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 rollover deadline after IRA was sent to the state
A retired taxpayer owned an IRA certificate of deposit that she expected to renew automatically after receiving her required minimum distribution. Instead, the financial institution sent the remaining…
IRS waives rollover deadline after illness and incarceration
A taxpayer received a retirement-plan distribution under a divorce settlement but did not complete the rollover within 60 days. During the rollover period, she experienced severe depression, injuries,…
Foundation's research conference grants approved
A private foundation proposed grants for researchers and scholars to attend academic and scientific conferences, report how the material applied to diabetes research, and help identify potential grant…
Modified county scholarship procedures approved
A private foundation modified an existing scholarship program for county residents attending tax-exempt postsecondary schools. It publicized the program through local school districts, its website, an…
Golf club denied social-club exemption
A golf club sought exemption under section 501(c)(7) after previously operating as a for-profit entity. It regularly opened its golf course, fishing access, tournament, clinic, and clubhouse to nonmem…
Social club loses exemption for public business activity
A social club regularly provided its facilities and services to the general public for established fees. Its nonmember income exceeded the 15 percent limit, and the organization lacked reliable contro…
Charity loses exemption over car sales and missing records
A charity said it would help lower- and middle-income families and direct proceeds from donated vehicle sales to charities chosen by donors. Its car operation instead functioned like a used-car dealer…
Taxpayer gets extra time to elect out of automatic GST allocation
A taxpayer made two transfers to an irrevocable trust with generation-skipping transfer tax potential. Her tax professional had elected out of automatic GST-exemption allocation for an earlier transfe…
Public hospital authority gets governmental income and payroll-tax treatment
A county created a separate public authority to receive and operate its hospital, provide care to indigent residents, and preserve the hospital's viability. The IRS ruled that the authority performed …
Corporation gets extra time to elect IC-DISC status
A corporation was formed to operate as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation and relied on an accounting firm to prepare its Form 4876-A election. The firm mailed the completed f…
S corporation gets inadvertent-termination relief for distribution agreements
An S corporation entered into shareholder agreements containing two distribution clauses that gave shareholders different distribution rights. Although those provisions created more than one class of …
S corporation restructuring preserves F reorganization treatment
Family trusts indirectly owned an S corporation with qualified subchapter S subsidiaries and a separate corporate group. They proposed forming a new S corporation, exchanging the old corporation's sha…
Cancer treatment supports waiver of IRA rollover deadline
A taxpayer withdrew funds from an IRA intending to roll them into another IRA. After being diagnosed with cancer that had spread, she used the funds to pay off her home mortgage so her husband would n…
Charity loses exemption for serving a telemarketer's private interests
A charity's only activity was a corporate sponsorship program operated by a related for-profit home-improvement company. The company used its employees to make solicitation calls in the charity's name…
Health-care scholarship procedures receive advance approval
A private foundation proposed multiple scholarship programs for people pursuing nursing, medical, and related health-care education. Applicants had to demonstrate academic ability, character, citizens…
IRS approves a private foundation's scholarship procedures
A private foundation asked the IRS to approve procedures for two types of educational scholarships. The program would use stated academic, service, essay, and, for one award, financial-need criteria, …
IRS waives the 60-day IRA rollover deadline after the account owner's death
An estate's executrix asked the IRS to waive the 60-day deadline for rolling an IRA distribution into another IRA. The account owner had severe cognitive impairment from a terminal illness and died du…
Scholarship fund tied to a beauty pageant is denied tax-exempt status
An organization sought recognition as a tax-exempt charity to raise and distribute scholarships, most of which would go to participants in a related beauty pageant. Contestants had to sign contracts r…
IRS grants rollover relief only for funds that remained available
A taxpayer asked the IRS to waive the 60-day deadline for rolling part of a qualified plan distribution into another retirement plan. Family deaths, a move, and failure to receive a rollover notice co…
Short-week benefits remain subject to FICA tax
Chief Counsel considered whether benefits paid when employees worked fewer than 36 hours or could not work because of weather were excluded from FICA wages. The workers receiving these short-week paym…
IRS cannot force regrouping of separate medical activities
