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 partnership late Section 754 election
A partnership failed to make a timely Section 754 election for the year in which a partner died. It represented that the failure was inadvertent, that it acted reasonably and in good faith, and that r…
IRS grants converted LLC late Section 754 election
A general partnership converted into an LLC that continued to be treated as a partnership for federal tax purposes. After a partner died, the company timely filed its return but inadvertently omitted …
IRS permits converted partnership's late Section 754 election
A general partnership converted to an LLC while remaining a partnership for federal tax purposes. After a partner died, the company timely filed its return but inadvertently failed to include a valid …
IRS gives limited partnership more time for Section 754 election
A limited partnership timely filed its return for the year a partner died but inadvertently omitted a valid Section 754 election. The partnership represented that it acted reasonably and in good faith…
IRS grants late corporate classification and S election
A domestic LLC intended to be an S corporation from a specified effective date but failed to file Form 2553 properly and on time. It nevertheless filed returns consistently with S corporation treatmen…
IRS grants foreign entity late disregarded classification
A foreign eligible entity intended to be disregarded as separate from its owner for federal tax purposes but inadvertently missed the Form 8832 deadline. It represented that it acted reasonably and in…
IRS grants domestic entity late corporate classification election
A domestic single-owner eligible entity wanted to be classified as an association taxable as a corporation rather than use its default disregarded-entity status. It failed to file Form 8832 by the dea…
IRS accepts late branch-profits-tax assessment consent
A foreign corporation indirectly participated in a U.S. trade or business through a partnership, then its U.S. business assets were sold and its shareholder adopted an irrevocable liquidation resoluti…
IRS accepts late taxable REIT subsidiary election
A real estate investment trust and an indirectly owned subsidiary intended the subsidiary to be a taxable REIT subsidiary effective when its corporate tax classification began. They missed the Form 88…
Partnership receives 120 days to make late Section 754 election
A limited liability company taxed as a partnership timely filed its return for a year in which partnership interests were transferred. It inadvertently omitted the Section 754 election that would adju…
Partnership receives conditional late Section 754 election relief
A limited partnership intended to make a Section 754 election but inadvertently omitted it from its timely filed return. It represented that it acted reasonably and in good faith and that relief would…
Corporation receives 60 days for late success-fee safe-harbor election
A corporation incurred success-based transaction fees when its parent was acquired and the corporation moved into the acquirer's consolidated group. Its tax adviser prepared two short-period consolida…
IRS accepts late taxable REIT subsidiary election
A real estate investment trust and an indirectly owned subsidiary intended the subsidiary to be a taxable REIT subsidiary from its formation date. They missed the Form 8875 deadline because the sponso…
Foreign entity receives late partnership-classification election
A foreign limited liability company formed as a joint venture intended to be treated as a foreign partnership for U.S. tax purposes. Because both members had limited liability, the default classificat…
Merged corporation receives late success-fee safe-harbor election
A corporation merged into a related company and needed to file a final short-period return. It intended to extend that return but failed to file Form 7004 before the deadline, so the return could no l…
IRS grants more time for a real-property business election
A foreign limited liability company treated as a partnership wanted to elect out of the Section 163(j) business-interest limit for its qualifying real-property trades or businesses. Its tax adviser tr…
IRS grants late disregarded-entity election relief
A parent company wholly owned a foreign eligible entity and intended to classify it as disregarded for federal tax purposes. Form 8832 was not filed on time because of inadvertence, although all relev…
IRS grants late IC-DISC election relief
A domestic corporation was formed to operate as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation, or IC-DISC, and immediately conducted its affairs as though the election were effective. It…
IRS grants 45 days to file a missed LIFO election
An S corporation intended to adopt the last-in-first-out inventory method for newly acquired inventory and relied on its accounting firm to file Form 970. The firm did not prepare or file the form, al…
Partnership receives more time for real property business election
A foreign limited liability company treated as a partnership wanted to elect out of the Section 163(j) business interest limitation for its qualifying real property trades or businesses. Its tax advis…
