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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Nuclear plant owner receives a revised decommissioning-fund contribution schedule
A holding company acquired an ownership interest in a nuclear generating unit, the related decommissioning trust assets, and the corresponding decommissioning liability. It asked the IRS to approve a …
Community-property trust gets incomplete-gift, power, and basis rulings with an income-tax caveat
A married couple in a community-property state created an irrevocable trust for themselves, family members, and friends, with distributions controlled through retained powers and a nonfiduciary power-…
Community-property trust gets incomplete-gift, power, and basis rulings with an income-tax caveat
A married couple in a community-property state created an irrevocable trust for themselves, family members, and friends, with distributions controlled through retained powers and a nonfiduciary power-…
Community-property trust gets incomplete-gift, power, and basis rulings with an income-tax caveat
A married couple in a community-property state created an irrevocable trust for themselves, family members, and friends, with distributions controlled through retained powers and a nonfiduciary power-…
Community-property trust gets incomplete-gift, power, and basis rulings with an income-tax caveat
A married couple in a community-property state created an irrevocable trust for themselves, family members, and friends, with distributions controlled through retained powers and a nonfiduciary power-…
Community-property trust gets incomplete-gift, power, and basis rulings with an income-tax caveat
A married couple in a community-property state created an irrevocable trust for themselves, family members, and friends, with distributions controlled through retained powers and a nonfiduciary power-…
Community-property trust gets incomplete-gift, power, and basis rulings with an income-tax caveat
A married couple in a community-property state created an irrevocable trust for themselves, family members, and friends, with distributions controlled through retained powers and a nonfiduciary power-…
Executor gets an IRA rollover waiver after the account owner's cognitive decline
An IRA owner withdrew cash while experiencing severe cognitive impairment and did not roll it over within 60 days. Medical evidence showed a persistent decline, and the owner's son was later appointed…
Multiemployer plan receives five-year extensions for unfunded-liability amortization
A multiemployer pension plan requested more time to amortize unfunded liabilities arising from plan amendments, actuarial losses, and actuarial assumption changes. The plan's actuary certified that wi…
Two plans may use substitute mortality tables for annuitants but not nonannuitants
A taxpayer requested permission for two defined benefit pension plans to use plan-specific substitute mortality tables. The IRS approved substitute rates for the plans' combined male and female annuit…
Seven pension plans may use combined substitute mortality tables for 10 years
A taxpayer requested permission for seven defined benefit pension plans to use plan-specific substitute mortality tables. The proposed tables combine the plans' male participants into one population a…
Plan may use substitute mortality tables for three populations but not a fourth
A defined benefit pension plan asked to use plan-specific substitute mortality tables for up to 10 plan years. The IRS approved substitute rates for union men, non-union men, and female annuitants. It…
Multiemployer plan receives five-year extensions for unfunded-liability amortization
A multiemployer pension plan requested more time to amortize a series of unfunded-liability charge bases. The plan's actuary certified that without relief the plan would face an accumulated funding de…
Section 501(c)(5) exemption denied to a commercial farm operation
A mutual benefit corporation applied for exemption as an agricultural organization under Section 501(c)(5). It had no members, grew and sold its own crop, paid its founder and sole director a salary, …
Bankruptcy liquidating trust keeps its status during another one-year extension
A Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan created a trust to pursue estate litigation claims, liquidate the resulting assets, and distribute the proceeds to claim holders. The trust had an initial five-year term a…
Foreign entity gets extra time to elect partnership status
A foreign eligible entity intended to be treated as a partnership for federal tax purposes but failed to timely file Form 8832. It asked the IRS for an extension under the regulatory election relief r…
Foundation receives rules for inherited business interests, apartment rent, and mortgage debt
A private foundation is the remainder beneficiary of a trust that will distribute corporate and limited liability company interests after the death of the current beneficiary. The assets include an in…
Couple gets extra time to allocate GST exemption to two trusts
A grantor transferred property to two trusts for family beneficiaries, and the grantor and spouse elected to split the gifts on their gift tax returns. Their accountant prepared the returns but failed…
Couple gets extra time to allocate GST exemption to two trusts
A grantor transferred property to two trusts for family beneficiaries, and the grantor and spouse elected to split the gifts on their gift tax returns. Their accountant prepared the returns but failed…
Subsidiary receives late QSub and S corporation election relief
An S corporation acquired all of a subsidiary's stock but failed to timely file the intended qualified subchapter S subsidiary (QSub) election. A trust later acquired the subsidiary, and the subsidiar…
