partnership adjust the inside basis of its…
A partnership gets 120 days of 9100 relief to make a late section 754 election
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership was supposed to make a section 754 election but missed the deadline. A section 754 election lets a partnership adjust the inside basis of its…
A partnership gets 120 days of 9100 relief to make a late section 754 election
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership was supposed to make a section 754 election but missed the deadline. A section 754 election lets a partnership adjust the inside basis of its…
A partnership gets 120 days of 9100 relief to make a late section 754 election
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership was supposed to make a section 754 election but missed the deadline. A section 754 election lets a partnership adjust the inside basis of its…
A partnership gets 120 days of 9100 relief to make a late section 754 election
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership was supposed to make a section 754 election but missed the deadline. A section 754 election lets a partnership adjust the inside basis of its…
A low-income housing partnership gets 9100 relief to fix an inadvertent "deep rent skewing" election on Form 8609
A partnership that owns a low-income housing tax credit project filed Form 8609 to certify its building, but it accidentally checked the box on line 10d that elects "deep rent skewing" under section…
A low-income housing partnership gets 9100 relief to correct which year its credit period begins on Form 8609
A partnership that owns a low-income housing tax credit project had to pick when the building's 10-year credit period starts: either the year the building is placed in service, or, by irrevocable…
A foreign single-member entity gets 9100 relief to file a late Form 8832 electing to be taxed as a corporation
A foreign business entity became relevant for U.S. tax purposes when a U.S. corporation acquired all of its interests. As a single-owner foreign entity with unlimited liability, its default…
A REIT gets 9100 relief to make a late election treating its subsidiary as a taxable REIT subsidiary
A real estate investment trust (REIT) set up a subsidiary to hold and operate a hotel through a common structure (a "RIDEA" arrangement) in which the subsidiary is treated as a taxable REIT…
A REIT gets 9100 relief to make a late election treating its subsidiary as a taxable REIT subsidiary
A real estate investment trust (REIT) planned to hold and operate a hotel through a common structure (a "RIDEA" arrangement) in which a wholly owned subsidiary is treated as a taxable REIT…
An LLC gets 9100 relief to file a late Form 8996 self-certifying as a Qualified Opportunity Fund
A Delaware LLC was formed to invest in opportunity-zone property and intended to be a Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF), a vehicle that lets investors defer and reduce tax on capital gains under…
A foreign single-owner entity gets 9100 relief to file a late Form 8832 electing to be disregarded
A foreign business entity became relevant for U.S. tax purposes and wanted to be treated as a "disregarded entity," meaning it is ignored as separate from its single owner for federal tax purposes.…
A foreign entity gets 9100 relief to file a late Form 8832 electing to be classified as a partnership
A foreign business entity with at least two members became relevant for U.S. tax purposes and wanted to be treated as a partnership for federal tax purposes. Because it is a foreign entity whose…
A water agency's bonds financing lead pipe replacements do not flunk the private security or payment test, so they stay tax-exempt
A public water agency issued tax-exempt bonds partly to replace privately owned lead service lines, the pipes running from the agency's main to each customer's building, to reduce lead in the…
A new corporation gets 9100 relief to make late REIT and consent dividend elections
A newly formed corporation intended to operate as a real estate investment trust (REIT) and to use a "consent dividend," a hypothetical distribution that a shareholder agrees to treat as an actual…
A volunteer award plan that also covers reserve police officers is not a length of service award plan, so it falls under section 457(f) and its benefits are FICA wages
A state's plan pays retirement and death benefits to long-term volunteers who provide services such as firefighting, emergency medical care, and reserve police work. The plan sponsor asked the IRS…
Investment advisory fees paid out of an annuity's cash value to the owner's adviser are not a taxable distribution to the owner
A life insurance company planned to offer deferred annuity contracts designed to work with an outside investment adviser who helps the owner choose how to allocate the contract's cash value. The…
Investment advisory fees paid out of an annuity's cash value to the owner's adviser are not a taxable distribution to the owner
A life insurance company planned to offer deferred annuity contracts designed to work with an outside investment adviser who helps the owner choose how to allocate the contract's cash value. The…
An S corporation's accidental loss of S status, caused by missed QSST elections after the grantors died, is treated as an inadvertent termination
