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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Corporation receives inadvertent-election relief after consent, stock-class, and allocation defects
A corporation's S election was ineffective because it did not obtain every required shareholder consent. Its original operating agreement also created a second class of stock, and the corporation made…
Gated homeowners association denied social-welfare exemption because its amenities serve members, not the public
A homeowners association maintained streets, gatehouses, landscaped grounds, pools, trails, courts, parks, and other amenities within a gated residential and office development. Residential owners and…
Banquet-center business prevents charitable exemption
A membership organization sought recognition under section 501(c)(3) while operating a banquet center that it rented to the general public for weddings, business meetings, parties, and similar events.…
Generator-funded transmission upgrades qualify as capital contributions
A regulated electric utility agreed to construct transmission upgrades funded by wind-farm operators whose generation was sometimes curtailed by congestion. The utility would own and operate the upgra…
Hospital retirement plans qualify as church plans
A nonprofit hospital sponsored a defined benefit plan, a defined contribution plan, and a section 403(b) plan for its employees. The hospital operated under the sponsorship of a religious order, was l…
Cash balance plan may change its interest-rate lookback month
A tax-exempt health system had converted its traditional defined benefit pension plan into a cash balance plan while protecting benefits earned under the old formula. It wanted to use September as the…
Court-supervised trust qualifies as a settlement fund and transfers are deductible
Related business entities settling employee personal-injury claims planned to fund a court-supervised trust that would support payments over a multiyear class-action settlement. The trust would be cre…
Trust receives extra time for charitable-contribution election
A trust made charitable contributions in one year and reported them as deductions for the preceding year, as section 642(c) permits when a timely election is filed. The trust inadvertently omitted the…
Old trust's disclaimers and court changes preserve transfer-tax treatment
An irrevocable trust created before October 22, 1942, gave successive beneficiaries general powers of appointment and was scheduled to end 21 years after the original beneficiary's death. Descendants …
Donor receives extra time for GST allocations and trust election
A donor made stock and cash gifts over many years to an irrevocable trust with generation-skipping transfer potential. Although the donor intended the trust to be GST-exempt and had enough exemption a…
Donor receives extra time for GST allocations and trust election
A donor made stock and cash gifts over many years to an irrevocable trust for a child that had generation-skipping transfer potential. The donor consistently intended the trust to be GST-exempt and ha…
Multiemployer plan receives an amortization extension for unfunded liabilities
A multiemployer plan requested an automatic extension of the periods for amortizing specified unfunded liabilities. Its actuary certified that without relief the plan would have a funding deficiency i…
Bingo and political activities prevent social-welfare exemption
A political-party membership organization sought exemption under section 501(c)(4). Its main activity was weekly traditional and instant bingo, which consumed most of its staff and volunteer time and …
Private foundation loses exemption after failing to substantiate charitable use of assets
A private nonoperating foundation told the IRS it would operate exclusively as a grantmaking organization. During examination, its returns reported no grants or contributions in the examined periods, …
Missing organizing documents and finances prevent charitable exemption
An organization applied for section 501(c)(3) status using Form 1023-EZ and said it conducted youth camps and leadership conferences. During review, the IRS requested its filed organizing document, an…
Missing purpose and dissolution clauses prevent charitable exemption
An organization applied for section 501(c)(3) status using Form 1023-EZ and supplied its articles of incorporation during review. The IRS found that the articles contained neither a clause limiting th…
Captive currency-fluctuation contracts are not insurance
A corporate group used a captive insurance subsidiary to issue contracts covering adverse movements in specified foreign currencies. Chief Counsel concluded that currency fluctuation can create an ins…
Late accounting-period application is treated as timely
A taxpayer sought to change from a calendar tax year to a tax year ending March 31 under the automatic procedure in Revenue Procedure 2006-46. It missed the deadline for Form 1128 but requested relief…
Late accounting-period application is treated as timely
A taxpayer sought to change from a calendar tax year to a tax year ending March 31 under the automatic procedure in Revenue Procedure 2006-46. It missed the deadline for Form 1128 but requested relief…
Late accounting-period application is treated as timely
