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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Splitting a GST-grandfathered trust into five family trusts triggers no tax
A family asked the IRS how dividing one irrevocable trust into five separate trusts, one for each branch of the family, would be taxed. The original trust was created before the generation-skipping tr…
Pro rata division into five family trusts produced no income, estate, gift, or GST tax
A trust created before September 25, 1985, benefited one grandchild and that grandchild's descendants. Because the five children had different circumstances, the trustees obtained court approval to di…
Pro rata division into five family trusts produced no income, estate, gift, or GST tax
A trust created before September 25, 1985, benefited one grandchild and that grandchild's descendants. Because the five children had different circumstances, the trustees obtained court approval to di…
Pro rata division into five family trusts produced no income, estate, gift, or GST tax
A trust created before September 25, 1985, benefited one grandchild and that grandchild's descendants. Because the five children had different circumstances, the trustees obtained court approval to di…
Pro rata division into five family trusts produced no income, estate, gift, or GST tax
A trust created before September 25, 1985, benefited one grandchild and that grandchild's descendants. Because the five children had different circumstances, the trustees obtained court approval to di…
Acquired utility excess deferred taxes remained protected under normalization rules
A regulated natural-gas utility bought distribution assets and assumed the seller's regulatory liability for protected excess deferred income taxes. Those excess reserves arose when the 2017 tax law r…
Cryptocurrency gifts over $5,000 require a qualified appraisal
An individual donated cryptocurrency to a charity and claimed a $10,000 deduction using the price quoted by a cryptocurrency exchange. The IRS advised that cryptocurrency is property, but it is not ca…
A cryptocurrency price collapse alone does not create a deductible loss
An investor bought cryptocurrency for $1 per unit, retained control of it, and claimed a section 165 loss after its price fell below one cent. The IRS advised that a steep decline is not enough becaus…
Third-party revenue changes did not disturb a conduit-income agreement
A brand-management subsidiary collected licensee payments for a pooled fund restricted to marketing and other activities benefiting the licensees. An earlier consent agreement allowed those licensee p…
Housing partnership received extra time to defer its credit period
A partnership acquired and rehabilitated a building for low-income rental housing. It intended to begin the ten-year low-income housing credit period in the year after the building was placed in servi…
Real estate business received 60 days to make a late interest election
A real estate and investment advisory company intended to make the real property trade or business election that removes an electing business from the section 163(j) business-interest limitation. Its …
Market-priced solar facility avoids public-utility normalization rules
A regulated utility planned to invest with a tax-equity investor in a solar facility that would sell electricity into a wholesale market. The project company would have market-based rate authority, an…
A low-income housing project got more time to make its 40-60 minimum set-aside election
A taxpayer owns a single-building low-income housing project and claims the low-income housing tax credit under Section 42. To qualify, a project must commit to a "minimum set-aside": renting enough u…
Medicaid care payments remain subject to employment tax unless an exception applies
A parent received state-program payments for providing in-home care to the parent's disabled child. Notice 2014-7 treats qualifying Medicaid waiver payments as difficulty-of-care payments excluded fro…
Tax-exempt controlled entity received 60 days to make depreciation election
A taxable corporation wholly owned by a section 501(c)(3) organization indirectly owned a partnership that placed depreciable property in service. The corporation intended to elect under section 168(h…
Extension granted to make the 70/30 safe-harbor election for merger success-based fees
Fees paid to facilitate a merger or acquisition generally must be capitalized rather than deducted, and a fee that is contingent on the deal closing (a "success-based fee") is presumed to facilitate t…
A market-rate solar-plus-storage facility is not "public utility property," so the normalization rules do not apply
A regulated electric utility is investing, through a chain of subsidiaries and a partnership that includes outside investors, in a solar project paired with a battery storage system. The tax question …
A PPP loan forgiven based on false statements is taxable income
This is internal legal advice from IRS Chief Counsel to fraud counsel about Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. Normally, when a PPP loan is forgiven, a special rule (15 U.S.C. § 636m(i) and sect…
Retained surface-mining rights disqualify a conservation easement deduction under section 170(h)
This is internal legal advice from IRS Chief Counsel to a field attorney about conservation easement charitable deductions. To deduct the value of a conservation easement, the gift must be made exclus…
IRS lets a housing partnership amend Forms 8609 to fix inadvertent low-income housing credit election errors
A limited partnership owns a multi-building housing project that received low-income housing tax credits under section 42. To claim those credits, the owner files a Form 8609 for each building and mak…