A physician treated interests in two medical practices and a partnership that indirectly owned part of an outpatient surgery center as separate activities for passive-loss purposes. The separate treat…
Employees of a disregarded LLC may join the tax-exempt owner's retirement plans
Chief Counsel considered whether employees of a disregarded single-member LLC could participate in retirement plans sponsored by its tax-exempt owner. Because the LLC is treated as a branch or divisio…
Corporation receives more time to file its IC-DISC election
A domestic corporation formed to operate as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation failed to file Form 4876-A for its first taxable year. Its owners had relied on a law firm and a…
S corporation receives relief after QSST income was not distributed
Shareholders transferred S-corporation stock to seven trusts whose beneficiaries elected qualified subchapter S trust treatment. The trust instruments did not require current distribution of all incom…
Estate receives more time to make a qualified domestic trust election
An estate claimed a marital deduction for property passing to a surviving spouse who was not a U.S. citizen, but its accountant failed to make the qualified domestic trust election on Form 706. The sp…
Trust modifications preserve GST exemption without creating a general power
A beneficiary and trustee obtained court approval to modify an irrevocable trust created before September 25, 1985. The changes expanded trustee succession and removal procedures and allowed a benefic…
Trust modifications preserve GST exemption without creating a general power
A beneficiary serving as co-trustee obtained court approval to modify an irrevocable trust created before September 25, 1985. The changes expanded trustee succession and removal procedures and allowed…
Trust reformation prevents a general power of appointment
A trust document mistakenly referred to a beneficiary's testamentary power as a general power of appointment and allowed broad distribution and termination powers. A state court reformed the trust to …
Estate receives more time to elect portability
An estate below the estate-tax filing threshold failed to file Form 706 by the deadline to elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount. The IRS concluded that the estate satisfi…
S corporation receives relief after stock was issued to an ineligible shareholder
An S corporation issued shares to another corporation, an ineligible S-corporation shareholder, causing its election to terminate. After discovering the problem, an eligible individual acquired the sh…
Public-school trust keeps its governmental-income exclusion after asset sale
A trust serving public-school entities planned to sell an insurance subsidiary and most assets of a claims and benefits company to an unrelated buyer at fair market value. It would use most sale proce…
Estate receives more time to elect portability after attorney error
An estate below the estate-tax filing threshold failed to file Form 706 by the deadline to elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount. The surviving spouse had relied on an att…
IRS approves discrete active-business and split-off issues
A public company proposed a multistep separation involving transfers of business assets and stock to a new controlled corporation, followed by exchanges and possible cleanup dispositions of that corpo…
Foreign entity receives more time to elect disregarded status
A foreign entity wholly owned by a U.S. corporation intended to be treated as a disregarded entity but did not timely file Form 8832. The IRS found that the entity met the standards for discretionary …
LLC receives more time for corporate and S-corporation elections
A single-member LLC intended to be treated as a corporation and an S corporation from the same effective date, but the IRS had no record of timely receiving Forms 8832 and 2553. The IRS found that the…
S corporation receives relief for ineligible shareholders and a missed QSST election
An S corporation's shares were transferred first to an ineligible entity and later held by a trust that failed to make a timely qualified subchapter S trust election. The parties reported consistently…
Subsidiary receives more time for corporate and QSub elections
An S corporation formed a wholly owned single-member LLC that it intended to classify as a corporation and elect as a qualified subchapter S subsidiary. The parent did not timely file Forms 8832 and 8…
S corporation receives more time to file a QSub election
An S corporation intended to treat its wholly owned subsidiary as a qualified subchapter S subsidiary but did not timely file Form 8869. The parent and subsidiary filed their returns consistently with…
S corporation receives relief for missing consents and an ineligible shareholder
A corporation's S election was initially ineffective because four shareholders did not properly consent. The corporation later contracted to sell shares to an ineligible entity, though the agreement w…
S corporation receives relief for a missing consent and ineligible shareholder
A corporation's S election was initially ineffective because one shareholder did not properly consent. The corporation later contracted to sell shares to an ineligible entity, though the agreement was…
