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 grants a foreign entity extra time to elect partnership classification (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, majority-owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a partnership for U.S. federal tax purposes, but it missed the deadline to file the required …
IRS grants a foreign entity extra time to elect disregarded-entity status (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, wholly owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a "disregarded entity" (ignored as separate from its owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes, but …
IRS grants a foreign entity extra time to elect disregarded-entity status (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, wholly owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a "disregarded entity" (ignored as separate from its owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes, but …
IRS grants a foreign entity extra time to elect disregarded-entity status (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, wholly owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a "disregarded entity" (ignored as separate from its owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes, but …
IRS grants a foreign entity extra time to elect disregarded-entity status (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, wholly owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a "disregarded entity" (ignored as separate from its owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes, but …
IRS grants a foreign entity extra time to elect disregarded-entity status (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, wholly owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a "disregarded entity" (ignored as separate from its owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes, but …
IRS grants a foreign entity extra time to elect disregarded-entity status (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, wholly owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a "disregarded entity" (ignored as separate from its owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes, but …
IRS grants a foreign entity extra time to elect partnership classification (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, majority-owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a partnership for U.S. federal tax purposes, but it missed the deadline to file the required …
IRS grants a foreign entity extra time to elect disregarded-entity status (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, wholly owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a "disregarded entity" (ignored as separate from its owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes, but …
IRS grants a foreign entity extra time to elect partnership classification (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, majority-owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a partnership for U.S. federal tax purposes, but it missed the deadline to file the required …
IRS grants a foreign entity extra time to elect disregarded-entity status (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, wholly owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a "disregarded entity" (ignored as separate from its owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes, but …
IRS grants a foreign entity extra time to elect disregarded-entity status (late Form 8832 relief)
A foreign business entity, wholly owned by a foreign partnership, was eligible to elect to be treated as a "disregarded entity" (ignored as separate from its owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes, but …
IRS grants an S corporation extra time to elect QSub treatment for its subsidiary (late Form 8869 relief)
An S corporation can elect to treat a wholly owned subsidiary as a "qualified subchapter S subsidiary" (QSub), which makes the subsidiary invisible for tax purposes so its assets and income are treate…
IRS rules a VEBA may offer members whole life insurance as a permissible "life benefit"
A voluntary employees' beneficiary association (VEBA) is a member-funded organization, tax-exempt under section 501(c)(9), that pays life, sick, accident, and similar benefits to its members. This VEB…
Splitting a deceased owner's estate-beneficiary IRA into separate inherited IRAs is not a taxable distribution
When an IRA owner dies and names his estate (not individuals) as the IRA beneficiary, the estate's personal representatives sometimes want to divide the account so each estate beneficiary can manage t…
Interests in a pooled loan-investment partnership can qualify as obligations in registered form under § 163(f)
Federal tax law generally denies an interest deduction, and withholds certain foreign-investor benefits, unless a debt-like obligation is held in "registered form" (ownership tracked through the issue…
IRS approves a private foundation's college scholarship procedures for high-achieving young women with financial need
A private foundation proposed renewable college scholarships for high-achieving young women who attended high school in a specified city, planned to attend an accredited four-year institution in the i…
Section 530 worker-classification relief can cover state and local government workers under Social Security Act agreements
A Chief Counsel office considered whether state and local governments can receive Section 530 worker-classification relief for workers whose positions are included in Social Security Act § 218 agreeme…
State-required license holders do not disrupt a REIT's health-care-property leasing structure
A publicly traded health-care REIT wanted to use the statutory structure that permits a taxable REIT subsidiary to lease qualified health-care property when an eligible independent contractor operates…
IRS grants a foreign entity 120 days to make a late disregarded-entity election