Court-ordered restructuring of long-term care policies in an insurer rehabilitation is not a taxable event for policyholders
A state-domiciled life insurance company that sold guaranteed-renewable long-term care policies was placed into rehabilitation by a state court because its projected liabilities far exceeded its asset…
Corporation granted 60 more days to make a late success-based-fee safe-harbor election its preparer omitted
A corporation acquired another company through a merger and paid its advisor a fee that was contingent on the deal closing, a "success-based fee." Under Rev. Proc. 2011-29, a taxpayer can elect a safe…
Cost of removal is excluded from the ARAM calculation returning a utility's TCJA excess deferred taxes to ratepayers
A regulated natural gas utility asked the IRS how the tax "normalization" rules apply to the way it returns to customers the excess deferred taxes created when the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) cu…
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
A hotel management contract does not create private business use, so the bonds that financed the hotel stay governmental
A state economic-development authority owns a hotel that it financed with tax-exempt governmental bonds. To keep the interest on those bonds tax-free, the hotel generally cannot be used more than 10 p…
Timberland partnership gets more time to make the late § 194 reforestation-amortization election
A partnership (later an LLC) that acquires and manages timberlands can elect under IRC § 194 to write off reforestation costs over 84 months. Making the election requires attaching a specific statemen…
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
Pre-1942 trust keeps its GST-exempt status through a court construction and modification, and beneficiary disclaimers stay tax-free
An old family trust, created before October 21, 1942 and still irrevocable long before the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax took effect, asked the IRS to bless a set of proposed changes without …
IRS rules a water utility need not reduce rate-base deferred taxes for an NOL that was shrinking, revisiting an earlier ruling after a court decision
A regulated water and wastewater utility uses accelerated depreciation on its tax return but straight-line depreciation when setting customer rates. The tax law's "normalization" rules (IRC § 168(i)(9…
IRS grants a corporate parent extra time to make the elections that close its foreign subsidiaries' tax years
A U.S. corporate parent needed to make special elections to avoid an unfavorable result under the dividends-received-deduction rules for foreign subsidiaries (§ 245A and Treas. Reg. § 1.245A-5). When …
IRS rules the depreciation part of a utility's under-recovered rider costs stays subject to normalization, so excess deferred taxes can't be refunded fast
Regulated utilities that use accelerated depreciation for tax purposes must follow "normalization" rules (§ 168(i)(9)) that stop them from flowing the resulting deferred-tax benefit through to custome…
A bank cannot turn time-barred over-reported section 597 income into deductible basis in mortgage servicing rights
A bank acquired a failed bank in an FDIC-assisted deal, which was a "taxable transfer" under section 597 that came with loss-share agreements counted as federal financial assistance. Because of a comp…
Reverse termination (break-up) fees on abandoned deals are section 165 losses, capital under section 1234A, not section 162 expenses
A company agreed to acquire a target, then had to abandon the deal and a related asset sale, paying "reverse" termination (break-up) fees. On its return it deducted those fees as ordinary business exp…
IRS lets a taxpayer revoke and re-make its section 59(e) elections after a rare natural event caused it to miss drilling and mining costs
An affiliated group of corporations asked the IRS for two things: permission to revoke its existing tax elections under section 59(e) and extra time to make fresh ones. Section 59(e) lets a taxpayer s…
IRS grants late-election relief to file a forgotten Rev. Proc. 2011-29 success-based-fee safe-harbor statement
When a company is bought or sold, it often pays advisers "success-based" fees that are owed only if the deal closes. Tax rules presume those fees must be capitalized rather than deducted, but Revenue …
Bond issuer gets more time to file the carryforward election for unused private-activity-bond volume cap
States and their agencies get a yearly cap on how much tax-exempt private activity bonds they can issue. If an issuer does not use all of its allocation, it can "carry forward" the unused amount for c…
State pandemic funds applied to customers' overdue utility bills are tax-free disaster relief, so the utilities need not file information returns
During a presidentially declared emergency, a state set up a fund and gave money to regulated electric and gas utilities to wipe out overdue balances (arrearages) on the accounts of eligible, mostly l…
Waiving the NOL carryback also waives the 10-year carryback for non-product specified liability losses
Under the version of IRC § 172 in effect before the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, certain "specified liability losses" (SLLs) could be carried back 10 years instead of the ordinary 2 years. SLLs came in…
IRS again rules the electric-vehicle credit belongs to the party that buys and leases the cars, not the beneficial-interest holder
This is a companion ruling to PLR 202219006 and 202219007, with the same facts and the same result; here the corporation called Taxpayer submitted the request itself. The Section 30D credit for a new …
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.