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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IRS denies exemption for funding founder's education
An organization planned eventually to provide free health and wellness education and counseling, but its initial and primary activity was funding its founder's full-time professional education. It pai…
Nationwide scholarships for women receive IRS approval
A private foundation proposed nationwide scholarships for women pursuing undergraduate or graduate education and demonstrating financial need. Applicants needed a minimum 3.0 grade point average, tran…
Scholarships for minority and first-generation students approved
A private foundation proposed need-based scholarships for minority and first-generation college students connected to a specified community and region. Applicants from targeted neighborhoods needed at…
Community and employee-child scholarships approved
A private foundation proposed one-year regional scholarships and a limited number of scholarships for dependent children of a company's full-time employees. Applicants would be evaluated on academic r…
Scholarship and international skills-grant procedures approved
A private foundation proposed both scholarship grants under Section 4945(g)(1) and educational or skills grants under Section 4945(g)(3). The scholarships could support students from primary school th…
Employer scholarships and community arts grants approved
A private foundation sought advance approval for two grant programs. One would provide renewable postsecondary scholarships to children of current employees, subject to financial need, independent sel…
Cultural organization denied Section 501(c)(3) exemption
An organization applied for recognition as a Section 501(c)(3) charity to support a particular cultural community. Its stated activities included cultural exchange, traditions, language classes, works…
Business-referral group denied Section 501(c)(6) exemption
A membership organization applied for exemption as a business league under Section 501(c)(6). Its members represented different types of businesses, met regularly to exchange referrals, tracked the re…
Educational flight organization loses Section 501(c)(3) status
An organization had received Section 501(c)(3) status after describing educational flight training for children, teenagers, adults, and a low-income community. During an audit, it did not provide requ…
Family fundraising organization denied Section 501(c)(3) status
An organization applied for Section 501(c)(3) status to raise awareness of an injury and improve the quality of life of a specifically named individual and that individual’s family. It planned to trav…
Nuclear decommissioning funds remain qualified after plant sale
A utility seller planned to transfer three nuclear plant units, their qualified decommissioning funds, and the related decommissioning liabilities to an S corporation buyer. The parties represented th…
Sole proprietor may use primary-purpose test for aircraft travel
A sole proprietor owned an aircraft directly or through a disregarded entity and used it for business and entertainment travel. Chief Counsel advised that the proprietor may use the primary-purpose te…
Consolidated group receives extension to waive loss carryback
A consolidated group intended to waive the entire carryback period for a consolidated net operating loss, but its return did not include a valid election. The group filed consistently with that intent…
Consolidated group receives extension to waive loss carryback
A consolidated group intended to waive the entire carryback period for a consolidated net operating loss, but its return did not include a valid election. The group filed consistently with that intent…
Annuity-paid advisory fees are not distributions to owners
A life insurer proposed variable, fixed-indexed, and hybrid deferred annuity contracts designed for owners who receive ongoing advice about allocating contract value among available options. An owner …
Annuity-paid advisory fees are not distributions to owners
A life insurer proposed variable, fixed-indexed, and hybrid deferred annuity contracts designed for owners who receive ongoing advice about allocating contract value among available options. An owner …
Foreign entity receives late partnership election relief
A foreign eligible entity had two owners with limited liability, so its default federal tax classification was an association taxable as a corporation. It intended to be classified as a partnership fr…
Annuity-paid advisory fees are not distributions to owners
A life insurer proposed variable, fixed-indexed, and hybrid deferred annuity contracts designed for owners who receive ongoing advice about allocating contract value among available options. An owner …
Decommissioning funds may exchange pooled investment interests
Two qualified nuclear decommissioning funds maintained by the same company planned coordinated transactions involving a partnership that pooled investments. One fund would contribute cash equal to the…
Nuclear decommissioning funds remain qualified after plant sale
A utility seller planned to transfer three nuclear plant units, their qualified decommissioning funds, and the related decommissioning liabilities to an S corporation buyer. The parties represented th…
