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 multiemployer pension plan a 5-year extension to amortize its unfunded liabilities
A multiemployer pension plan (the kind jointly sponsored for workers who move among several employers, usually under a union contract) asked the IRS for an automatic extension of the time it has to pa…
IRS grants a multiemployer pension plan a 5-year extension to amortize its unfunded liabilities
A multiemployer pension plan (the kind jointly sponsored for workers who move among several employers, usually under a union contract) asked the IRS for an automatic extension of the time it has to pa…
Pension funding waiver approved with conditions
An employer asked the IRS to waive unpaid minimum required contributions for two pension plans for one plan year. The IRS found a temporary substantial business hardship under section 412(c), citing r…
Flexible employer benefit allocation approved
An employer proposed letting eligible employees make an annual irrevocable choice to allocate an additional employer contribution among its 401(k) plan, retiree health reimbursement arrangement, healt…
Pension medical account may cover eligible active employees
An employer maintained a defined benefit pension plan with an overfunded section 401(h) account for retiree medical benefits. It proposed allowing employees age 59½ or older to begin pension distribut…
Pension funding waiver conditions modified
An employer had previously received a waiver of its pension plan's minimum required contribution for the 2020 plan year while it faced temporary substantial business hardship and Chapter 11 reorganiza…
Annuity-paid advisory fees were not treated as taxable amounts received by owners
A life insurance company proposed fixed and indexed non-qualified deferred annuity contracts whose owners could authorize the insurer to pay investment advisory fees directly from a contract's cash va…
Fraud victim received a waiver of the IRA 60-day rollover deadline
An IRA owner withdrew funds after callers impersonating government and law-enforcement officials convinced her that she was an identity-theft victim and needed to move the money to a supposed safety f…
How the § 52 controlled-group rules apply to tax-exempt organizations claiming the Employee Retention Credit
The Employee Retention Credit (ERC), a COVID-era payroll tax credit, treats related organizations as a single employer using the "controlled group" aggregation rules in § 52. This Chief Counsel Advice…
Advisory fees paid from an annuity's value are not a taxable withdrawal to the owner
A life insurance company plans to sell "adviser" annuity contracts designed to work alongside a customer's investment adviser, who helps the owner allocate the contract's value among investment option…
IRS revokes a 2014 annuity ruling but limits the revocation to future contracts
Back in 2014, an insurance company got a private letter ruling (PLR 201424014) that let it offer a new variable-payment annuity option and treat the owner as owing no income tax until amounts were act…
Taxpayer denied waiver for retirement-plan rollover deadline
A taxpayer asked the IRS to waive the 60-day deadline for rolling a qualified-plan distribution into a traditional IRA. She said the financial institution instead deposited the amount into a Roth IRA …
Annuity-paid advisory fees were not distributions to owners
A life insurance company planned to offer variable, fixed-indexed, and hybrid deferred annuity contracts designed for owners who receive ongoing investment advice about the contracts. Owners could aut…
Pension plan may use substitute mortality tables for up to five years
A pension plan sponsor asked to use plan-specific base substitute mortality tables when calculating minimum funding under IRC § 430. The IRS approved the tables for combined male and female annuitants…
Substitute mortality tables approved for non-union pension plans
A plan sponsor asked to use plan-specific substitute mortality tables when calculating minimum funding obligations for an aggregated group of two non-union defined-benefit plans. The proposed tables u…
Substitute mortality tables approved for union pension plans
A plan sponsor asked to use plan-specific substitute mortality tables when calculating minimum funding obligations for an aggregated group of two union defined-benefit plans. The proposed tables used …
Transfer between related group trusts was not an impermissible assignment
A qualified retirement plan wanted to move its investment from one bank-sponsored group trust fund to another. Both the active and passive funds were Revenue Ruling 81-100 group trusts, both invested …
Multiemployer plan received five-year amortization extensions
A multiemployer pension plan requested automatic extensions for amortizing specified unfunded-liability charge bases as of July 1, 2022. The plan actuary certified that without relief the plan would h…
Elective transfer between governmental retirement plans avoided current tax
A county proposed allowing participants in its governmental defined-contribution plan to elect participation in a governmental cash-balance defined-benefit plan and transfer their balances directly be…
Pension plan may use substitute mortality tables for up to two years
A pension plan sponsor asked to use plan-specific substitute mortality tables for minimum-funding calculations under section 430. The IRS approved the tables for union male, non-union male, and female…
Two pension plans may use substitute mortality tables for five years
