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.
No determinations match these filters
Try a different search term or clear the filters.
Direct-appointed insurance agency is a qualified Section 1202 business
A small insurance agency sold policies under direct appointments from insurers and also through wholesalers. At least 80 percent of its asset value supported the direct-appointment model. Those contra…
Partnership may make retroactive QEF election
A domestic partnership owned less than 10 percent of a foreign company and learned only after filing its return that the company had become a passive foreign investment company. The partnership had en…
Late PFIC discovery permits retroactive QEF election
A domestic partnership owned less than 10 percent of a foreign company and learned only after filing its return that the company had become a passive foreign investment company. The partnership had re…
IRS permits three investment funds to revoke PFIC mark-to-market elections
Three regulated investment company series had made IRC § 1296 mark-to-market elections for stock in a passive foreign investment company (PFIC). They could not initially make qualified electing fund (…
Trust constructions preserve GST status and avoid income, gift, and estate tax consequences
A testamentary trust created before September 25, 1985 had undergone court proceedings concerning trustee succession and the meaning of trust earnings. After the primary beneficiary died, another cour…
Court-corrected trust division retains GST grandfathering without transfer-tax consequences
A testamentary trust created before September 25, 1985 had been the subject of court proceedings about trustee succession and whether earnings included capital gains. When its primary beneficiary died…
Judicial trust corrections avoid gain, gifts, estate inclusion, and loss of GST status
A pre-September 25, 1985 testamentary trust had previously received judicial rulings about corporate trustee succession and the treatment of capital gains as earnings. Following the primary beneficiar…
Grandfathered trust may be corrected and divided without federal tax recognition
A testamentary trust established before the effective date of the generation-skipping transfer tax rules had undergone judicial changes involving trustee succession and trust earnings. A later court j…
Trust reformation and equal child-trust distributions receive favorable tax rulings
A grandfathered testamentary trust and the primary beneficiary's will contained provisions later addressed in several state-court proceedings. The final judgment corrected drafting errors, clarified t…
Corrected exercise of a limited power preserves a trust's GST exemption
A testamentary trust created before September 25, 1985 was governed by a limited power of appointment and had already undergone judicial proceedings about trustee succession and trust earnings. After …
IRS grants extra time for mixed straddle account election
A partnership engaged in securities trading intended to elect mixed straddle account treatment but missed the filing deadline. Its tax department was disrupted by the COVID-19 work-from-home transitio…
IRS grants extra time for mixed straddle account election
A partnership engaged in securities trading intended to elect mixed straddle account treatment but missed the filing deadline. Its tax department was disrupted by the COVID-19 work-from-home transitio…
IRS grants extra time for mixed straddle account election
A partnership engaged in securities trading intended to elect mixed straddle account treatment but missed the filing deadline. Its tax department was disrupted by the COVID-19 work-from-home transitio…
IRS grants extra time for mixed straddle account election
A partnership engaged in securities trading intended to elect mixed straddle account treatment but missed the filing deadline. Its tax department was disrupted by the COVID-19 work-from-home transitio…
IRS grants extra time for mixed straddle account election
A partnership engaged in securities trading intended to elect mixed straddle account treatment but missed the filing deadline. Its tax department was disrupted by the COVID-19 work-from-home transitio…
IRS permits late identification of an integrated debt and hedge transaction
A corporation issued convertible notes and bought capped call options in the same transaction, intending to treat them as an integrated debt and hedge transaction under Treasury Regulation § 1.1275-6.…
Related-party exchange chain did not prevent Section 1031 deferral
A corporation sold real property through a qualified intermediary and acquired replacement properties that had been owned by two related companies. Those companies and two additional related entities …
FCC spectrum-license exchange occurred under threat of condemnation
Members of a communications group held radio licenses in the 39 GHz spectrum band when the Federal Communications Commission reorganized the band for uses including 5G services. Licensees could accept…
Partnership's FCC spectrum-license exchange occurred under threat of condemnation
A partnership and affiliated companies held radio licenses in the 39 GHz spectrum band when the Federal Communications Commission reorganized the band for uses including 5G services. Licensees could a…
IRS grants late mark-to-market elections for passive foreign investment company funds
A taxpayer invested through multiple funds that were passive foreign investment companies, or PFICs. Its accounting firm failed to identify the funds as PFICs and did not advise the taxpayer to make m…