Taxpayer may elect out of automatic GST exemption allocation
A taxpayer made transfers to trusts for two children and to three grantor retained annuity trusts whose remaining property later passed to those children's trusts. The taxpayer's attorney and accounta…
Taxpayer may elect out of automatic GST exemption allocation
A taxpayer made transfers to trusts for two children and to three grantor retained annuity trusts whose remaining property later passed to those children's trusts. The taxpayer's attorney and accounta…
Estate receives more time to allocate GST exemption
A decedent's revocable trust divided at death into a family trust and two marital trusts, all with generation-skipping transfer tax potential. The executor intended to allocate the decedent's availabl…
Foundation may set aside funds for rehabilitation facility
A private foundation planned a multi-year project to buy land and build a rehabilitation and training facility for disabled athletes, wounded veterans, and other people with physical disabilities. It …
Foundation may set aside funds for charter school
A private foundation planned to construct and operate a tuition-free public charter school serving kindergarten through sixth grade, with a possible later expansion. The approval, planning, permitting…
Two pension plans may use substitute annuitant mortality tables
A taxpayer asked to use plan-specific substitute mortality tables for the combined male and female annuitants of two defined benefit pension plans. The IRS found that those rates were developed under …
Pension plan may use substitute mortality tables for annuitants
A pension plan asked to use plan-specific substitute mortality tables for its male and female annuitants, excluding disabled annuitants. The IRS found that the rates were developed under the applicabl…
Two pension plans may use substitute mortality tables for annuitants
A taxpayer asked to use plan-specific substitute mortality tables for the combined male and female annuitants of two defined benefit pension plans, including disabled annuitants. The IRS found that th…
Pension plan may use substitute mortality tables for healthy annuitants
A controlled group asked to use plan-specific substitute mortality tables for the male and female healthy annuitants of one defined benefit pension plan. The IRS found that the rates were developed un…
Pension plan may use substitute mortality tables for all populations
A pension plan asked to use plan-specific substitute mortality tables for its male and female annuitants and nonannuitants, including disabled participants. The IRS found that the rates were developed…
Insolvent subsidiary may deduct assumed product liabilities on liquidation
A consolidated group had acquired a manufacturer facing product-liability claims that were later resolved through master settlement agreements. Before the subsidiary became a disregarded entity in a p…
Opportunity fund's late self-certification is treated as timely
A limited liability company was formed to invest in qualified opportunity zone property and hired an adviser to prepare its first federal tax return and Form 8996. The adviser failed to file both by t…
Parent receives more time to reattribute subsidiary tax attributes
A consolidated group sold a subsidiary and its lower-tier subsidiaries to an unrelated buyer at a loss. The parent intended to elect under Treasury Regulation Section 1.1502-36(d)(6)(i)(B) to reattrib…
LLC receives late corporate classification and S election relief
A single-member limited liability company intended from its formation date to be classified as an association taxable as a corporation and to elect S corporation status. It failed to timely file both …
Company receives late debt-and-hedge identification relief
A corporation issued convertible notes and simultaneously bought capped call options involving its stock. It was initially unaware that the notes and options could be integrated under Treasury Regulat…
Annuity-paid advisory fees are not distributions to owners
A life insurer proposed variable, fixed-indexed, and hybrid deferred annuity contracts designed for owners who receive ongoing advice about allocating contract value among available options. An owner …
Estate receives more time to allocate GST exemption to child trusts
A married couple's trust divided after the husband's death into survivor, credit-shelter, and marital trusts. The husband's estate made a QTIP election for the marital trust but did not make a reverse…
Estate receives more time to elect portability of unused exclusion
A decedent left a surviving spouse and an unused portion of the federal estate and gift tax exclusion. The estate represented that it was not otherwise required to file Form 706 because of the estate'…
Court correction of trust errors has no transfer-tax or income-tax effect
A trust created before the generation-skipping transfer tax effective date contained scrivener's errors that made its multigenerational distribution provisions ambiguous. A state court conditionally a…
Court correction of trust errors has no transfer-tax or income-tax effect
A trust created before the generation-skipping transfer tax effective date contained scrivener's errors that made its multigenerational distribution provisions ambiguous. A state court conditionally a…
