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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Housing project receives late multiple-building election
A taxpayer intended to treat all buildings in a low-income housing development as one multiple-building project but inadvertently failed to make an effective election on the Forms 8609 issued for ever…
Estate receives late portability election relief
A decedent's estate did not timely file Form 706 to elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount to the surviving spouse. The estate represented that the gross estate, including …
Estate receives late portability election relief
A decedent's estate did not timely file Form 706 to elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount to the surviving spouse. The personal representative stated that the gross estate…
Foreign entity receives late partnership election relief
A foreign eligible entity intended to be treated as a partnership for federal tax purposes but failed to timely file Form 8832. The IRS concluded from the submitted facts and representations that the …
Late Form 1128 is treated as timely filed
A C corporation that headed a consolidated group decided to change its tax year from June 30 to November 30 to align with its revenue cycle. It did not consult its tax advisers when making the decisio…
Late Form 1128 is treated as timely filed
A taxpayer sought to change its federal tax year but did not file Form 1128 by the deadline for the short-period return required to make the change. It requested section 301.9100-3 relief shortly afte…
Charity-owned entity receives late section 168 election
A charity formed a wholly owned taxable entity to hold an interest in an affordable-housing partnership after advisers concluded that the charity should not hold the interest directly. The new entity …
Late success-based fee safe-harbor election allowed
A corporation paid a success-based advisory fee in connection with an acquisition and capitalized the entire amount on its timely filed return. A law firm's due-diligence analysis had identified part …
Taxpayer may elect out of automatic GST allocation late
A taxpayer made several cash gifts to a trust with generation-skipping potential and timely reported the gifts on Forms 709. The taxpayer did not elect out of the automatic allocation of GST exemption…
Late consolidated intercompany election receives 90-day extension
A consolidated group failed to timely elect to apply the 1995 intercompany transaction regulations to earlier stock-elimination transactions with deferred gains. The parent reasonably relied on a qual…
Estate receives 120-day extension for 2010 carryover-basis election
The executor of an estate for a decedent who died in 2010 hired an accountant to handle estate-tax filings. The accountant failed to advise the executor that Form 8939 had to be filed by January 17, 2…
Estate receives 120-day extension to elect portability
An estate failed to timely file Form 706 to elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount to the surviving spouse. The decedent's gross estate, including lifetime taxable gifts, w…
Estate receives 120-day portability-election extension
An estate failed to timely file Form 706 to elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount. The estate was represented to be below the basic exclusion amount after accounting for t…
Estate receives 120-day portability-election extension
An estate failed to timely file Form 706 to elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount. The decedent's gross estate, including lifetime taxable gifts, was represented to be bel…
Trust executor receives 120-day portability-election extension
A decedent's assets were held in a revocable trust, and the successor trustee served as executor under section 2203. The estate failed to timely file Form 706 to elect portability of the decedent's un…
Partnership receives 120-day extension for section 754 election
An LLC taxed as a partnership intended to elect under section 754 to adjust the basis of partnership property but inadvertently failed to file a properly executed election with its return. The partner…
Surviving spouse's estate receives portability-election extension
An estate failed to timely file Form 706 to elect portability of the first decedent's unused exclusion amount, and the surviving spouse later died. The surviving spouse's executor represented that the…
Foreign entity receives extension for disregarded-entity election
A foreign entity's owner intended the entity to be treated as disregarded for federal tax purposes from a specified date, but the entity failed to timely file Form 8832. The IRS found that the section…
Estate receives 120-day portability-election extension
An estate failed to timely file Form 706 to elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount. The decedent's gross estate, including lifetime taxable gifts, was represented to be bel…
Estate receives portability relief after temporary procedure expired
An estate failed to timely file Form 706 to elect portability and did not discover the omission until after December 31, 2014, the extended deadline provided by Revenue Procedure 2014-18. The executor…
Estate receives 120-day portability-election extension
An estate failed to timely file Form 706 to elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount. The decedent's gross estate, including lifetime taxable gifts, was represented to be bel…
Surviving-spouse executor receives portability-election extension
A surviving spouse serving as executor failed to timely file Form 706 to elect portability of the decedent's unused exclusion amount. The executor represented that the estate was below the basic exclu…
Late Form 1128 for calendar-year change deemed timely
A new domestic corporation decided after the deadline to change its tax year from June 30 to December 31 to better match annual revenue and expenses. It filed neither Form 1128 nor the short-period re…
S corporation receives extension for QSub election
An S corporation owned all the stock of another domestic corporation and intended to treat it as a qualified subchapter S subsidiary from the parent's S-election effective date. Because of inadvertenc…
Corporation receives 60-day extension for IC-DISC election
Shareholders formed a corporation intending interest-charge DISC treatment from inception and entered a commission agreement on the formation date. The corporation's Form SS-4 also indicated that it i…
Taxpayer receives 60 days to recharacterize a Roth IRA contribution
