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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Partnership receives more time for section 754 election
A limited liability company treated as a partnership acquired membership interests in three entities but filed its return without a section 754 election. The partnership represented that it relied on …
Partnership receives more time for section 754 election
An LLC taxed as a partnership underwent a technical termination and inadvertently failed to make a timely section 754 election for the resulting tax year. That election allows partnership property bas…
S corporation receives more time for section 336(e) election
Two individuals acquired all stock of an S corporation, and the sellers and target signed a timely binding agreement to make a section 336(e) election treating the stock sale as an asset disposition. …
QDOT trustees receive more time to report spouse's citizenship
A decedent's noncitizen surviving spouse received property through a qualified domestic trust and later became a U.S. citizen after continuously residing in the United States. The trustees' accountant…
Estate receives more time to elect portability
An estate did not timely file Form 706 to elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused estate and gift tax exclusion to the surviving spouse. The estate represented that the decedent's gross esta…
Corporation receives more time for IC-DISC election
A domestic corporation was formed with the intent to qualify as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation. Its parent relied on an accounting firm to handle the election, but the fir…
REIT and subsidiary receive more time for TRS election
A company intended to elect REIT status and to treat a hotel-operating subsidiary as a taxable REIT subsidiary from the start of operations. Its investment adviser believed outside tax professionals h…
Foreign entity receives more time for disregarded-entity election
A foreign eligible entity intended to be treated as disregarded from its owner but did not timely file Form 8832. The entity represented that it acted reasonably and in good faith and that granting re…
Late success-fee safe-harbor election is denied
A corporate taxpayer incurred acquisition costs but did not account for them on its original return because its tax director believed the costs belonged to its parent. After later claiming additional …
Estate receives more time to elect portability
An estate missed the deadline to file Form 706 and elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount. The executrix represented that the estate was below the filing threshold and ther…
Taxpayer receives more time to complete success-fee election
A corporation paid success-based fees in an acquisition and timely reported 70 percent as deductible and 30 percent as capitalized, consistent with the Rev. Proc. 2011-29 safe harbor. Its return prepa…
Foreign entity receives more time for disregarded-entity election
A foreign eligible entity intended to be treated as disregarded from its owner but did not timely file Form 8832. The entity represented that it acted reasonably and in good faith and that granting re…
Foreign entity receives more time for disregarded-entity election
A foreign eligible entity intended to be treated as disregarded from its owner but did not timely file Form 8832. The entity represented that it acted reasonably and in good faith and that granting re…
Taxpayer receives more time to allocate GST exemption to trust
A taxpayer made a gift to an irrevocable trust with generation-skipping transfer tax potential. Although she hired tax professionals to prepare the gift tax return, they inadvertently failed to alloca…
Taxpayer receives more time to allocate GST exemption to trust
A taxpayer made a gift to an irrevocable trust with generation-skipping transfer tax potential. Although he hired tax professionals to prepare the gift tax return, they inadvertently failed to allocat…
REIT and subsidiary receive more time for TRS election
A parent intended to elect REIT status and have a subsidiary that provided parking services treated as a taxable REIT subsidiary from the subsidiary's formation. The parent believed its tax adviser ha…
Estate receives more time to elect out of automatic GST allocation
A taxpayer funded a trust for his children and reported the transfer on a timely Form 709. The return did not include the written election needed to prevent automatic allocation of generation-skipping…
Estate receives more time to elect portability
An estate missed the deadline to file Form 706 and elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount. The estate represented that its value, including the decedent's taxable gifts, wa…
Donor receives more time to allocate GST exemption to trust
A donor transferred an asset to a trust for his daughter and her descendants before 2001. His accountant mistakenly reported the transfer as an outright gift to the daughter and failed to allocate gen…
Couple receives more time to group rental real estate activities
A married couple represented that they qualified as taxpayers in a real property business but filed their joint return without electing to treat all rental real estate interests as one activity. Their…