Partnership receives more time for success-based fee election
A partnership paid a fee contingent on completing a merger transaction. Its accounting firm prepared the return using the Revenue Procedure 2011-29 safe harbor, deducting 70 percent of the fee and cap…
Fund receives relief for two elections on a late-filed return
A regulated investment company prepared a return containing two elections: one to treat certain later distributions as paid during the prior tax year, and another to accrue market discount using a con…
Fund receives relief for three elections on a late-filed return
A fund prepared its first regulated investment company return with three elections: to be treated as a RIC, to treat certain later distributions as paid during the prior tax year, and to accrue market…
Acquirer receives more time for success-based fee election
A corporation paid a fee contingent on completing an acquisition treated as a statutory merger. Its advisers prepared the Revenue Procedure 2011-29 safe harbor statement, and the filed return used the…
IRS excuses a late Qualified Opportunity Fund self-certification
A limited liability company was formed to operate as a Qualified Opportunity Fund and invested in a business expected to qualify as a qualified opportunity zone business. Its manager hired accountants…
IRS allows correction of a taxable REIT subsidiary election date
A real estate investment trust acquired an indirect interest in a corporation and intended that corporation to become its taxable REIT subsidiary on the acquisition date. The law firm filing their joi…
IRS denies a late election that would reverse a recent entity classification change
A foreign eligible entity was originally classified as a corporation by default. After a domestic partnership acquired an interest, the entity elected partnership status and later sought permission to…
IRS grants 90 days to file a late IC-DISC election
A newly formed corporation intended to elect interest charge domestic international sales corporation status and receive export commissions from related operating entities. Its owners and advisers dis…
IRS grants 90 days to make a late consolidated-return election
A domestic parent corporation and its affiliated group intended to elect to file a consolidated federal income tax return but did not file a valid consolidated return by the deadline. The parent sough…
Foreign entity gets 120 days to file a late disregarded-entity election
A foreign eligible entity intended to be treated as disregarded from its owner for U.S. federal tax purposes but inadvertently failed to file Form 8832 with the intended effective date. The IRS conclu…
Property owner gets 120 days to make a late rehabilitation-credit election
A property owner rehabilitated a building and leased it to a tenant under a structure intended to pass the rehabilitation credit to the tenant. The owner agreed to elect under Section 50(d)(5) and Tre…
Oil and gas group gets 120 days to elect five-year IDC amortization
An affiliated oil and gas group incurred substantial intangible drilling and development costs and intended to elect to deduct a specified portion ratably over 60 months under Section 59(e). Its conso…
Consolidated group gets 75 days to make a late unified-loss election
A consolidated group's subsidiary sold all the stock of its own subsidiary at a loss, ending the sold corporation's affiliation with the group. The parent intended to elect under the unified loss rule…
Late-filed REIT return is treated as a timely election
A newly taxable corporation intended to elect real estate investment trust status for its first short tax year. Its governing documents repeatedly stated that intent, and its manager relied on an acco…
Affiliated group gets 90 days to make a late consolidated-return election
A domestic parent corporation and its affiliated group failed to make a valid election to file a consolidated federal income tax return by the parent's filing deadline. The relevant assessment periods…
Estate gets 120 days to make a late portability election
A decedent's estate was not otherwise required to file an estate tax return based on the represented gross estate and taxable gifts. The estate nevertheless needed a timely Form 706 to elect portabili…
Taxpayer gets 45 days to make a late success-based-fee election
A U.S. holding company incurred a success-based advisory fee when it acquired stock in a taxable transaction. Its newly formed, high-turnover tax department was unaware of the fee and did not elect th…
IRS grants extension for late REIT election
A limited liability company elected corporate status and intended to elect real estate investment trust treatment for its first short tax year. A miscommunication between its manager and tax preparer …
IRS grants more time for stock-sale asset-treatment election
A partnership bought all the stock of an S corporation, and the parties intended to treat the stock sale as an asset sale under Section 336(e). They failed to file the required election statement on t…
Foreign entity receives time to elect disregarded status
A foreign eligible entity failed to timely file Form 8832 to elect treatment as an entity disregarded from its owner. The IRS found that the regulatory-election relief requirements were satisfied and …