Corporation receives more time to file its IC-DISC election
A domestic corporation formed to serve as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation failed to file Form 4876-A for its first taxable year. Its accounting firm had agreed to prepare t…
S corporation receives relief after a trust missed its ESBT election
A revocable trust became the sole shareholder of an S corporation and later became ineligible after the grantor's death because no electing small business trust election was filed. The corporation and…
Referral network is denied business-league exemption
An organization applied for tax-exempt status as a business league under IRC § 501(c)(6). Its members met weekly to exchange business leads, only one member could represent each industry, and membersh…
Inactive business league loses tax-exempt status
The IRS revoked a business league's tax-exempt status under IRC § 501(c)(6) after determining that it had ceased operations and regular financial activity. The examination report states that a state a…
Lodging association loses exemption for member-specific services
The IRS revoked a lodging association's tax-exempt status under IRC § 501(c)(6). The association's principal activities included advertising member properties, inspecting those properties, processing …
Unaffiliated companion sitter may be a household employee
Chief Counsel considered whether a companion sitter who was not connected with a placement service could be an employee of the person receiving the services. The answer depends on common-law factors, …
Pawn-contract option fee is not a retail sale by the pawnbroker
Chief Counsel reconsidered whether a customer's option fee under a pawn-like contract for purchase was payment for a retail sale by the pawnbroker. Under the applicable contract definition, the custom…
Conservation organization's product sales are an unrelated business
A tax-exempt conservation organization sold redacted products through an online store, printed catalog, and unrelated retail outlets. The sales resembled those of commercial sellers, included products…
Foreign entity receives more time to elect partnership status
A foreign entity with multiple owners intended to be classified as a partnership for federal tax purposes but did not timely file Form 8832. The IRS found that the entity met the standards for discret…
Foreign entity receives more time to elect partnership status before acquisition
A foreign entity with several owners intended to elect partnership classification effective before its later acquisition by a corporate owner, but it did not timely file Form 8832. The IRS found that …
S corporation receives relief for multiple missed ESBT elections
S-corporation stock was transferred among a series of trusts, including newly created and divided trusts, without properly filing electing small business trust elections. The corporation and trusts fi…
Majority target interest is looked through for the investment-company test
A publicly traded partnership proposed to receive interests in another publicly traded partnership in exchange for its own limited-partner interests. Immediately after the exchange, the acquiring part…
Mutual insurer may revoke its small-company tax election
A mutual property and casualty insurer asked to revoke its election under IRC § 831(b) to be taxed only on investment income. The insurer planned to expand its policyholder base, appoint agents, enter…
Non-appointed executor receives more time to elect portability
A surviving spouse with possession of the estate property acted as the estate's non-appointed executor. The estate was below the estate-tax filing threshold and did not file Form 706 because the spous…
Inherited IRA distributions may use a trust beneficiary's life expectancy
A decedent named a testamentary trust as beneficiary of three IRAs that were later combined into one inherited IRA. The IRS ruled that the trust met the regulatory requirements for its beneficiaries, …
Foreign entity receives more time to elect disregarded status
A foreign entity with one corporate owner intended to be treated as a disregarded entity for federal tax purposes, and its corporate group filed consolidated returns consistent with that treatment. Th…
Trust modification preserves generation-skipping tax exemption
An irrevocable trust created before September 25, 1985, held shares for a beneficiary who lacked capacity to exercise withdrawal and appointment rights. A state court conditionally approved changes th…
Lifetime trust modification retains GST-tax exemption
A great-grandmother created an irrevocable trust before September 25, 1985, for later-generation family members. One beneficiary lacked capacity to exercise the trust's withdrawal and appointment righ…
Trust with withdrawal power owns transferee trust income and gains
A trustee proposed transferring funds from one family trust to a second trust with the same beneficiaries and distribution rights. The second trust gave the first trust a power, exercisable only by th…
Oilfield fluid services generate qualifying partnership income
A planned publicly traded partnership would manage and dispose of fluids and waste for oil and gas producers. The IRS ruled that income from those specialized services qualified under IRC § 7704(d)(1)…
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.