A taxpayer sought to change from a calendar tax year to a tax year ending March 31 under the automatic procedure in Revenue Procedure 2006-46. It missed the deadline for Form 1128 but requested relief…
Late accounting-period application is treated as timely
A taxpayer sought to change from a calendar tax year to a tax year ending March 31 under the automatic procedure in Revenue Procedure 2006-46. It missed the deadline for Form 1128 but requested relief…
Affiliated group receives extra time to elect consolidated filing
A parent corporation intended to file a consolidated federal income tax return with three subsidiaries but did not file a valid return by the election deadline. The group requested relief before the I…
Parties receive extra time for section 336(e) election
A purchaser acquired all stock of an S corporation from its shareholders, and the parties intended the stock sale to be treated as an asset sale under section 336(e). They failed to execute the requir…
Spin-off cash purge qualifies and prior conversions remain liquidations
A public corporation planned to separate one business into a newly formed subsidiary and distribute that subsidiary's stock to shareholders. Before the separation, several corporate subsidiaries would…
REIT receives extra time for two taxable-subsidiary elections
A company intending to qualify as a real estate investment trust acquired a building containing offices, a hotel, an athletic club, and restaurants. Two subsidiaries leased and operated the hotel and …
Foreign entity receives late disregarded-entity election
A foreign entity's sole owner intended the entity to be disregarded for federal tax purposes, but the entity did not timely file Form 8832. The IRS found that the entity met the standards for regulato…
Vehicle-service-contract reinsurance qualifies as insurance
A foreign corporation planned to elect treatment as a U.S. insurance company and assume, through a chain of reinsurance agreements, all risk under vehicle service contracts sold to consumers. The cont…
Required post-approval orphan-drug trials qualify for clinical-testing credit
The FDA gave an orphan-designated drug accelerated approval based on a surrogate or intermediate endpoint and required a post-marketing study to confirm its clinical benefit. The drug owner asked whet…
Wife receives extra time to allocate GST exemption to two trusts
A married couple created two irrevocable descendant trusts and intended to allocate generation-skipping transfer exemption to their gifts. They also intended to split eligible gifts between the spouse…
Husband receives extra time to allocate GST exemption to three trusts
A husband created three irrevocable trusts for his spouse and descendants and intended to allocate generation-skipping transfer exemption to gifts made over five years. He and his wife also intended t…
Multiemployer plan receives a five-year funding extension
A multiemployer pension plan asked to extend the periods for amortizing specified unfunded liabilities. The plan's actuary certified that without relief the plan would face an accumulated funding defi…
Community internet provider is denied social-welfare exemption
A nonprofit corporation sought exemption under section 501(c)(4) while operating a fiber-optic network through a disregarded LLC. It sold internet, Voice Over Internet Protocol telephone, and maintena…
Arts contest is denied exemption for benefiting a related company
An organization planned to fund and promote creative people by running contests for artistic content. Contestants had to submit through a portal owned by a related for-profit company, which could char…
Open-market repurchases receive pro rata treatment after a spin-off merger
A public company separated one business into a controlled corporation, distributed that corporation's stock to its shareholders, and immediately combined the controlled corporation with a subsidiary o…
Estate receives extra time to make a 65-day distribution election
An estate made a distribution during the first 65 days of a fiscal year and intended to treat it as paid or credited on the last day of the preceding tax year under section 663(b). The estate failed t…
LLC receives extra time to elect partnership classification
A limited liability company had previously elected S corporation treatment but later intended to change its federal tax classification to a partnership. It failed to file Form 8832 by the intended eff…
Partnership receives extra time for a deemed-sale election on a REIT contribution
A two-member limited liability company treated as a partnership contributed property to a subsidiary that had elected REIT status. Because part of the property's gain or loss would be allocated to a c…
Corporation receives relief for a missed ESBT election
An S corporation had stock held by a grantor trust. After the grantor died, that trust became irrevocable and later transferred the shares to a second trust, but the second trust did not timely elect …
S corporation receives relief for stock held by two partnerships
All shares of an S corporation were transferred first to one partnership and then to another. Because a partnership is not an eligible S corporation shareholder, the first transfer terminated the corp…
Partnership receives extra time for a deemed-sale election on a REIT contribution
A two-member limited liability company treated as a partnership contributed property to a subsidiary that had elected REIT status. Because part of the property's gain or loss would be allocated to a c…