A foreign eligible entity wholly owned by a foreign partnership intended to be disregarded for U.S. federal tax purposes from its formation date but failed to timely file Form 8832. It requested relie…
IRS grants a foreign entity 120 days to make a late partnership-classification election
A foreign eligible entity owned primarily by a foreign partnership intended to be classified as a partnership for U.S. federal tax purposes from its formation date but failed to timely file Form 8832.…
IRS grants a foreign entity 120 days to make a late disregarded-entity election
A foreign eligible entity wholly owned by a foreign partnership intended to be disregarded for U.S. federal tax purposes from its formation date but failed to timely file Form 8832. It requested relie…
IRS grants a foreign entity 120 days to make a late disregarded-entity election
A foreign eligible entity wholly owned by a foreign partnership intended to be disregarded for U.S. federal tax purposes from its formation date but failed to timely file Form 8832. It requested relie…
IRS grants a foreign entity 120 days to make a late disregarded-entity election
A foreign eligible entity wholly owned by a foreign partnership intended to be disregarded for U.S. federal tax purposes from its formation date but failed to timely file Form 8832. It requested relie…
IRS grants 60 days for a consolidated group to elect out of bonus depreciation
Six subsidiaries in a consolidated group placed qualifying 3-year, 5-year, 7-year, and 15-year property in service during a fiscal year. The group's return did not claim additional first-year deprecia…
IRS permits a retroactive qualified electing fund election
A U.S. citizen indirectly held a less-than-10-percent interest in a foreign company that was a passive foreign investment company. The taxpayer's longtime attorney did not identify the company as a PF…
IRS approves a currency-hedging accounting method for a bond index fund
A proposed regulated investment company planned to track an index of foreign-currency-denominated bonds whose methodology uses rolling one-month currency forwards. Rather than hedge each bond separate…
IRS approves a private foundation's college scholarship procedures
A private foundation proposed scholarships for graduating high school students from disadvantaged areas who showed financial need and strong academic performance. Awards would cover tuition and relate…
IRS clarifies the limited scope of an earlier late § 338(g) election ruling
The IRS had previously given a purchaser 45 days to file a late § 338(g) election for a stock acquisition. A question later arose about whether that ruling provided anything beyond extra time to file …
IRS approves a charitable lead trust's nonvoting interest in a note-holding LLC
A charitable lead unitrust was entitled to receive part of a revocable trust's residue, which included a promissory note owed by a disqualified person. A direct transfer of that note to the charitable…
IRS treats a late initial REIT return as a timely REIT election
An LLC elected corporate status and intended to elect real estate investment trust treatment beginning on the same effective date. Its accounting firm filed an extension for the LLC's parent fund, but…
IRS denies a trader's late mark-to-market election
An individual substantially increased securities trading during part of a year but did not make a timely § 475(f)(1) mark-to-market election. Most of the year's realized trading losses and disallowed …
IRS gives a corporation 45 days to file a late LIFO election form
An LLC became an independent C corporation and acquired inventory that its former owner had accounted for under the last-in-first-out method. The corporation continued using LIFO, but two accounting f…
IRS consents to a foreign insurer's revocation of its domestic-corporation election
A foreign insurance company had elected under § 953(d) to be taxed as a domestic corporation. Two U.S. corporate shareholders were considering selling their shares to the company's foreign corporate s…
IRS grants 60 days for a late success-based-fee safe-harbor election
A corporate group paid contingent financial-adviser fees in connection with a taxable stock acquisition. Its timely return treated 70 percent of the fees as nonfacilitative and deductible, consistentl…
IRS gives a limited partnership 120 days to make a late corporate election
A domestic limited partnership intended to be classified as an association taxable as a corporation from a specified effective date. It failed to timely file Form 8832 and requested an extension under…
IRS gives a limited partnership 120 days to make a late corporate election
A domestic limited partnership intended to be classified as an association taxable as a corporation from a specified effective date. It failed to timely file Form 8832 and requested an extension under…
IRS treats payments for state-granted fund rights as an amortizable § 197 intangible
A regulated company joined a state-created fund by making an initial contribution and committing to annual contributions. Participation gave the company state-granted rights that included reimbursemen…
IRS denies exemption to a business networking group
An organization sought recognition as tax-exempt under § 501(c)(3). Its bylaws described a networking group for business owners associated with a particular nationality, and its activities included bu…
IRS denies exemption for an insufficiently documented greenspace project
An organization sought § 501(c)(3) status for a proposed greenspace and transportation project in a densely populated urban area. It described planning, financing, construction, and eventual ownership…
IRS approves direct scholarships for public-service graduate fellows
A private foundation supports graduate students at partner universities who commit to federal government service for at least three of their first seven years after graduation. The foundation historic…