An S corporation had its stock held in a grantor trust, an eligible S corporation shareholder while the grantors were alive. When the grantors died, the stock passed into separate trusts for…
An S corporation that tripped the passive-income termination rule gets inadvertent-termination relief, conditioned on paying the resulting tax
An S corporation had leftover earnings and profits from an earlier period as a regular C corporation, and for three straight years more than 25 percent of its gross receipts were passive investment…
IRS approves a private foundation's 5-year set-aside under section 4942(g)(2) to fund construction and renovation for programs serving orphaned and destitute children
A private foundation whose mission is to serve orphaned and destitute children asked the IRS to approve a "set-aside" under section 4942(g)(2). A set-aside lets a private foundation earmark money…
IRS denies consent to revoke a section 59(e) research-expense election; CARES Act and GILTI regulation changes are not "rare and unusual"
A consolidated group of corporations had elected under section 59(e) to capitalize and amortize part of its research or experimental (R&E) expenses over 10 years. That election let it avoid a net…
A nonelective points-based deferred compensation plan for a 501(c)(6) sports organization's non-employee members qualifies under section 457(e)(12)
A tax-exempt business league described in section 501(c)(6), whose mission is to promote a sport, created a deferred compensation plan for its non-employee members, including board members. Members…
A partnership gets 9100 relief to make a late Section 754 election after a sale and redemption of partnership interests
A partnership went through a transaction in which some partners sold their interests to a buyer and the partnership redeemed the rest, and the purchase agreement called for the partnership to make a…
A partnership gets 9100 relief to make a late Section 754 election after a sale and redemption of partnership interests
A partnership went through a transaction in which some partners sold their interests to a buyer and the partnership redeemed the rest, and the purchase agreement called for the partnership to make a…
A securities-trading fund is denied 9100 relief for a late mark-to-market election because it acted with hindsight
A securities-trading fund wanted to make a mark-to-market election under section 475(f), which lets a trader treat gains and losses as ordinary (so trading losses are fully deductible rather than…
A securities-trading fund is denied 9100 relief for a late mark-to-market election because it acted with hindsight
A securities-trading fund wanted to make a mark-to-market election under section 475(f), which lets a trader treat gains and losses as ordinary (so trading losses are fully deductible rather than…
An S corporation whose return was filed five days late gets 9100 relief so its election out of bonus depreciation counts as timely
An S corporation wanted to elect out of bonus depreciation, the extra first-year deduction under section 168(k), for all classes of property it placed in service during the year. That election under…
Letting retirees change their survivor-benefit choice within 90 days of the first payment does not break the required minimum distribution rules
A state administers several governmental defined benefit pension plans in which retirees pick a survivor benefit (for example, joint-and-100-percent or single-life) at retirement, and that choice…
A private foundation's assignment of its trust remainder interest to a public charity will not create excess business holdings under section 4943
A private foundation held a residuary (remainder) interest in a testamentary trust whose assets include a large stake in a holding company that owns an operating business. The foundation assigned…
IRS grants advance approval of a private foundation's scholarship procedures under section 4945(g) for a program tracking disadvantaged students from elementary school through college
A private foundation asked the IRS for advance approval of the procedures it will use to award scholarships. Private foundations must get this approval so their grants to individuals are not treated…
IRS grants advance approval under section 4945(g) of a private foundation's scholarship procedures for a sponsor-based program awarding scholarships to members' children and grandchildren
A private foundation asked the IRS for advance approval of the procedures it will use to award scholarships. Private foundations need this approval so their grants to individuals are not treated as…
Restitution is assessable because the Title 18 conspiracy count embraced the Title 26 false-return count (not a Westbrooks case)
Under section 6201(a)(4), the IRS can assess court-ordered criminal restitution for unpaid tax as if it were a tax, but only when the restitution was ordered as an independent part of the sentence…
This is a Westbrooks case because the defendant was convicted solely of Title 26 crimes, so the restitution is not assessable
Under section 6201(a)(4), the IRS can assess court-ordered criminal restitution for unpaid tax as if it were a tax, but only when the restitution qualifies (the "Westbrooks" question). This short…
Restitution is assessable because the defendant's Title 26 plea agreement to pay restitution made it an independent part of the sentence (not a Westbrooks case)