Partnership receives extension for Section 754 election
A partnership interest purchase caused a technical termination under the law then in effect, and the transaction documents showed that the parties intended the partnership to make a Section 754 electi…
IRS grants S corporation and QSub election relief
A corporation intended to be an S corporation and to treat its wholly owned subsidiary as a qualified subchapter S subsidiary. It failed to file the QSub election, and three shareholder trusts failed …
Estate receives extension for portability election
An estate was not otherwise required to file an estate tax return but failed to timely file Form 706 to elect portability of the decedent's unused exclusion amount to the surviving spouse. The IRS fou…
Unmailed return receives late REIT election relief
A company intended to elect real estate investment trust treatment and relied on a tax firm to timely file its first Form 1120-REIT. During a change in the firm's paper-filing process, a temporary wor…
Trustee receives extension to end QDOT tax treatment
A noncitizen surviving spouse received property through a qualified domestic trust and later became a United States citizen after continuously residing in the country. No distributions had been made f…
IRS grants estate more time to elect portability
An estate represented that it was below the threshold requiring an estate tax return but had not timely filed Form 706 to transfer the decedent's unused exclusion amount to the surviving spouse. After…
Estate receives time to allocate GST exemption to family trust
A revocable trust divided at the first spouse's death, with part of the deceased spouse's property passing to a family trust that could later produce generation-skipping transfers. The executor hired …
S corporation stock-sale election receives filing extension
A partnership bought all the stock of an S corporation, and the parties had signed a binding agreement before the sale to elect asset-sale treatment under Section 336(e). They did not timely attach th…
Late Section 336(e) election statement receives relief
A partnership acquired all the stock of an S corporation from its shareholders, and the parties intended the qualified stock disposition to be treated as an asset sale under Section 336(e). They faile…
Tax-exempt controlled corporation receives late depreciation election
A corporation wholly owned by a Section 501(c)(3) organization served as co-managing member of a partnership developing affordable housing. The operating agreement required the corporation to elect un…
Taxpayers receive time for canceled real-property debt election
Two taxpayers indirectly owned partnerships whose debt for business real estate was forgiven. Their tax adviser intended to elect the qualified real property business indebtedness exclusion, excluded …
Advice addresses BBA elections and partner-level consequences
This Chief Counsel email answers several questions about the centralized partnership audit regime, although most of the questions and part of the analysis are redacted. It explains that an election in…
Convertible-note hedge identification receives extension
A corporate taxpayer issued convertible notes and bought call options as part of a hedge intended to raise the notes' effective conversion price. It intended to integrate the notes and call options fo…
Consolidated group receives extension to waive loss carryback
A consolidated group intended to waive the entire carryback period for a consolidated net operating loss, but its return did not include a valid election. The group filed consistently with that intent…
Consolidated group receives extension to waive loss carryback
A consolidated group intended to waive the entire carryback period for a consolidated net operating loss, but its return did not include a valid election. The group filed consistently with that intent…
Foreign entity receives late partnership election relief
A foreign eligible entity had two owners with limited liability, so its default federal tax classification was an association taxable as a corporation. It intended to be classified as a partnership fr…
Taxpayer may elect out of automatic GST exemption allocation
A taxpayer made transfers to trusts for two children and to three grantor retained annuity trusts whose remaining property later passed to those children's trusts. The taxpayer's attorney and accounta…
Taxpayer may elect out of automatic GST exemption allocation
A taxpayer made transfers to trusts for two children and to three grantor retained annuity trusts whose remaining property later passed to those children's trusts. The taxpayer's attorney and accounta…
Estate receives more time to allocate GST exemption
A decedent's revocable trust divided at death into a family trust and two marital trusts, all with generation-skipping transfer tax potential. The executor intended to allocate the decedent's availabl…
Parent receives more time to reattribute subsidiary tax attributes
A consolidated group sold a subsidiary and its lower-tier subsidiaries to an unrelated buyer at a loss. The parent intended to elect under Treasury Regulation Section 1.1502-36(d)(6)(i)(B) to reattrib…
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.