Subsidiary receives relief for mistaken QSub and S corporation election dates
An S corporation acquired all of a subsidiary's stock but failed to timely file the intended qualified subchapter S subsidiary (QSub) election, and the filed form stated the wrong effective date. Afte…
Initial classification ruling clears the way for a late disregarded-entity election
A foreign eligible entity filed an election to be taxed as a corporation, then sought to be treated as a disregarded entity from a requested effective date. It asked the IRS to confirm that its corpor…
Foreign entity gets extra time to elect partnership status
A foreign entity intended to be treated as a partnership for federal tax purposes but did not timely file Form 8832. It asked for an extension under the regulatory election relief rules. The IRS concl…
Foreign entity gets extra time to elect partnership status
A foreign entity intended to be treated as a partnership for federal tax purposes but did not timely file Form 8832. It asked for an extension under the regulatory election relief rules. The IRS concl…
Foreign entity gets extra time to elect partnership status
A foreign entity intended to be treated as a partnership for federal tax purposes but did not timely file Form 8832. It asked for an extension under the regulatory election relief rules. The IRS concl…
Married taxpayers may recharacterize excess Roth IRA contributions
A married couple made Roth IRA contributions for three years even though their modified adjusted gross income exceeded the eligibility limit. They learned of the problem while researching contribution…
Employer-related scholarship procedures are approved
A private foundation requested advance approval for scholarships offered to children and other relatives of an employer's employees. An independent organization would select recipients through highly …
Descendant scholarship procedures are approved
A private foundation proposed scholarships for former employees of a company that had closed more than 50 years earlier, as well as their spouses, parents, and descendants. Awards would be based on ac…
Revised statewide scholarship procedures are approved
A private foundation that already had approval for a scholarship program proposed three changes. Most applicants would need to be credit union members or have a parent who was a member, scholarships w…
Private foundation may set aside funds to build a boarding school
A private foundation proposed to build a tuition-free boarding school for high-achieving public school students who met its scholarship eligibility standard. The project required acquiring a site, com…
Business networking association is denied social club exemption
A business association sought exemption as a social club under section 501(c)(7). Its weekly meetings focused on exchanging business information, generating leads, and expanding trade among members, w…
Corporate split-up among disputing shareholders qualifies under section 355
Serious disputes among a corporation's seven shareholders were harming business operations. The corporation proposed distributing four controlled subsidiaries to different shareholder groups in exchan…
Securities partnership receives late mixed straddle account relief
A partnership trading securities, commodities, and derivatives had timely elected mixed straddle accounts in earlier years. Its sole internal tax employee left without preparing the required Form 6781…
Partnership receives 120 days to make a late section 754 election
A partnership intended to make a section 754 election after ownership interests were transferred but failed to attach a properly executed election to its return. The partnership and all affected partn…
A REIT's energy-savings charge to tenants is not disqualifying "income or profits" rent
A real estate investment trust (REIT) operates mostly through an operating partnership that leases buildings to tenants. The partnership is rolling out a program to replace older fixtures with more en…
Producer correctly applies the simplified production method when old inventory carries over
A manufacturer that makes products in large batches uses the FIFO (first-in, first-out) inventory method and the "simplified production method" under section 263A to figure out how much of its indirec…
Restructured governmental retirement plans get favorable rulings on separate contracts, tax-free transfers, and picked-up contributions
A state agency that runs several governmental defined benefit and defined contribution retirement plans reorganized them. It moved the member-funded annuity savings accounts (ASAs) out of the old comb…
Late section 336(e) election relief granted after buyer and S corporation missed the deadline
A partnership bought all the stock of an S corporation in a deal that qualified as a "qualified stock disposition." The parties wanted to make a section 336(e) election, which lets a stock sale be tre…
Incomplete non-grantor trust succeeds, contributions and committee distributions are not completed gifts
A person set up a trust for themselves and their four children, with distributions steered by a "Distribution Committee" made up of the grantor and two children. This is the increasingly common "incom…
Late REIT election accepted after a signed return was misplaced during an office move
A limited liability company operated as a real estate investment trust (REIT) and intended to lock in that tax status by filing a Form 1120-REIT for its first year, which is how the section 856(c) ele…
IRS approves a revised nuclear decommissioning fund schedule based on a per-kilowatt formula