Couple receives more time to group rental real estate activities
A married couple represented that they qualified as taxpayers in a real property business but filed their joint return without electing to treat all rental real estate interests as one activity. Their…
Couple receives more time to group rental real estate activities
A married couple represented that they qualified as taxpayers in a real property business but filed their joint return without electing to treat all rental real estate interests as one activity. Their…
Estate receives more time to elect portability
An estate missed the deadline to file Form 706 and elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount. The estate represented that its value, including the decedent's taxable gifts, wa…
S corporation receives more time for QSub election
An S corporation formed a wholly owned subsidiary and intended to elect qualified subchapter S subsidiary treatment from the subsidiary's formation date. It did not file Form 8869 because of inadverte…
REIT and hotel subsidiary receive more time for TRS election
A newly formed parent intended to elect REIT status and treat a wholly owned subsidiary as a taxable REIT subsidiary from formation so the structure could comply with the lodging exception for rents f…
Partnership receives more time for section 754 election
A partner died, and the partner's interest moved through the estate to a trust. The partnership's tax advisers neither explained the availability of an IRC § 754 election nor made the election on the …
Corporation receives more time to elect IC-DISC status
A foreign owner formed a domestic corporation to operate as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation for products made by affiliated U.S. companies. The corporation relied on its at…
Foreign entity receives more time for disregarded-entity election
A wholly owned foreign eligible entity intended to be treated as disregarded from its owner but failed to timely file a valid Form 8832. The IRS concluded that the entity satisfied the requirements fo…
Foreign entity receives more time for disregarded-entity election
A wholly owned foreign eligible entity intended to be treated as disregarded from its owner but failed to timely file a valid Form 8832. The IRS concluded that the entity satisfied the requirements fo…
Estate receives more time to elect portability
An estate missed the deadline to file Form 706 and elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount. The executrix represented that the estate, including the decedent's taxable gifts…
Airline group receives more time to elect out of bonus depreciation
An airline consolidated group decided not to claim 50 percent additional first-year depreciation for specified five-year and seven-year property. Its timely return consistently omitted the bonus depre…
Partner receives 45 days to make a late debt-discharge election
A partnership realized cancellation-of-debt income when a lender reduced debt secured by real property. Its accountant mistakenly made the IRC § 108(c)(3)(C) election on the partnership return, even t…
Partner receives 45 days to make a late debt-discharge election
A partnership realized cancellation-of-debt income after negotiating a reduction of debt secured by its real property. Its accountant mistakenly made the IRC § 108(c)(3)(C) election on the partnership…
Foreign entity gets 120 days to elect partnership status
A foreign business entity with multiple owners intended from formation to be treated as a partnership for federal tax purposes. It failed to file Form 8832 on time to elect that classification effecti…
Consolidated group gets 60 days to waive its loss carryback
A newly combined consolidated group intended to waive the carryback period for its consolidated net operating loss but failed to attach a valid election statement to its return. The group consistently…
Consolidated group gets 60 days to waive its loss carryback
A consolidated group intended to waive the carryback period for a consolidated net operating loss but failed to attach a valid election statement to its return. Its prior and later returns were filed …
Estate gets 120 days to elect portability for surviving spouse
An estate missed the deadline to file Form 706 and elect portability of the decedent's unused estate-and-gift-tax exclusion for the surviving spouse. The surviving spouse, acting as personal represent…
Taxpayer gets 60 days to file omitted accounting-method form
A taxpayer changed its accounting for advance payments to the deferral method described in Rev. Proc. 2004-34. Its return reflected the change, and its accounting firm timely sent the duplicate Form 3…
Estate receives more time to make a QTIP election
A decedent's trust created a marital trust that paid all net income to the surviving spouse and allowed certain principal distributions. The spouse, acting as executor, hired a law firm to prepare the…
Foreign entity receives late classification election relief
A single-owner foreign eligible entity intended to be treated as an association taxable as a corporation from its formation date but did not timely file Form 8832. The IRS found that the entity satisf…