IRS permits a retroactive qualified electing fund election
A U.S. citizen indirectly held a less-than-10-percent interest in a foreign company that was a passive foreign investment company. The taxpayer's longtime attorney did not identify the company as a PF…
Late-election relief to identify convertible notes and call options as an integrated transaction
Tax rules let a company treat a debt instrument and a related hedge as a single "integrated" transaction, which changes how the interest and cash flows are taxed, but only if the company writes down a…
IRS permits revocation of an inadvertent election out of installment reporting
A taxpayer sold property for cash and a promissory note, with part of the sale eligible for installment reporting under section 453. Its return preparer inadvertently reported all of the gain in the s…
A company may make retroactive QEF elections after its tax adviser missed PFIC status
A diversified investment management company held interests in four foreign funds that were passive foreign investment companies. The company hired an accounting firm for federal tax advice and return …
A retirement-services company may make retroactive QEF elections for six PFICs
A retirement-services company in a consolidated group invested in six foreign entities that were passive foreign investment companies. The company's internal tax department prepared the group's federa…
S corporation may revoke its election out of installment reporting
An S corporation sold most of one operating division for an initial payment plus monthly installments beginning two years later. Its preparer reported the full gain on the sale-year return, which cons…
IRS blesses an incomplete-gift non-grantor trust with a power of appointment committee
A married couple in a community property state set up an irrevocable trust funded with community property and controlled by a "power of appointment committee" made up of the spouses and several family…
Community property trust receives income, gift, estate, and basis rulings
A married couple transferred community property to an irrevocable trust that could benefit them, their descendants, and other named beneficiaries through powers shared with a power-of-appointment comm…
Community property trust receives income, gift, estate, and basis rulings
A married couple transferred community property to an irrevocable trust that could benefit them, their descendants, and other named beneficiaries through powers shared with a power-of-appointment comm…
Community property trust receives income, gift, estate, and basis rulings
A married couple transferred community property to an irrevocable trust that could benefit them, their descendants, and other named beneficiaries through powers shared with a power-of-appointment comm…
Community property trust receives income, gift, estate, and basis rulings
A married couple transferred community property to an irrevocable trust that could benefit them, their descendants, and other named beneficiaries through powers shared with a power-of-appointment comm…
Community property trust receives income, gift, estate, and basis rulings
A married couple transferred community property to an irrevocable trust that could benefit them, their descendants, and other named beneficiaries through powers shared with a power-of-appointment comm…
FCC spectrum sales qualify as made under threat of involuntary conversion
A television broadcaster asked whether a series of asset sales occurred under a threat of involuntary conversion for section 1033 purposes. The FCC's spectrum program offered broadcasters an incentive…
Homeowners could combine section 121 exclusion with section 1031 deferral after a fire
A married couple lived in a home as their principal residence, later moved out, and rented or offered the property for rent. A fire destroyed the dwelling, and the couple received insurance proceeds b…
Reporting errors did not elect an asset sale out of the installment method
An S corporation sold all its assets for a closing payment and 12 later quarterly installments, but the buyer defaulted after closing. The corporation's return preparer did not correctly report the in…
Early trust termination avoided GST and gift tax but triggered capital gain
A pre-September 25, 1985 irrevocable trust paid all income to the settlor’s son and was to distribute the remainder to his descendants. The beneficiaries obtained court approval to terminate the trust…
Early trust termination avoided GST and gift tax but triggered capital gain
A pre-September 25, 1985 irrevocable trust paid all income to the settlor’s son and was to distribute the remainder to his descendants. The beneficiaries obtained court approval to terminate the trust…
Early trust termination avoided GST and gift tax but triggered capital gain
A pre-September 25, 1985 irrevocable trust paid all income to the settlor’s son and was to distribute the remainder to his descendants. The beneficiaries obtained court approval to terminate the trust…
Early trust termination avoided GST and gift tax but triggered capital gain
A pre-September 25, 1985 irrevocable trust paid all income to the settlor’s son and was to distribute the remainder to his descendants. The beneficiaries obtained court approval to terminate the trust…
Early trust termination avoided GST and gift tax but triggered capital gain
A pre-September 25, 1985 irrevocable trust paid all income to the settlor’s son and was to distribute the remainder to his descendants. The beneficiaries obtained court approval to terminate the trust…