The owner of a nuclear power plant sets aside money each year in a special reserve fund to pay for eventually decommissioning (safely retiring) the plant. Section 468A lets the owner deduct those cont…
IRS approves a revised nuclear decommissioning fund schedule based on a per-kilowatt formula
The owner of a nuclear power plant sets aside money each year in a special reserve fund to pay for eventually decommissioning (safely retiring) the plant. Section 468A lets the owner deduct those cont…
Publicly traded shares donated to a private foundation qualify as "qualified appreciated stock"
Normally, when someone donates appreciated stock to a private (non-operating) foundation, section 170(e)(1)(B)(ii) trims the charitable deduction down to the donor's cost basis instead of full market …
S corporation that lost its status from too much passive income gets inadvertent-termination relief
An S corporation that still had leftover accumulated earnings and profits from its old C corporation days tripped a rule that automatically ends S status: for three straight years, more than 25% of it…
IRS consents to let a trust revoke its electing small business trust (ESBT) election
A trust that owns stock in an S corporation had elected to be treated as an "electing small business trust" (ESBT), one of the trust forms allowed to hold S corporation shares. The trustee later wante…
Incomplete non-grantor trust succeeds, contributions and committee distributions are not completed gifts
A person set up a trust for themselves and their four children, with distributions steered by a "Distribution Committee" made up of the grantor and two children. This is the increasingly common "incom…
S corporation gets inadvertent-termination relief after a trust missed its QSST election
An S corporation had a trust as one of its shareholders. While that trust was a grantor trust (treated as owned by one individual), it was an eligible S corporation shareholder. When the trust stopped…
Family cemetery denied 501(c)(3) exemption
An organization formed to operate and maintain a small historical cemetery for the direct descendants of one family applied for tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3) using the streamlined Form 102…
Fishing-tournament organization denied 501(c)(3) exemption
An organization applied for tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3), saying it promotes civic improvement, social interaction, and the sport of fishing, and that it funds a college scholarship. In p…
Extension granted to file a late LIFO election (Form 970) after a partnership liquidation
A taxpayer owned an interest in a partnership that used the last-in, first-out (LIFO) method to value its inventory. When the partnership liquidated, its LIFO inventory was distributed to the taxpayer…
Returning a pension plan's actuarial surplus to a tax-exempt employer is allowed and not a taxable reversion
A tax-exempt employer set up a defined benefit pension plan for its employees and later decided to terminate it, pay out everyone, and complete a standard termination through the Pension Benefit Guara…
Foreign entity gets extra time to elect partnership treatment after advisors missed the filing
Two domestic partnerships formed a foreign business entity and always intended for it to be taxed as a partnership in the United States. To lock that in, the entity needed to file a "check-the-box" el…
Foreign entity gets extra time to elect partnership treatment after advisors missed the filing
Two domestic partnerships formed a foreign business entity and always intended for it to be taxed as a partnership in the United States. To lock that in, the entity needed to file a "check-the-box" el…
Foreign entity gets extra time to elect partnership treatment after advisors missed the filing
Three domestic partnerships formed a foreign business entity and always intended for it to be taxed as a partnership in the United States. To lock that in, the entity needed to file a "check-the-box" …
Foreign entity gets extra time to elect partnership treatment after advisors missed the filing
Three domestic partnerships formed a foreign business entity and always intended for it to be taxed as a partnership in the United States. To lock that in, the entity needed to file a "check-the-box" …
Extra time granted to allocate GST exemption to a trust after a missed gift tax return
A married couple set up an irrevocable trust for their children and more remote descendants and funded it with company stock, on an attorney's advice that the trust would be exempt from the generation…
Extra time granted to allocate GST exemption to a trust after a missed gift tax return
A married couple set up an irrevocable trust for their children and more remote descendants and funded it with company stock, on an attorney's advice that the trust would be exempt from the generation…
Airport may use a floating cost allocation to keep tax-exempt bonds away from liquor-store space
An airport authority is rebuilding a boarding area and financing part of the work with tax-exempt exempt-facility bonds (the kind allowed for airports under section 142). A wrinkle: section 147(e) bar…
IRS approves a private foundation's scholarship procedures for a global math and science video competition
A private foundation runs an annual global competition for high school students, asking them to make a short video that teaches a difficult math or science concept in an engaging way. It asked the IRS…
IRS approves a private foundation's merit-based scholarship procedures for a university program
A private foundation set up a merit-based scholarship to help students earn an undergraduate or graduate degree at a particular university. It asked the IRS to approve, in advance, how it selects and …
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.