IRS approves a multinational business separation but requires gain for springing liabilities
A publicly traded foreign parent proposed a series of domestic and global transactions to separate one business from another. The domestic steps included contributing business assets to a controlled e…
IRS grants 60 days for a success-fee election omitted from an examined return
A corporation paid a contingent advisory fee in a business acquisition and intended to use the Rev. Proc. 2011-29 safe harbor. Its accounting firm prepared the required election statement and the retu…
IRS grants 60 days to add an omitted success-fee election to an amended return
A corporate group completed a taxable stock acquisition and paid contingent fees to two financial advisers. Its return deducted 70 percent of the fees and capitalized 30 percent, consistently with the…
IRS permits an LLC to change from corporate to partnership status within 60 months
An LLC had elected to change from disregarded-entity status to an association taxable as a corporation. Before 60 months had passed, a corporation acquired more than half of the LLC's ownership intere…
A regulated utility's tax-free spin-off lets it move certain assets to an affiliate that can earn a return on them
A publicly traded utility holding company has assets ("Business 2 Assets") stuck in a regulated subsidiary that, under the regulator's rules, cannot include those assets in its rate base, so the group…
202035012: Two subsidiaries left off a parent's consolidated return by mistake can be added by amended return
A corporate group elected to file a consolidated tax return, but two lower-tier subsidiaries (Sub 2 and Sub 3) were accidentally left out: their consent forms (Form 1122) weren't filed with the parent…
Crypto earned for doing online "microtasks" is taxable ordinary income
People increasingly earn small amounts of cryptocurrency by doing tiny online jobs ("microtasks") on crowdsourcing platforms, such as reviewing images, taking surveys, downloading apps and leaving rev…
A trust that inherited two IRAs qualifies as a "see-through" trust, so payouts can stretch over the oldest child's life expectancy
A person died (before the SECURE Act's 2020 rules applied) naming a revocable trust as the beneficiary of two IRAs, with the decedent's three children as the trust's beneficiaries. After death, that t…
IRS blesses a tax-free corporate split separating two businesses through a divisive merger and a chain of spin-offs
A corporate group that runs two separate businesses (Business A and Business B) through a tall chain of subsidiaries wants to split them apart. The plan converts an operating subsidiary into an LLC th…
Fees a fiber-network REIT charges wireless carriers to use its systems are "rents from real property"
A company that plans to elect REIT status builds and owns telecommunications infrastructure, mainly fiber optic cable systems, and lets wireless carriers use dedicated capacity under long-term agreeme…
IRS grants extra time to make the "success-based fee" safe-harbor election after the required statement was left off a return
When a company is bought or reorganized, fees that are contingent on the deal closing ("success-based fees") are presumed to be capital costs that must be capitalized rather than deducted, unless the …
A farm co-op's gain from selling business land is patronage income, deductible as a patronage dividend
An agricultural cooperative that processes and markets its members' farm products bought land years ago to support that business. The land is no longer needed, and the co-op is selling it at a gain. U…
IRS grants an LLC extra time to elect REIT status after its accountants missed the filing deadline
An LLC intended to be taxed as a corporation and to elect real estate investment trust (REIT) status by filing a Form 1120-REIT for its first year. A REIT election is made simply by filing that return…
A nonprofit that pools county governments' employee health insurance has income exempt under § 115
A state law set up a nonprofit corporation to let county governments and other public bodies band together to buy group health insurance (and related services, including medical coverage for county-ja…
A class-action settlement paid by a REMIC trustee to investors doesn't run through the REMICs, so it triggers no REMIC penalty taxes
A trustee for a group of mortgage securitizations (REMICs) was sued by investors who held "regular interests" in those deals. The investors claimed the trustee breached its duties by failing to chase …
A private foundation's international art grants count as qualifying distributions and aren't self-dealing, despite a director's earlier art purchase
A private foundation that promotes the arts wants to fund a foreign national arts organization ("X"), which will in turn grant money to overseas museums and galleries to buy and publicly display works…
City disability-pension benefits are tax-free as "in the nature of" workers' comp, but only up to half of pay
A city runs a tax-qualified governmental pension plan that pays disability benefits to employees hurt on the job and death benefits to their survivors. The city asked the IRS how those benefits are ta…
202034012: IRS denies 501(c)(7) social-club status because the applicant never adequately described its activities
An organization applied to be recognized as a tax-exempt social club under IRC § 501(c)(7). Its application was largely blank: no narrative of activities, no contact person, no financial data, and an …
202034011: IRS denies 501(c)(3) status to a gated-subdivision homeowners association because it serves private, not public, interests
A homeowners association for a residential subdivision applied for 501(c)(3) charitable status. It collects yearly dues, enforces covenants, and maintains commonly owned property, including a marina a…
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.