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 keeps S status after stock transfers to ineligible trusts
An S corporation transferred shares to seven trusts whose beneficiaries timely attempted to elect qualified Subchapter S trust status. The trust terms nevertheless allowed income accumulation and dist…
LLC may change classification within the 60-month limit
A limited liability company had elected to be taxed as a corporation and wanted to change to disregarded-entity status less than 60 months later. The entity-classification regulations generally preven…
Foundation scholarship procedures receive advance approval
A private foundation proposed renewable scholarships for low- to moderate-income students pursuing construction management, civil engineering, related fields, or vocational training. An independent co…
Private foundation received advance approval for two visual-arts grant programs
A private foundation proposed two nonrenewable grant programs for underrepresented early-career visual-arts professionals and artists. One program combines an unrestricted grant with mentoring, worksh…
Membership association was denied charity status because its social activities served a substantial nonexempt purpose
An ethnic membership association sought recognition as a charity under IRC § 501(c)(3). Its bylaws focused on cultural ties, mutual assistance, friendly relations, social connection, and unification a…
Organization received a final denial after it did not protest the proposed adverse determination
The IRS issued a final determination that an organization did not qualify for exemption under IRC § 501(c)(3). The final letter says the IRS had sent a proposed adverse determination explaining the fa…
Tax-exempt employer may exclude qualifying 403(b) deferrals and cafeteria-plan health amounts from Section 4960 remuneration
Chief Counsel considered whether remuneration for the IRC § 4960 excise tax includes an employee’s elective deferrals to a § 403(b) annuity and salary reductions under a § 125 cafeteria plan for quali…
Estate may face the 40 percent gross valuation misstatement penalty for undervaluing an annuity
Chief Counsel considered an estate tax return that reported an annuity at a redacted value after the annuity apparently had been exchanged for bonds worth a much larger redacted amount. IRC § 6662(g) …
Pension plan may use its 401(h) account for active employees eligible for age-59½ in-service pensions
An employer’s qualified defined benefit plan maintained a separate IRC § 401(h) account for retiree medical benefits. The employer proposed allowing certain non-key, non-collectively bargained employe…
Company received more time to elect out of tax-exempt controlled entity treatment
A corporation was treated as a tax-exempt controlled entity because tax-exempt partners held more than half of its parent. The corporation intended to elect under IRC § 168(h)(6)(F)(ii) not to be trea…
Corporation received 90 more days to file a signed IC-DISC election
A newly formed corporation intended from the outset to operate as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation. Its law firm filed Form 4876-A within the applicable election period, and…
Foreign insurer received 60 more days to elect domestic-corporation treatment
A foreign insurance company and its U.S. corporate parents consistently treated the insurer as though it had made an IRC § 953(d) election to be taxed as a domestic corporation and included it in thei…
Consolidated group received 75 more days to make a unified-loss stock-basis election
A consolidated group transferred a loss subsidiary, causing that subsidiary and its lower-tier companies to leave the group. The group could have elected under Treas. Reg. § 1.1502-36(d)(6)(i)(A) to r…
Debtors’ liquidation plan received another extension while assets and disputed claims are resolved
A taxpayer group sought a second supplemental ruling concerning an existing plan to liquidate debtors. It represented that it had continuously pursued liquidation as quickly as commercially reasonable…
Corporation kept S status after a trust missed its ESBT election
An irrevocable trust acquired stock in an S corporation and qualified to elect treatment as an electing small business trust, but its trustee did not file the ESBT election on time. The trust therefor…
Partnership’s late Form 8996 was treated as a timely qualified opportunity fund election
A married couple formed a partnership to operate as a qualified opportunity fund but misunderstood counsel’s explanation of the entity’s tax-filing obligations. They believed the fund’s activity would…
Partnership received 120 more days to make its Section 754 basis election
A partnership intended to make an IRC § 754 election for a particular tax year but failed to include the election with its timely partnership return. The election would apply the basis-adjustment rule…
Foreign entity received 120 more days to elect disregarded-entity status
A foreign single-owner eligible entity intended to elect treatment as disregarded from its owner for federal tax purposes but inadvertently failed to file Form 8832. The IRS concluded that the entity …
REIT received 45 more days to make its intended consent-dividend election
A real estate investment trust and its partnership shareholder had used consent dividends in prior years to support the REIT’s dividends-paid deduction. For the year at issue, the shareholder reported…
Corporation kept S status after a trust beneficiary missed the QSST election
A grantor trust held stock in an S corporation until its deemed owner died. The trust could remain an eligible shareholder for two years after the death, but the income beneficiary failed to make a qu…