Trust termination avoided transfer taxes but triggered capital gain
The beneficiaries of a trust created before September 25, 1985 agreed to terminate it and divide its assets according to the actuarial value of their interests. A court approved the agreement because …
Trust termination avoided transfer taxes but triggered capital gain
The beneficiaries of a trust created before September 25, 1985 agreed to terminate it and divide its assets according to the actuarial value of their interests. A court approved the agreement because …
Trust termination avoided transfer taxes but triggered capital gain
The beneficiaries of a trust created before September 25, 1985 agreed to terminate it and divide its assets according to the actuarial value of their interests. A court approved the agreement because …
Trust termination avoided transfer taxes but triggered capital gain
The beneficiaries of a trust created before September 25, 1985 agreed to terminate it and divide its assets according to the actuarial value of their interests. A court approved the agreement because …
Trust termination avoided transfer taxes but triggered capital gain
The beneficiaries of a trust created before September 25, 1985 agreed to terminate it and divide its assets according to the actuarial value of their interests. A court approved the agreement because …
Investment fund received 60 days for 27 PFIC elections
An investment fund taxed as a partnership owned stock in 27 passive foreign investment companies. It had previously made section 1296 mark-to-market elections, but a transfer of more than half its cap…
Investment fund received 60 days for a PFIC election
An investment fund taxed as a partnership owned stock in a passive foreign investment company and had previously made a section 1296 mark-to-market election. A transfer of more than half the fund's ca…
Investment portfolio received 60 days for two PFIC elections
An investment portfolio within a larger fund was taxed as a partnership and held stock in two passive foreign investment companies. It had made mark-to-market elections for its first tax year, but a l…
Investment portfolio received 60 days for five PFIC elections
An investment portfolio within a larger fund was taxed as a partnership and held stock in five passive foreign investment companies. It had valid mark-to-market elections and renewed them after one te…
Pro rata division of grandfathered trust was tax neutral
An irrevocable pre-September 25, 1985 trust for a son and his issue proposed dividing pro rata into five equal subtrusts, one for each child and that child's issue, because the children had different …
Partnership-interest sales between spouses' grantor trusts are tax-free
Each spouse had created a grantor trust that was disregarded as a separate taxpayer. One spouse and that spouse's trust proposed selling limited partnership interests to the other spouse's trust. Beca…
Estate received late section 1022 carryover-basis election relief
The executor of an estate for a decedent who died in 2010 missed the January 2012 deadline to file Form 8939 and elect the section 1022 carryover-basis regime in place of the reinstated estate tax. Th…
FCC spectrum sale qualified as an involuntary conversion
A television broadcaster sold part of a station's spectrum-based content distribution rights during the FCC's spectrum incentive auction. If it had declined to participate, the FCC's repacking process…
FCC purchases of station spectrum qualified under section 1033
A media company sold all spectrum-based content distribution rights associated with two television stations to the FCC through its incentive auction. The company believed that if it declined to partic…
Retroactive QEF elections allowed for two PFICs
A taxpayer became a U.S. tax resident while owning interests in two foreign corporations that were passive foreign investment companies. The taxpayer relied on a certified public accountant who did no…
Broadcast spectrum sale qualified as an involuntary conversion
A television broadcaster sold part of its spectrum-based content distribution rights while the Federal Communications Commission was conducting an incentive auction and mandatory repacking of broadcas…
An investor who did not know his foreign company was a PFIC gets to make a late QEF election
A passive foreign investment company (PFIC) is a foreign corporation with mostly passive income or assets, and U.S. investors in a PFIC face harsh default tax treatment unless they elect to treat it a…
Permission granted to revoke an accountant's inadvertent election out of the installment method
When property is sold for payments spread over more than one year, the seller normally reports the gain gradually under the "installment method" as payments come in, but the seller can choose to "elec…
Former spouses' delayed property buyout is incident to divorce and not a taxable gift
Two former spouses kept equal interests in real property under a court order entered less than seven months after their divorce. More than six years later, a fire caused major damage, one spouse paid …
Married couple's community-property trust is a non-grantor trust and their contributions are incomplete gifts
A married couple in a community property state set up an irrevocable trust for themselves, their children, two other individuals, and charities. Distributions are controlled by a "Power of Appointment…
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.