A parent company asked to use plan-specific base substitute mortality tables for two pension plans when calculating minimum funding under section 430. The IRS approved aggregated male and female annui…
Multiemployer plan receives retroactive funding relief with two bases excluded
A multiemployer pension plan requested a five-year extension of the amortization periods for unfunded liabilities beginning October 1, 2014. The plan timely submitted the request in 2015, resent it af…
Pension plan may use four substitute mortality tables for five years
A pension plan sponsor asked to use separate substitute mortality tables for male and female annuitants and nonannuitants, including disabled participants. The IRS approved all four populations for up…
Surviving spouse may roll trust-held inherited IRA into own IRA
A decedent’s IRA was paid to an inherited IRA established for a trust rather than directly to the surviving spouse. After the trust was restated, the spouse became its sole trustee and had authority t…
Annuity-funded advisory fees were not treated as distributions to the owner
A life insurance company proposed annuity contracts designed for owners who receive ongoing advice about allocating the contracts' cash value among available investment or crediting options. An owner …
Annuity-paid advisory fees were not distributions to contract owners
A life insurer proposed three types of nonqualified deferred annuity contracts designed for owners receiving ongoing advice about the contracts' investment options. Owners could authorize the insurer …
Surviving spouse may roll a trust's inherited IRA distribution into a personal IRA
A deceased IRA owner's estate transferred four traditional IRAs into an inherited IRA for a trust, and the surviving spouse was entitled to a redacted percentage of a specified trust residue. The spou…
Former employees cannot purchase missed service credit
A county retirement plan had offered certain employees election periods to participate, but some employees said they were not explicitly notified and were defaulted into nonparticipation. After leavin…
Five-year extension granted for pension funding amortization periods
A multiemployer pension plan requested an automatic extension for amortizing specified unfunded liabilities beginning with its 2023 plan year. The plan submitted an actuarial certification that withou…
Contract-paid life insurance advisory fees are not owner distributions
A life insurer proposed variable life insurance contracts designed for owners who receive ongoing advice about allocating contract value among investment options. Under a separate authorization, the i…
Contract-paid life insurance advisory fees are not owner distributions
A life insurer proposed variable life insurance contracts designed for owners who receive ongoing advice about allocating contract value among investment options. Under a separate authorization, the i…
Ten-year substitute mortality table approval for a pension plan
A single-employer pension plan requested approval to use substitute mortality tables for male and female annuitants and nonannuitants, excluding disabled participants. The tables were based on a 2016 …
Five-year substitute mortality table approval after stability concerns
A single-employer pension plan requested permission to use substitute mortality tables for male and female annuitants and nonannuitants, excluding disabled participants. The plan originally requested …
IRS denies a multiemployer pension plan permission to add a one-time "13th check" while under an amortization extension
A collectively bargained multiemployer defined-benefit pension plan was operating under an approved extension of its amortization period under section 431(d). While such an extension is in place, sect…
Surviving spouse may roll over a late husband's IRA even though it passed through his estate
A man died owning a traditional IRA but never named a beneficiary, so under the account rules the money went to his estate. His will left the entire residual estate, including the IRA, to his survivin…
Surviving spouse may roll over two inherited IRAs consolidated into an estate-beneficiary IRA
A person owned two traditional IRAs and named their own estate as the beneficiary of both. After death (which occurred before required distributions had to begin), the surviving spouse, who is the est…
Insurer cannot deduct future retiree benefits as unpaid losses
A nonlife insurance company included the discounted actuarial value of future retiree medical, reimbursement, and life insurance benefits in unpaid loss adjustment expenses for three tax years. It arg…
Annuity-paid investment advisory fees are not owner distributions
A life insurance company proposed variable, fixed-indexed, and hybrid nonqualified deferred annuity contracts designed for owners who receive ongoing investment advice about the contracts' available o…
Annuity-paid investment advisory fees are not owner distributions
A life insurance company proposed variable, fixed-indexed, and hybrid nonqualified deferred annuity contracts designed for owners who receive ongoing investment advice about the contracts' available o…
Pension sponsor approved to use a combined annuitant/nonannuitant substitute mortality table
A company that sponsors two single-employer defined benefit pension plans asked the IRS for permission to use its own "substitute" mortality tables, instead of the standard IRS tables, when calculatin…
Plan sponsor approved to use custom (substitute) mortality tables for pension funding for up to 10 years
A company that sponsors several single-employer defined benefit pension plans asked the IRS for permission to use its own "substitute" mortality tables, instead of the standard IRS tables, when calcul…
