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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9100-3 extension to make a late portability (DSUE) election for a small estate
A surviving spouse can inherit a late spouse's unused federal estate-tax exclusion (the "DSUE" amount), but only if the deceased spouse's estate makes a "portability" election on a timely filed estate…
9100-3 extension to make a late portability (DSUE) election for a small estate
A surviving spouse can inherit a late spouse's unused federal estate-tax exclusion (the "DSUE" amount), but only if the deceased spouse's estate makes a "portability" election on a timely filed estate…
9100-3 extension to make a late portability (DSUE) election for a small estate
A surviving spouse can inherit a late spouse's unused federal estate-tax exclusion (the "DSUE" amount), but only if the deceased spouse's estate makes a "portability" election on a timely filed estate…
9100-3 extension to make a late portability (DSUE) election for a small estate
A surviving spouse can inherit a late spouse's unused federal estate-tax exclusion (the "DSUE" amount), but only if the deceased spouse's estate makes a "portability" election on a timely filed estate…
9100-3 extension to make a late portability (DSUE) election for a small estate
A surviving spouse can inherit a late spouse's unused federal estate-tax exclusion (the "DSUE" amount), but only if the deceased spouse's estate makes a "portability" election on a timely filed estate…
9100-3 extension to make a late portability (DSUE) election for a small estate
A surviving spouse can inherit a late spouse's unused federal estate-tax exclusion (the "DSUE" amount), but only if the deceased spouse's estate makes a "portability" election on a timely filed estate…
IRS grants a REIT 90 days to make a late taxable-REIT-subsidiary election after a mix-up over who would file Form 8875
A real estate investment trust (REIT) and its wholly owned subsidiary asked the IRS for extra time to jointly elect, under Section 856(l), to treat the subsidiary as a "taxable REIT subsidiary" (TRS).…
IRS grants an S corporation 120 days to make a late QSub election for its wholly owned subsidiary
An S corporation asked the IRS for extra time to elect to treat its wholly owned subsidiary as a qualified subchapter S subsidiary (QSub). A QSub election lets the parent treat the subsidiary as part …
IRS grants a partnership 120 days to make a late Section 754 basis-adjustment election after a partner's death
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership asked the IRS for extra time to make a Section 754 election. That election lets a partnership adjust the tax basis of its property when a partner's i…
Estate granted extra time to make the "portability" election for the surviving spouse
A surviving spouse can inherit the unused part of a deceased spouse's federal estate-tax exclusion (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE, amount), but only if the deceased spouse's estate …
Buyer gets extra time to make late Section 338(g) elections for acquired foreign subsidiaries
When a corporation buys the stock of a target company, a Section 338 election lets the buyer treat the stock purchase as if it were an asset purchase for tax purposes, which can change the tax basis o…
Equipment-leasing partnership gets extra time to elect out of bonus depreciation after a software switch delayed its return
Businesses that buy qualifying property can take a large "bonus depreciation" deduction (100% first-year write-off) under Section 168(k), but they can also elect not to take it for a class of property…
Estate gets more time to allocate the decedent's generation-skipping tax exemption after the executor missed it on Form 706
When someone dies leaving property to trusts that may benefit grandchildren or later generations, the executor can allocate the decedent's generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption to those tru…
Estate granted extra time to make the "portability" election so the surviving spouse can use the decedent's unused estate-tax exclusion
A surviving spouse can inherit the unused portion of a deceased spouse's federal estate-tax exclusion (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE, amount), but only if the deceased spouse's esta…
Estate gets extra time to make a "portability" election so the surviving spouse can use the decedent's unused estate-tax exclusion
When someone dies, any unused portion of their federal estate-tax exclusion can be transferred to their surviving spouse (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE, amount). This "portability" …
Late "check-the-box" election granted so a foreign limited company can be taxed as a partnership
A limited company formed under foreign law wanted to be treated as a partnership for U.S. tax purposes, which requires filing Form 8832 (the "check-the-box" election) by a deadline. The company missed…
Late "check-the-box" election granted so a foreign entity can be taxed as a partnership
A foreign business entity wanted to be treated as a partnership for U.S. tax purposes. To do that, it had to file Form 8832 (the "check-the-box" entity classification election) on time, but it missed …
Supplemental letter re-dating an earlier grant of extra time to make the success-based-fee safe harbor election
A taxpayer had earlier won an extension of time under Treasury Regulations §§ 301.9100-1 and 301.9100-3 to make the safe harbor election for success-based fees in Revenue Procedure 2011-29, which lets…
Extra time for a manufacturer to make the section 59(e) election to amortize research costs over 10 years
A vehicle and engine manufacturer that files a consolidated return meant to elect under section 59(e) to write off its research and experimental (R&E) costs ratably over 10 years instead of deducting …
Extra time for a foreign entity to file a late check-the-box election to be disregarded, when the IRS had no record of its Form 8832
A foreign business entity, whose default U.S. tax classification was a corporation, wanted to be treated as a disregarded entity (ignored as separate from its owner) for federal tax purposes. Its sole…
