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 waives the 60-day IRA rollover deadline
A taxpayer liquidated an IRA certificate of deposit and deposited the cashier's check into a regular checking account because he did not realize the certificate was held in an IRA. A miscommunication …
IRS approves an arts relocation set-aside
A private foundation asked to set aside funds over five years to help a foreign arts organization relocate its museum operations to another city. The organization had not yet found a suitable site, la…
IRS approves a science fellowship grant program
A private foundation sought advance approval for a fellowship program intended to increase women's participation in science and engineering at universities in a foreign country. Eligible applicants we…
IRS approves university scholarship procedures
A private foundation requested advance approval for several scholarship programs serving students who were active at a university student center. Award amounts depended on financial need and available…
IRS approves trade school and college scholarship procedures
A private foundation requested advance approval for a scholarship program serving high-achieving graduating students who were active in extracurricular and community activities. Recipients could use t…
Medical office landlord denied exemption for commercial activity and private benefit
An organization sought section 501(c)(3) status to build and operate a medical office facility in a rural health professional shortage area. It planned to lease space and provide business services to …
Young professionals group denied section 501(c)(3) status
An organization already exempt under section 501(c)(4) sought recognition under section 501(c)(3). It organized about 60 annual events for young professionals, including networking gatherings, profess…
Commercial food hub denied section 501(c)(3) status
An organization sought section 501(c)(3) status to operate food hubs connecting local farmers with restaurants and retailers. It planned to help farms plan production, then receive, repackage, market,…
IRS revokes exemption after organization refuses examination requests
The IRS opened an examination of a section 501(c)(3) organization and repeatedly requested records needed to evaluate its activities and continued qualification for exemption. An officer said the orga…
Private foundation loses exemption after undocumented personal expenditures
A private foundation stated that it would make grants to other section 501(c)(3) organizations and create an endowment for grantmaking. During the examined years, it made no documented grants and did …
IRS may require added reporting to trace rehabilitation credits
Chief Counsel considered reporting requirements for section 47 rehabilitation credits passed through multiple entities or transferred from lessors to lessees. It advised that the IRS may require a non…
Donations to cities' consolidated department are deductible
An organization formed by all incorporated cities in a state asked whether donations to it were deductible under section 170. The cities established it by intergovernmental agreement as their consolid…
Trustee changes avoid powers of appointment and preserve GST status
Two sisters were current beneficiaries and co-trustees of a trust created before September 25, 1985. They proposed to resign, have a court appoint two independent successor trustees, and amend the rep…
Preferred shares treated as common stock for consolidated adjustments
A publicly traded parent requested rulings about investment adjustments for stock of a subsidiary held within its consolidated group. The subsidiary had four stock types with different voting rights, …
Estate receives more time to make QTIP election after revaluation
An estate timely filed Form 706 to elect portability but did not make a qualified terminable interest property election because the surviving spouse believed the estate was too small to fund the marit…
Estate receives 120 days to elect portability
An estate missed the deadline to file Form 706 and elect portability of the decedent's unused estate and gift tax exclusion. The surviving spouse represented that the gross estate was below the basic …
Foreign entity receives late disregarded-entity election relief
A foreign eligible entity wholly owned by a U.S. corporation intended to be treated as a disregarded entity but failed to timely file Form 8832. The IRS found that the entity met the standards for dis…
Foreign entity receives late disregarded-entity election relief
A foreign eligible entity wholly owned by a U.S. corporation intended to be treated as a disregarded entity but failed to timely file Form 8832. The IRS found that the entity met the standards for dis…
Trust may revoke accidental investment-income election
A trust's accounting firm accidentally elected to treat all qualified dividends and net capital gain as investment income when preparing Form 4952. The elected amount greatly exceeded the trust's actu…
Estate receives more time to elect portability
An estate missed the deadline to file Form 706 and elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused estate and gift tax exclusion. The surviving spouse, acting as executor, represented that the gross…