Repurchases and retirement-plan purchases receive section 355(e) treatment
A public company separated a business into a controlled corporation and exchanged the controlled stock for some of its own shares. The controlled corporation then merged with a subsidiary of an unrela…
Corporation receives relief for invalid S and Qsub elections
A company attempted to elect S corporation status but did not obtain every required shareholder consent. A later amendment to its operating agreement also created a second class of stock, and the comp…
Foreign entity receives extra time to elect disregarded status
A foreign eligible entity intended to be treated as disregarded from its owner for U.S. federal tax purposes but did not timely file Form 8832. The entity represented that it was eligible for disregar…
Manufacturer receives extra time to file its LIFO election
Several related companies had used the last-in-first-out inventory method and later combined in mergers. The surviving company then transferred its manufacturing business, operating assets, and invent…
Estate receives extra time to allocate GST exemption to a family trust
A decedent's residuary trust created an irrevocable subtrust for the decedent's spouse and descendants. The spouse was entitled to the subtrust's net income and held a limited power to appoint princip…
Multiemployer plan receives a five-year funding extension
A multiemployer pension plan requested more time to amortize specified unfunded liabilities. The plan's actuary certified that without the relief the plan would face an accumulated funding deficiency,…
Multiemployer plan receives a five-year funding extension
A multiemployer pension plan requested a five-year extension for amortizing specified unfunded liabilities. The plan's actuary certified that without the extension the plan would have an accumulated f…
Veterans organization loses exemption over public bingo operations
A veterans organization recognized under section 501(c)(19) operated a bingo hall and snack bar used by itself and multiple unrelated exempt organizations and open to the public. It maintained the fac…
Charity loses exemption after failing to produce audit records
An organization obtained section 501(c)(3) status after filing Form 1023-EZ and was later selected for an audit of a Form 990-N filing. The IRS sent multiple examination letters to the organization an…
Closed college loses exemption after liquidation and nonresponse
A college entered bankruptcy, suspended classes, and sold all but one building under a court-approved liquidation plan. It no longer had a governing body, faculty, curriculum, enrolled students, or a …
Farmers market loses exemption for commercial private benefit
A nonprofit operated a weekly farmers market where local farmers, food producers, artists, and other vendors sold goods to the public. Vendors paid annual membership dues and weekly stall fees, and th…
Inactive service organization loses its exemption
An organization was formed to provide job-training facilities, residential treatment, and interpreter services for hearing-impaired people. During the examined year, it conducted no training, provided…
Inactive mentoring organization loses its exemption
A section 501(c)(3) organization focused on low-income and minority populations and provided mentoring to young people through workshops and other activities. It ceased operations because of operating…
Inactive disability-services organization loses its exemption
A section 501(c)(3) organization was formed to provide social services and education addressing the needs of people with mental or physical disabilities. It had provided residential treatment services…
Tax-exempt affiliate's pay counts toward insurer compensation cap
A covered health insurance provider and a tax-exempt hospital belonged to the same aggregated employer group and both paid an employee during one year. The IRS advised that compensation paid by the ta…
Consolidated group gets more time to waive loss carryback
A parent corporation intended to waive the carryback period for its consolidated group's net operating loss, and the group's returns were filed consistently with that intent. A valid election statemen…
Corporation receives relief for missed ESBT election
An S corporation's election terminated when a trust became a shareholder but failed to make a timely electing small business trust election. The trust was otherwise eligible to make the election, and …
Foreign entity gets more time for disregarded status election
A foreign entity's indirect owner became a U.S. tax resident and intended the entity to be classified as disregarded for federal tax purposes. The entity did not timely file Form 8832 to make that cla…
Foreign entity gets more time for disregarded status election
A foreign entity's owner became a U.S. tax resident and intended the entity to be classified as disregarded for federal tax purposes. The entity did not timely file Form 8832 to make that classificati…
Foreign entity gets more time for partnership election
A foreign entity owned by a U.S. citizen and foreign persons intended to be classified as a partnership from its formation date. It was eligible to make that classification election but failed to file…
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.