Private foundation received advance approval for a public visual-art grant program
A private foundation proposed grants for visual artists to create or develop projects intended to be accessible to the public. Eligible uses include producing new work, researching concepts, acquiring…
Private foundation received advance approval for college scholarships to public-school graduates
A private foundation proposed renewable educational grants for graduating seniors from U.S. public high schools who had been accepted into four-year college programs. It initially planned four awards …
Private foundation received approval to set aside funds for a community arts facility
A private foundation sought to set aside a redacted amount to renovate four commercial properties into a public contemporary-art exhibition space. The facility will support local arts and cultural ini…
Professional gardeners’ trade association was denied charity status
A membership organization of gardening and landscaping professionals applied for recognition under IRC § 501(c)(3). Its articles described it as a trade association and mutual-benefit corporation that…
Internet campaign for a discontinued product was denied social-club status
An organization conducted an Internet campaign seeking the return of a discontinued consumer product. It used emails, letters, phone calls, an online petition, a billboard, social media, and a one-tim…
Open video-game meetups were denied charity status because recreation was a substantial purpose
An organization ran weekly in-person and online video-game meetups that it described as safe spaces for marginalized groups. Its events were open to people of all ages and backgrounds, and it did not …
Blockchain standards coalition was denied charity status because it primarily benefited an industry
An organization sought IRC § 501(c)(3) status to develop and promote an international blockchain standard for representing industry items as non-fungible tokens. Its articles described an industry all…
Social dining group with a member loan fund was denied charity status
An unincorporated association met monthly in members’ homes to cook, entertain one another, socialize, and provide emotional support, with two restaurant gatherings each year. Members contributed a re…
Church lost exemption after ceasing religious activities and operating rental properties
A recognized church filed annual information returns reporting contributions, rental income, mortgaged properties, and outside-service expenses. During a church tax inquiry and examination, it did not…
Fundraiser for its founder’s heart transplant was denied charity status
An unincorporated association planned raffles, spaghetti dinners, and breakfasts to raise money for its founder’s heart transplant, food, and other expenses. Family and friends would organize the even…
Rebate refund created an underpayment subject to deficiency procedures, limiting the erroneous-claim penalty
Chief Counsel considered a large erroneous income tax refund that was issued because the IRS treated the tax imposed as lower than the tax shown on the original return. The advice concludes that the r…
Accuracy-related penalty generally takes priority when an erroneous refund creates an underpayment
Chief Counsel advised that the first question for a large erroneous refund is whether the refund created an underpayment under IRC § 6664. If it did and the underpayment resulted from negligence or di…
Levy may reach mandatory trust income distributions but not discretionary corpus
Chief Counsel considered whether the IRS could levy a trust’s corpus when the taxpayer was a trust beneficiary. The trust required its trustee to distribute all net income to the beneficiary at least …
Partnership received 120 more days to make a Section 754 election after a partner’s death
Two individuals held partnership interests through grantor trusts, and one individual died during the year at issue. The partnership inadvertently failed to include an IRC § 754 election with its retu…
Estate received relief for a late alternate-valuation election after appraisals arrived
An estate timely filed Form 706 before third-party appraisers had completed valuations for estate assets. The personal representatives did not know about the IRC § 2032 alternate-valuation election, a…
QDOT trustee received 120 more days to report the surviving spouse’s U.S. citizenship
A noncitizen surviving spouse received estate assets through a qualified domestic trust and later became a U.S. citizen after continuously residing in the United States since the decedent’s death. IRC…
Estate received 120 more days to elect portability of unused exclusion to the surviving spouse
A decedent’s estate was not otherwise required to file Form 706 because of the represented value of the gross estate and taxable gifts. The decedent left a surviving spouse, who had since died, and an…
Private foundation received advance approval for grants to journalists and publishers
A private foundation proposed grants for experienced journalists and publishers pursuing an in-depth reporting activity identified by a redacted legend term. The program emphasizes free speech, dissen…
Private foundation received advance approval for scholarships to employees’ children
A private foundation proposed one-time, nonrenewable scholarships for dependent children of a company’s full-time employees. Eligible applicants must be no older than 24, have completed high school or…
Community foundation’s exceptionally large restricted donation qualified as an unusual grant