Extra time to allocate a grantor's GST exemption to a trust after the attorney never filed the gift tax return
A grantor set up an irrevocable trust for a son and his descendants and intended the trust to be fully exempt from the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax, meaning an inclusion ratio of zero. To lo…
Extra time for a foreign entity to file a late check-the-box election to be treated as a partnership
A foreign business entity meant to be treated as a partnership for U.S. federal tax purposes as of a chosen date, which requires filing Form 8832, the entity classification (check-the-box) election. T…
Extra time for a foreign corporation to file a late check-the-box election to be disregarded, after new section 245A rules retroactively changed the tax of two earlier distributions
A foreign corporation (X) sat at the bottom of a chain owned by a U.S. consolidated group. X had made two distributions up to its foreign parent, and one of them generated gain under section 311(b) th…
Extra time for an estate to make a late "portability" election so the surviving spouse can use the decedent's unused estate-tax exclusion
When someone dies, any unused portion of their federal estate-tax exclusion can be passed to their surviving spouse (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability" election.…
Extra time for a foreign entity to file a late check-the-box election to be treated as a disregarded entity
A foreign business entity was eligible to be treated as a disregarded entity (ignored as separate from its single owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes as of a chosen date, but it never filed the Form …
Extra time for a foreign entity to file a late check-the-box election to be treated as a disregarded entity
A foreign business entity was eligible to be treated as a disregarded entity (ignored as separate from its single owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes as of a chosen date, but it never filed the Form …
Extra time to file a late section 336(e) election so an S corporation stock sale can be treated as an asset sale
A section 336(e) election lets certain stock sales be treated, for tax purposes, as if the company sold its assets instead, which can give the buyer a stepped-up basis in the underlying assets. Here a…
Extra time for an estate to make a late "portability" election so the surviving spouse can use the decedent's unused estate-tax exclusion
When someone dies, any unused portion of their federal estate-tax exclusion can pass to their surviving spouse (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability" election, made…
Extra time for an estate to make a late "portability" election so the surviving spouse can use the decedent's unused estate-tax exclusion
When someone dies, any unused portion of their federal estate-tax exclusion can pass to their surviving spouse (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability" election, made…
Extra time for an estate to make a late "portability" election so the surviving spouse can use the decedent's unused estate-tax exclusion
When someone dies, any unused portion of their federal estate-tax exclusion can pass to their surviving spouse (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability" election, made…
Extra time for an estate to make a late "portability" election so the surviving spouse can use the decedent's unused estate-tax exclusion
When someone dies, any unused portion of their federal estate-tax exclusion can pass to their surviving spouse (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability" election, made…
Extra time for an estate to make a late "portability" election so the surviving spouse can use the decedent's unused estate-tax exclusion
When someone dies, any unused portion of their federal estate-tax exclusion can pass to their surviving spouse (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability" election, made…
Extra time for a foreign entity to file a late check-the-box election to be disregarded, matching how its owner has reported all along
A foreign business entity was eligible to be treated as a disregarded entity (ignored as separate from its single owner) for U.S. federal tax purposes as of a chosen date. Its owner had in fact consis…
A REIT that botched a dividend-carryback election gets extra time to file deficiency-dividend forms and fix its distribution shortfall
A real estate investment trust (REIT) must distribute at least 90% of its taxable income each year to keep its favorable tax status. This REIT expected an unusually large gain and planned to use a sec…
A housing bond issuer gets its late-filed carryforward election for unused private-activity bond volume cap treated as timely
States and local authorities get an annual "volume cap" limiting how much tax-exempt private-activity bond financing they can issue. If an authority does not use all of its cap in a year, it can elect…
Extra time for an estate to make a late "portability" election so the surviving spouse can use the decedent's unused estate-tax exclusion
When someone dies, any unused portion of their federal estate-tax exclusion can pass to their surviving spouse (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability" election, made…
Extra time for an estate to make a late "portability" election so the surviving spouse can use the decedent's unused estate-tax exclusion
When someone dies, any unused portion of their federal estate-tax exclusion can pass to their surviving spouse (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability" election, made…
Late relief to revoke a 501(h) lobbying election, effective retroactively
A public charity had earlier filed Form 5768 to make a section 501(h) election, which swaps the vague "no substantial part" limit on lobbying for a dollar-based expenditure test. It later decided the …
Late relief to make the Rev. Proc. 2011-29 safe-harbor election for success-based fees
When a company pays advisors fees that are contingent on a deal closing (success-based fees), the tax rules presume those fees must be capitalized rather than deducted, unless the taxpayer documents t…