Estate receives reverse QTIP and GST allocation relief
A decedent's estate made a QTIP election for marital-trust property but failed to show the trust's intended division, make a reverse QTIP election, or allocate the decedent's generation-skipping trans…
Donor and spouse may elect out of automatic GST allocation
A donor transferred cash and marketable securities to an irrevocable trust for descendants and intended to split the gift with his spouse without allocating generation-skipping transfer tax exemption.…
Estate receives late QTIP election relief
A decedent's revocable trust directed property to a QTIP trust for the surviving spouse, with all net income payable at least quarterly and principal available for specified needs. The spouse, acting …
Parent may make a late CNOL carryback waiver
A consolidated group incurred a consolidated net operating loss and intended to waive the entire carryback period, but it did not file a valid election with the loss-year return. The group filed its o…
LLC may change classification and file a late election
A domestic limited liability company had elected corporate tax treatment and was later acquired entirely by an unrelated corporate owner. The acquisition changed more than 50 percent of the LLC's owne…
S corporation receives late section 336(e) election relief
A partnership acquired all the stock of an S corporation from its shareholders in a transaction represented to be a qualified stock disposition. The shareholders and target timely entered a binding ag…
Trust may make a late charitable-payment election
A trust made a charitable contribution in one tax year that could have been treated as paid in the preceding year under section 642(c)(1), but it failed to make the required election. The IRS found th…
Trust may make a late charitable-payment election
A trust made a charitable contribution in one tax year that could have been treated as paid in the preceding year under section 642(c)(1), but it failed to make the required election. The IRS found th…
Trust may make a late charitable-payment election
A trust made a charitable contribution in one tax year that could have been treated as paid in the preceding year under section 642(c)(1), but it failed to make the required election. The IRS found th…
Trust may make a late charitable-payment election
A trust made a charitable contribution in one tax year that could have been treated as paid in the preceding year under section 642(c)(1), but it failed to make the required election. The IRS found th…
Trust may make a late charitable-payment election
A trust made a charitable contribution in one tax year that could have been treated as paid in the preceding year under section 642(c)(1), but it failed to make the required election. The IRS found th…
Trust may make a late charitable-payment election
A trust made a charitable contribution in one tax year that could have been treated as paid in the preceding year under section 642(c)(1), but it failed to make the required election. The IRS found th…
Trust may make a late charitable-payment election
A trust made a charitable contribution in one tax year that could have been treated as paid in the preceding year under section 642(c)(1), but it failed to make the required election. The IRS found th…
Foreign entity receives late disregarded-entity election relief
A taxpayer wholly owned a foreign eligible entity but mistakenly believed an S corporation subsidiary owned it. The foreign entity intended to be treated as disregarded from its formation date but did…
IRS denies late Roth IRA recharacterization relief
A taxpayer converted a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA and later tried to recharacterize it after an adviser raised the conversion's cost. The financial institution did not complete the request, and the…
Taxpayer gets extra time to elect out of automatic GST allocation
A taxpayer made two transfers to an irrevocable trust with generation-skipping transfer tax potential. Her tax professional had elected out of automatic GST-exemption allocation for an earlier transfe…
Corporation gets extra time to elect IC-DISC status
A corporation was formed to operate as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation and relied on an accounting firm to prepare its Form 4876-A election. The firm mailed the completed f…
Corporation receives more time to file its IC-DISC election
A domestic corporation formed to operate as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation failed to file Form 4876-A for its first taxable year. Its owners had relied on a law firm and a…
Estate receives more time to make a qualified domestic trust election
An estate claimed a marital deduction for property passing to a surviving spouse who was not a U.S. citizen, but its accountant failed to make the qualified domestic trust election on Form 706. The sp…
Estate receives more time to elect portability
An estate below the estate-tax filing threshold failed to file Form 706 by the deadline to elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount. The IRS concluded that the estate satisfi…
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.