Parent receives more time to request consolidated-return waiver
A corporate parent sold a subsidiary and later reacquired it within 61 months, when section 1504(a)(3) ordinarily barred the subsidiary and another company from rejoining the parent's consolidated gro…
Corporate group receives rulings on proposed restructuring
A public company's worldwide group proposed a large restructuring involving liquidations, reincorporations, contributions, internal distributions, asset sales, debt exchanges, and a public-company spi…
Estate receives 120 days to elect portability
An estate did not file Form 706 by its deadline and therefore missed the election that would let the surviving spouse use the decedent's unused estate and gift tax exclusion. The estate represented th…
Late portability election receives 120-day extension
An estate missed the deadline for filing Form 706 and electing portability of the decedent's unused estate and gift tax exclusion to the surviving spouse. It represented that the gross estate, includi…
Estate receives extension for portability election
An estate failed to file Form 706 by the deadline for electing portability of the decedent's unused estate and gift tax exclusion to the surviving spouse. The estate represented that the decedent's gr…
Export corporation receives more time for IC-DISC election
A domestic corporation was formed solely to operate as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation, or IC-DISC. Its managers hired an accounting firm and a law firm to handle the requi…
Utility receives revised nuclear decommissioning schedule
An investor-owned utility requested a revised schedule governing deductible payments to its nuclear decommissioning reserve fund. The utility owned a redacted percentage of a nuclear plant and based i…
Estate receives 120-day portability extension
An estate did not timely file Form 706 to transfer the decedent's unused estate and gift tax exclusion to the surviving spouse through portability. The estate represented that its gross value, includi…
Foreign entity receives late partnership-classification relief
A foreign eligible entity intended to be classified as a partnership for federal tax purposes but did not timely file Form 8832. It represented that it was eligible to elect partnership status effecti…
Executor receives more time to elect portability
A surviving spouse, acting as executor, requested relief after the estate missed the Form 706 deadline for electing portability of the decedent's unused estate and gift tax exclusion. The executor rep…
Physician-services contract avoids private business use
A state instrumentality issued bonds to finance facilities owned by a nonprofit medical center. A related taxable physician practice used those facilities under a services agreement with the healthcar…
Partnership receives more time for section 754 election
A limited liability company treated as a partnership acquired membership interests in three entities but filed its return without a section 754 election. The partnership represented that it relied on …
Disability and caregiving support late IRA rollover waiver
A taxpayer withdrew money from an IRA to buy a home where she could care for her mother, who had dementia and needed a stable environment. She intended to replace the money after receiving her share o…
Organization loses exemption for nonexempt activities and private benefit
A tax-exempt organization promoted education and careers in a redacted field through member events, mentoring, advocacy, youth workshops, and grants. The IRS found that a substantial share of its acti…
Farmers market denied agricultural-organization exemption
An organization operated a weekly public market where vendors sold locally produced food and other homemade or natural products. It provided the market location, promotion, events, logistics, vendor s…
Inactive organization loses charitable exemption
An organization had been recognized under section 501(c)(3) and classified as a private nonoperating foundation. Its returns for four redacted years reported no revenue, expenses, or assets. The organ…
Housing cooperative denied exemption for member benefit
A sweat-equity housing cooperative planned to acquire and rehabilitate historic rural properties that would serve as both homes and businesses. Its five officers and directors were related, held all b…
Facility operator loses social-welfare exemption
A section 501(c)(4) organization owned and maintained a facility used by a related local fraternal organization. The related organization's members automatically belonged to the facility operator, whi…
Public-facing club loses social-club exemption
An organization claimed exemption as a section 501(c)(7) social club but operated as a one-owner business open to the general public. It issued lifetime membership cards without a formal application, …
Legal-defense fundraiser denied charitable exemption
A nonprofit sought section 501(c)(3) status for programs supporting people it considered wrongly convicted and families affected by incarceration. Its primary activity was raising legal-defense funds …
RIC distribution routing does not produce foreign-dividend deduction