Paying 401(h) retiree medical benefits to age-59½ in-service participants does not disqualify the pension plan
An employer runs a defined benefit pension plan that also has a section 401(h) account, a separate sub-account inside the pension plan used to pay retiree medical benefits. The plan was amended, as se…
The IRS approves combined substitute mortality tables covering four pension plans in a controlled group for five years
A company that sponsors several single-employer defined benefit pension plans asked the IRS to let it use "substitute" mortality tables (tables built from the plans' own participant experience rather …
A city's dual-plan pension election and Plan A to Plan B service-purchase transfer are not an impermissible cash-or-deferred arrangement, and the picked-up contributions stay untaxed until distributed
A city that runs its own retirement system for a group of employees asked the IRS to bless a change to how those employees save for retirement. The employees must contribute 12 percent of pay no matte…
Foreign earned income elections do not block qualified Roth contributions
A qualified defined contribution plan covered U.S. citizens working abroad and allowed participants to designate elective deferrals as Roth contributions. The plan asked whether employees could make t…
Pension sponsor approved to use substitute mortality tables for three plans
A controlled group with six defined benefit pension plans asked to use substitute mortality tables for the combined male and female populations of three plans, including disabled participants. The spo…
Pension sponsor approved to use substitute mortality tables for two plans
A controlled group asked to use substitute mortality tables for the combined male and female populations of two defined benefit plans, including disabled participants. The plans had transferred partic…
Contingent deferred annuity received favorable tax treatment
A taxpayer planned to buy a contingent deferred annuity linked to a separately owned taxable investment account. The taxpayer would retain ownership and control of the account, while the contract woul…
Insurer's contingent deferred annuity qualified under section 72
A life insurance company planned to issue a contingent deferred annuity linked to an individual's separately owned taxable investment account. The individual would retain control of the account, while…
Insurer's contingent deferred annuity qualified under section 72
A life insurance company planned to issue a contingent deferred annuity linked to an individual's separately owned taxable investment account. The individual would retain control of the account, while…
Insurer's contingent deferred annuity qualified under section 72
A life insurance company planned to issue a contingent deferred annuity linked to an individual's separately owned taxable investment account. The individual would retain control of the account, while…
Pension plan receives ten-year substitute mortality table approval
A pension plan asked to use experience-based substitute mortality tables for male and female annuitants, including disabled participants, beginning November 1, 2022. The plan added 2019 experience to …
60-day IRA rollover waiver for a fraud-scam victim
When you take money out of a traditional IRA, you normally must put it back into a retirement account within 60 days or it counts as a taxable distribution. Here, a taxpayer withdrew money from her IR…
Automatic extension of time to file Form 5500 employee benefit plan returns
This is an internal IRS Chief Counsel email passing along an answer from the Procedures and Administration office about a project a colleague was working on. The specific question and the office's ful…
Advisory fees paid out of an annuity's cash value are not a taxable distribution under section 72(e)
A life insurance company offers deferred annuity contracts designed to be managed with the help of an investment adviser. The owner authorizes the company to deduct the adviser's fee (capped at 1.5% o…
Pension plan may keep using its substitute mortality tables after a change in plan sponsor
A company's pension plans had been approved to use their own experience-based "substitute" mortality tables (instead of the IRS standard tables) for funding calculations under IRC § 430. A problem aro…
Advisory fees pulled from an annuity's cash value are not a taxable distribution to the owner
A life insurance company (which files consolidated returns with a parent) plans to sell deferred annuity contracts designed to work alongside an investment adviser, who helps the owner choose among th…
Advisory fees pulled from an annuity's cash value are not a taxable distribution to the owner
A life insurance company plans to sell deferred annuity contracts designed to work alongside an investment adviser, who helps the owner choose among the contract's interest-crediting options. The advi…
Investment advisory fees pulled from an annuity's cash value are not an "amount received" by the owner under section 72(e)
A life insurance company wanted to offer three kinds of deferred annuity contracts (variable, fixed-indexed, and hybrid) designed to be managed with the help of an investment adviser. The owner would …
Investment advisory fees pulled from an annuity's cash value are not an "amount received" by the owner under section 72(e)
A life insurance company wanted to offer three kinds of deferred annuity contracts (variable, fixed-indexed, and hybrid) designed to be managed with the help of an investment adviser. The owner would …
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.