Court correction of trust errors has no transfer-tax or income-tax effect
A trust created before the generation-skipping transfer tax effective date contained scrivener's errors that made its multigenerational distribution provisions ambiguous. A state court conditionally a…
QTIP trust division is tax-free, but later modification triggers gifts
A trustee divided a QTIP marital trust into two trusts with identical terms. Because the division left the spouse's and daughters' beneficial interests unchanged, the IRS ruled that it did not trigger…
Annuity-paid advisory fees are contract expenses, not owner distributions
A life insurer planned to offer deferred annuity contracts whose owners would receive ongoing advice about allocating contract value among available options. The contracts would pay the advisers direc…
Annuity-paid advisory fees are contract expenses, not owner distributions
A life insurer planned to offer deferred annuity contracts whose owners would receive ongoing advice about allocating contract value among available options. The contracts would pay the advisers direc…
Taxpayers may restore installment reporting after preparer's mistake
A business owner sold the business for an installment note and expected the gain to be reported under the installment method. A new accountant instead reported the entire gain in the sale year, inadve…
Taxpayer gets 45 days to attach missing accounting-method form
A corporation intended to change two subsidiaries' Section 263A accounting methods and timely sent a copy of Form 3115 to the IRS. Its accounting firm failed to attach the original form to the consoli…
Estate gets 120 days to make omitted QTIP election
A decedent's revocable trust became a marital trust that paid all income to the surviving spouse for life. The spouse relied on tax professionals and was not initially advised to file an estate tax re…
Estate gets 120 days to elect portability
A decedent's estate was not otherwise required to file an estate tax return, but it needed one to transfer the decedent's unused exclusion amount to the surviving spouse. After the estate missed the p…
Foundation's last-dollar scholarship procedures approved
A private foundation proposed need-based, last-dollar scholarships for recent high school graduates from a particular community. Awards would cover the gap between estimated education costs and other …
Foundation's upper-level college scholarships approved
A private foundation proposed two-year scholarships for state residents entering their third or fourth college year, or the comparable years of a five-year degree. Applicants had to attend an accredit…
Digital-transition grant procedures approved
A private foundation proposed grants and technical support to help eligible nonprofits and small businesses move their products or services online. Contractors and technology vendors would develop tai…
Shooting organization fails the Section 501(c)(3) organizational test
An organization operated shooting competitions, practices, safety classes, and training facilities used by national competitors, a state agency, and local law enforcement. It was incorporated as a mut…
Pension plan may use substitute annuitant mortality tables
A pension plan requested plan-specific mortality tables for male and female annuitants, including disabled participants. The IRS found that the substitute rates were developed under the applicable reg…
Pension plan may use combined annuitant mortality tables
A pension plan requested a single substitute mortality table for its combined male and female annuitants, including disabled annuitants. The IRS found that the plan-specific rates were developed under…
Bitcoin Cash hard-fork income arises when dominion begins
Bitcoin's 2017 hard fork created Bitcoin Cash units for Bitcoin holders. The IRS advised that receiving the new cryptocurrency creates ordinary income under Section 61 once the holder has dominion and…
Reseller's inventory cost is limited to acquisition costs
A small reseller valued inventory at cost under Section 471 but did not use a Section 471(c) method or apply Section 263A. The IRS advised that the reseller may capitalize only the goods' net invoice …
REIT's late taxable-subsidiary election is treated as timely
A real estate investment trust financed loans through a wholly owned collateralized loan obligation. It intended to elect taxable REIT subsidiary treatment if the CLO generated excess inclusion income…
Business separation and merger receive tax-free reorganization treatment
A public company proposed separating one business into a controlled corporation, distributing the controlled stock to shareholders through a spin-off or split-off, and then combining that business wit…
Appraisals support fair-market-value test for preferred dividends
A taxpayer received two quarterly dividends on nonpublic preferred stock. Each dividend exceeded 5 percent of the taxpayer's adjusted basis, so the taxpayer elected under Section 1059(c)(4) to substit…
Foreign entity gets 120 days for late partnership election
A foreign eligible entity failed to file Form 8832 on time to elect partnership classification. The IRS found that the regulatory-relief requirements were satisfied and granted 120 days to file the el…
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.