A consolidated corporate group routed investment funds and returns from a domestic regulated investment company through a controlled foreign corporation. The structure was designed to convert interest…
Closed refund years do not prevent open-year insurance adjustments
A property and casualty insurer used section 847 deductions, special loss discount accounts, and matching special estimated tax payments. After a net operating loss carryback generated a refund, the i…
False withholding claims support different penalties based on refund payment
Taxpayers filed original and amended returns claiming false original-issue-discount income and matching withholding credits. Chief Counsel advised that the original returns would likely qualify as val…
Future salary election differs from cash-for-health-benefits ruling
Public school employees received a brief, one-time irrevocable choice between retaining future retiree health benefits and avoiding a reduction in future compensation. An earlier IRS memorandum treate…
Active restaurant owner is not a limited partner for self-employment tax
A majority owner of a restaurant LLC served as its operating manager, president, and chief executive officer and had ultimate authority over its employees and business decisions. The partnership paid …
Gift-tax return errors do not defeat GST exemption elections
A husband and wife transferred property to trusts for grandchildren and more remote descendants and intended to allocate generation-skipping transfer tax exemption to two direct skips. Their accountin…
Consolidated group may use tax book value for interest allocation
The parent of a consolidated corporate group had used fair market value to value assets when allocating and apportioning interest expense. Because the regulations generally require continued use of th…
Partnership receives more time for section 754 election
An LLC taxed as a partnership underwent a technical termination and inadvertently failed to make a timely section 754 election for the resulting tax year. That election allows partnership property bas…
Tribe may no longer pass renewable-energy credits to lessee
An earlier private letter ruling allowed a tribe to elect under section 50(d)(5) to pass investment credits associated with renewable-energy assets to an unrelated lessee. After reconsideration, the I…
S corporation receives more time for section 336(e) election
Two individuals acquired all stock of an S corporation, and the sellers and target signed a timely binding agreement to make a section 336(e) election treating the stock sale as an asset disposition. …
Life insurer may stop five-year interest-rate recomputations
A life insurer had elected under section 807(d)(4)(A)(ii) to recompute every five years the federal interest rate used for its life insurance reserves. Because the election applied to later contracts …
REIT liquidation sales are not prohibited transactions
A real estate investment trust considered selling its portfolio under a complete liquidation plan after reviewing alternatives for increasing shareholder value. It represented that it had acquired and…
QDOT trustees receive more time to report spouse's citizenship
A decedent's noncitizen surviving spouse received property through a qualified domestic trust and later became a U.S. citizen after continuously residing in the United States. The trustees' accountant…
Repair-related rate-base offset does not violate normalization rules
A regulated electric utility changed to a safe-harbor tax accounting method that produced larger repair deductions than the deductions reflected in an earlier rate case. In a later proceeding, a regul…
Estate receives more time to elect portability
An estate did not timely file Form 706 to elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused estate and gift tax exclusion to the surviving spouse. The estate represented that the decedent's gross esta…
Corporation receives more time for IC-DISC election
A domestic corporation was formed with the intent to qualify as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation. Its parent relied on an accounting firm to handle the election, but the fir…
REIT and subsidiary receive more time for TRS election
A company intended to elect REIT status and to treat a hotel-operating subsidiary as a taxable REIT subsidiary from the start of operations. Its investment adviser believed outside tax professionals h…
Shareholder's move abroad causes inadvertent S corporation termination
An S corporation issued shares to a resident alien who later moved permanently to another country and stopped qualifying as a U.S. resident. The shareholder did not tell the corporation, so the compan…
IRS approves substitute mortality tables for a pension plan
A defined benefit pension plan asked to use plan-specific substitute mortality tables when calculating minimum funding requirements. The IRS approved male and female rates for up to ten years beginnin…
Trauma supports waiver of IRA rollover deadline
An IRA owner withdrew funds from a maturing certificate of deposit to seek a higher return and deposited the money in a non-IRA account. She did not complete a rollover within 60 days because she was …
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.