A community foundation expected an exceptionally large donation, more than one hundred times the donor’s usual support and many times the foundation’s average annual donations. The funds will create c…
Firefighter labor union was denied charity status because it served members’ employment interests
A local firefighter union applied for exemption under IRC § 501(c)(3). Its constitution and bylaws lacked both a purpose clause and a dissolution clause, so the IRS found that it failed the organizati…
Bankruptcy liquidating trust kept trust status after a court-approved term extension
A Chapter 11 plan created a trust to pursue and settle litigation claims, liquidate assets, and distribute proceeds to claimants without continuing a trade or business. Unresolved legal claims made it…
Line-of-duty disability and death benefits received specified income-tax exclusions
A state governmental retirement plan asked about special benefits for public safety officers who are permanently disabled, catastrophically injured, or killed in the line of duty. The disability statu…
Inactive land-holding charity lost exemption for conducting no charitable activity
A publicly supported organization had been inactive for multiple years. Its original directors faced health issues and pandemic restrictions, and its only current activity was maintaining donated parc…
Scam-loss deduction depends on the victim’s profit motive
Chief Counsel analyzed five common scams involving funds held in IRA and non-IRA investment accounts. All five victims discovered theft losses in 2024 and had little to no reasonable prospect of recov…
Estate received 120 days to make a late portability election
An estate that represented it was not otherwise required to file Form 706 missed the deadline to elect portability of the decedent’s unused estate and gift tax exclusion for the surviving spouse. Base…
S corporation’s business separation qualified as a tax-free spin-off
A privately held S corporation proposed separating two active businesses. It would contribute the subsidiary operating one business to a newly formed qualified subchapter S subsidiary and distribute t…
S corporation target received more time to file section 336(e) election
The parties to the sale of all stock in an S corporation intended to elect under IRC § 336(e) to treat the qualified stock disposition as an asset disposition, but the target did not timely attach the…
Ineligible shareholder caused an inadvertent S election termination
An S corporation unknowingly issued shares to an ineligible shareholder, terminating its S election. After counsel identified the problem, the ineligible shareholder distributed the shares to an eligi…
Partnership received 120 days to make a late section 754 election
A partnership failed to make an IRC § 754 election for the year in which a partner died. The IRS concluded that the partnership met the standards for late regulatory-election relief and granted 120 da…
Foreign joint-venture company remained eligible to elect its tax classification
A foreign private limited company was a single-owner eligible entity that had elected to be disregarded for U.S. federal tax purposes. A proposed joint venture would add direct and indirect owners, in…
Partnership received 60 days to self-certify as an opportunity fund
A partnership formed to invest in qualified opportunity zones did not timely file its first Form 1065 or attach Form 8996 to self-certify as a qualified opportunity fund. Its manager believed an accou…
Estate received 120 days to make a late portability election
An estate that represented it was not otherwise required to file Form 706 missed the deadline to elect portability of the decedent’s unused estate and gift tax exclusion for the surviving spouse. Base…
Partnership received 120 days to make a late section 754 election
A limited partnership failed to make an IRC § 754 election for the year in which two partners died because its tax advisers did not adequately advise it about the election. The IRS found that the part…
Late ESBT elections caused an inadvertent S corporation termination
After two shareholders died, their S corporation stock passed to two trusts that qualified to elect treatment as electing small business trusts. The trustees did not timely make the ESBT elections, ca…
Renewable facility received more time to elect the investment tax credit
A partnership upgraded two electricity-generating units but treated the upgrades as one project in its financial records. Because those records did not show that one unit had already been placed in se…
LLC received 120 days to elect disregarded-entity status
A limited liability company had elected corporate tax treatment when it was formed. After a restructuring, it became eligible to elect treatment as an entity disregarded from its owner but did not tim…
Second class of stock caused an inadvertent invalid S election
An LLC elected corporate and S corporation treatment, but its operating agreement allowed non-pro rata contributions, special allocations and distributions, and liquidation distributions based on capi…
Irrevocable reduced research-credit election could not be withdrawn
A corporation intended to claim its full IRC § 41 research credit after changes to the treatment of research expenses, and its financial statements and workpapers reflected that decision. During retur…
Bilingual-teacher grant procedures received advance approval
A private foundation proposed two annual grant cycles for licensed K–5 Spanish-English bilingual teachers in specified communities. Teachers must have at least two years of relevant experience, spend …
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.