Under section 6201(a)(4), the IRS can assess court-ordered criminal restitution for unpaid tax as if it were a tax, but only when the restitution was ordered as an independent part of the sentence…
Restitution is assessable because the Title 18 conspiracy count embraced all the Title 26 false-return counts, so it was an independent part of the sentence (not a Westbrooks bar)
Under section 6201(a)(4), the IRS can assess and collect court-ordered criminal restitution for unpaid tax as if it were a tax, but only when the restitution was ordered as an independent part of…
Issuing a Letter 627 and accepting a return as filed is not an "examination," so the section 7605(b) one-inspection rule does not bar examining the return
Section 7605(b) generally limits the IRS to one inspection of a taxpayer's books for a given year unless it follows special reopening procedures. This short Chief Counsel email advises that issuing…
The six-year assessment period for omitted subpart F income opens the entire return, but a section 6501(c)(4) extension does not revive an already-expired refund-claim period
This Chief Counsel Advice answers two statute-of-limitations questions for a corporate taxpayer that filed amended returns omitting subpart F income. First, when the six-year assessment period under…
IRS grants a 9100 extension of time for a consolidated group to make a closing-of-the-books election under Treas. Reg. section 1.382-6(b) after a section 382 ownership change
When a loss corporation undergoes an "ownership change," section 382 limits how much of its pre-change losses it can use against post-change income. Regulations let the corporation elect to "close…
IRS grants a 9100 extension of time for a consolidated group to make a closing-of-the-books election under Treas. Reg. section 1.382-6(b) after a section 382 ownership change
When a loss corporation undergoes an "ownership change," section 382 limits how much of its pre-change losses it can use against post-change income. Regulations let the corporation elect to "close…
IRS grants inadvertent-termination relief under section 1362(f) where an eligible trust shareholder never filed the ESBT election, ineffective S election restored
A corporation filed Form 2553 to be taxed as an S corporation, and all of its shares were held by a trust. The trust qualified as an electing small business trust (ESBT), one of the few trust types…
IRS grants a 9100 extension of time to make a REIT election under section 856(c)(1) after a mailed extension form was lost
A limited partnership that elected to be taxed as a corporation intended to elect to be a real estate investment trust (REIT) by filing Form 1120-REIT for its first tax year. To buy time, its tax…
Business stock a public charity receives from a trust under a foundation's assignment will not be treated as excess business holdings under section 4943
This ruling is the companion to a related ruling issued to the private foundation on the same assignment, but here the request is made by the public charity. A private foundation held a residuary…
IRS grants inadvertent-termination relief under section 1362(f) where an LLC operating agreement created a second class of stock and ended the company's S election
A corporation that had elected to be an S corporation later converted to a limited liability company and signed an operating agreement. That agreement contained partnership-style allocation and…
A utility commission's order to flow back excess deferred income taxes without matching rate-base adjustments violates the normalization consistency rule, but the utility avoids sanctions by taking corrective action
Utilities that use accelerated depreciation on public utility property must follow the "normalization" rules, which stop regulators from flowing the resulting tax benefits back to ratepayers faster…
IRS consents to a corporation's change of its spot rate convention under Treas. Reg. section 1.988-1(d)(3)
A domestic corporation that heads a U.S. consolidated group operates in many foreign currencies and has large amounts of payables and receivables denominated in nonfunctional currencies. To compute…
IRS approves continued use of substitute mortality tables for three pension plans
A company asked the IRS to let three defined benefit pension plans continue using substitute mortality tables that had been approved in 2018 for minimum funding calculations under IRC Section 430.…
IRS approves a private foundation's set-aside for a community facility
A private operating foundation asked the IRS to approve a set-aside for a multi-year facility construction project. The facility's detailed purpose was redacted, but the letter says it would support…
IRS approves a set-aside for university research equipment grants
A private foundation asked the IRS to approve a multi-year set-aside for grants to U.S. universities. The grants would help selected laboratories purchase and install specialized equipment for…
Professional networking group denied Section 501(c)(3) status
A membership organization sought recognition as a Section 501(c)(3) charity for activities that included professional networking events, promoting other nonprofits, and connecting professionals with…
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.