Late relief to make a § 59(e) election to amortize R&E costs over 10 years
Section 59(e) lets a taxpayer choose to spread certain deductions, including research or experimental (R&E) costs otherwise deductible under § 174(a), ratably over 10 years instead of all at once. Thi…
Late relief to make the Rev. Proc. 2011-29 success-based fee election omitted from a timely return
Success-based fees (advisor fees contingent on a deal closing) are presumed to be non-deductible capital costs unless the taxpayer documents otherwise, but Rev. Proc. 2011-29 offers a safe harbor: ele…
Late relief for an estate to make a portability election for the unused estate tax exclusion
When someone dies, any unused portion of their federal estate tax exclusion can be passed to a surviving spouse (the "deceased spousal unused exclusion," or DSUE) through a "portability" election. Tha…
Late relief to make a taxable REIT subsidiary election after a Form 8875 signature was missing
A real estate investment trust (REIT) and a related corporation can jointly elect to treat the corporation as a "taxable REIT subsidiary" (TRS) under § 856(l), which lets the subsidiary run active bus…
Late relief to make a taxable REIT subsidiary election after a Form 8875 signature was missing
A real estate investment trust (REIT) and a related corporation can jointly elect to treat the corporation as a "taxable REIT subsidiary" (TRS) under § 856(l), which lets the subsidiary run active bus…
Late relief to make a taxable REIT subsidiary election after a Form 8875 signature was missing
A real estate investment trust (REIT) and a related corporation can jointly elect to treat the corporation as a "taxable REIT subsidiary" (TRS) under § 856(l), which lets the subsidiary run active bus…
Late relief to make a taxable REIT subsidiary election after a Form 8875 signature was missing
A real estate investment trust (REIT) and a related corporation can jointly elect to treat the corporation as a "taxable REIT subsidiary" (TRS) under § 856(l), which lets the subsidiary run active bus…
Late relief to make a taxable REIT subsidiary election after a Form 8875 signature was missing
A real estate investment trust (REIT) and a related corporation can jointly elect to treat the corporation as a "taxable REIT subsidiary" (TRS) under § 856(l), which lets the subsidiary run active bus…
Late relief to elect out of the automatic allocation of GST exemption to a trust transfer
The generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax comes with a lifetime exemption, and to keep taxpayers from accidentally wasting it, the law automatically allocates GST exemption to certain "indirect skip"…
Extra time granted to elect taxable-REIT-subsidiary status after a missing signature
A real estate investment trust (REIT) and one of its corporate subsidiaries wanted to jointly elect, on Form 8875, to treat the subsidiary as a taxable REIT subsidiary (TRS). A TRS election lets a REI…
Extra time granted to elect taxable-REIT-subsidiary status after a missing signature
A real estate investment trust (REIT) and one of its corporate subsidiaries wanted to jointly elect, on Form 8875, to treat the subsidiary as a taxable REIT subsidiary (TRS). A TRS election lets a REI…
Extra time granted to elect taxable-REIT-subsidiary status after a missing signature
A real estate investment trust (REIT) and one of its corporate subsidiaries wanted to jointly elect, on Form 8875, to treat the subsidiary as a taxable REIT subsidiary (TRS). A TRS election lets a REI…
Extra time granted to elect taxable-REIT-subsidiary status after a missing signature
A real estate investment trust (REIT) and one of its corporate subsidiaries wanted to jointly elect, on Form 8875, to treat the subsidiary as a taxable REIT subsidiary (TRS). A TRS election lets a REI…
Extra time granted to elect taxable-REIT-subsidiary status after a missing signature
A real estate investment trust (REIT) and one of its corporate subsidiaries wanted to jointly elect, on Form 8875, to treat the subsidiary as a taxable REIT subsidiary (TRS). A TRS election lets a REI…
Extra time granted to elect taxable-REIT-subsidiary status after a missing signature
A real estate investment trust (REIT) and one of its corporate subsidiaries wanted to jointly elect, on Form 8875, to treat the subsidiary as a taxable REIT subsidiary (TRS). A TRS election lets a REI…
Extra time granted to elect taxable-REIT-subsidiary status after a missing signature
A real estate investment trust (REIT) and one of its corporate subsidiaries wanted to jointly elect, on Form 8875, to treat the subsidiary as a taxable REIT subsidiary (TRS). A TRS election lets a REI…
Extra time granted to elect taxable-REIT-subsidiary status after a missing signature
A real estate investment trust (REIT) and one of its corporate subsidiaries wanted to jointly elect, on Form 8875, to treat the subsidiary as a taxable REIT subsidiary (TRS). A TRS election lets a REI…
Extra time granted to elect taxable-REIT-subsidiary status for two subsidiaries after a missing signature
A real estate investment trust (REIT) wanted to jointly elect, on Form 8875, to treat two of its corporate subsidiaries as taxable REIT subsidiaries (TRSs). A TRS election lets a REIT run activities t…
Extra time granted to elect taxable-REIT-subsidiary status for two subsidiaries after a missing signature
A real estate investment trust (REIT) wanted to jointly elect, on Form 8875, to treat two of its corporate subsidiaries as taxable REIT subsidiaries (TRSs). A TRS election lets a REIT run activities t…
Extra time granted to elect taxable-REIT-subsidiary status for two subsidiaries after a missing signature
A real estate investment trust (REIT) wanted to jointly elect, on Form 8875, to treat two of its corporate subsidiaries as taxable REIT subsidiaries (TRSs). A TRS election lets a REIT run activities t…
Extra time granted to elect foreign-partnership treatment for a joint-venture subsidiary
A U.S. partnership formed a foreign limited liability company as a joint venture with another party. Because every member of that foreign company had limited liability, the "check-the-box" default rul…
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.