A married taxpayer made Roth IRA contributions for several years before learning that the couple's income exceeded the applicable contribution limits. The taxpayer had relied on a tax return preparer …
Taxpayer receives 60 days to undo Roth IRA conversions
A taxpayer converted two traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs after a tax adviser said that partnership losses would offset the conversion income. The IRS later disallowed those losses because state law prot…
Corporation receives more time for success-fee safe harbor election
A corporation intended to elect the Revenue Procedure 2011-29 safe harbor for success-based fees incurred in a business acquisition. Its accounting firm prepared the return using the safe harbor's 70 …
LLC receives 120 days to elect corporate classification
A single-owner limited liability company intended to be classified as an association taxable as a corporation but did not timely file Form 8832. The company represented that its federal tax and inform…
Estate receives 120 days to elect portability
An estate missed the deadline to file Form 706 and elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount for the surviving spouse. The executor represented that the gross estate and taxab…
Taxpayer receives 60 days to opt out of bonus depreciation
An affiliated corporate group intended to elect out of additional first-year depreciation for every class of qualified property placed in service during a short tax year. Its return preparer timely pr…
Partnership receives 120 days to make section 754 election
A partnership timely filed its return for a year in which ownership interests were transferred but did not make a section 754 election or reflect the related basis adjustments. The partnership represe…
Estate receives 120 days to elect portability
An estate missed the deadline to file Form 706 and elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount for the surviving spouse. The executor represented that the gross estate and taxab…
Estate receives 120 days to elect portability
An estate missed the deadline to file Form 706 and elect portability of the deceased spouse's unused exclusion amount for the surviving spouse. The executor represented that the gross estate was below…
Foreign entity receives 120 days to elect partnership status
A foreign entity whose owners all had limited liability intended to be classified as a partnership for federal tax purposes but inadvertently failed to file Form 8832 on time. The IRS found that the r…
Estate receives 120 days to opt out of automatic GST allocation
A donor transferred property to an irrevocable trust for a child and descendants but did not intend to allocate generation-skipping transfer tax exemption to the gift. The donor relied on a certified …
Consolidated group receives more time for an extended NOL carryback election
A former common parent of a consolidated group failed to timely elect an extended carryback period for a consolidated net operating loss under IRC § 172(b)(1)(H). The group explained that it reasonabl…
Affiliated group receives more time to elect consolidated filing
A parent corporation and subsidiary intended to file a consolidated federal income tax return but failed to make the required election on time. The parent showed that it reasonably relied on a qualifi…
Estate receives 120 days to elect portability
An estate failed to timely file Form 706 to transfer the decedent’s unused estate tax exclusion to the surviving spouse. The spouse had reasonably relied on a qualified tax professional who failed to …
Corporation receives 60 days to file its IC-DISC election
A domestic corporation was formed to operate as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation, and its owner timely signed Form 4876-A. The form was never filed because the accounting fi…
Foreign entity receives more time for disregarded-entity election
A foreign single-owner entity was classified by default as an association for federal tax purposes. Its U.S. parent tried to file Form 8832 to elect disregarded-entity status, but the election was not…
Late accounting-period change application is treated as timely
A taxpayer filed Form 1128 late when seeking to change its annual accounting period. It requested discretionary relief and submitted the form within 90 days after the filing deadline. The IRS found th…
Foreign entity receives more time for disregarded-entity election
A foreign single-owner entity was classified by default as an association for federal tax purposes. Its U.S. parent tried to file Form 8832 to elect disregarded-entity status, but the election was not…
Foreign entity receives more time for disregarded-entity election
A foreign single-owner entity was classified by default as an association for federal tax purposes. Its U.S. parent tried to file Form 8832 to elect disregarded-entity status, but the election was not…
Foreign entity receives more time for disregarded-entity election
A foreign single-owner entity was classified by default as an association for federal tax purposes. Its U.S. parent tried to file Form 8832 to elect disregarded-entity status, but the election was not…
Foreign entity receives late election for disregarded period
A foreign single-owner entity was classified by default as an association, and its U.S. parent unsuccessfully tried to elect disregarded-entity status on Form 8832. The entity later converted under lo…
Foreign entity receives more time for disregarded-entity election
A foreign single-owner entity was classified by default as an association for federal tax purposes. Its U.S. parent tried to file Form 8832 to elect disregarded-entity status, but the election was not…
Foreign entity receives more time for disregarded-entity election
A foreign single-owner entity was classified by default as an association for federal tax purposes. Its U.S. parent tried to file Form 8832 to elect disregarded-entity status, but the election was not…
Partnership may make late low-income housing credit elections
A partnership placed several buildings in service but inadvertently failed to elect to begin their low-income housing credit periods in the following year. The IRS found that the partnership met the s…
Estate receives more time to elect portability of unused exclusion
An estate below the federal estate-tax filing threshold missed the deadline to file Form 706 and elect portability of the decedent's unused exclusion amount to the surviving spouse. Because the estate…
REIT subsidiary's late taxable election is treated as timely
A real estate investment trust and its subsidiary intended to elect taxable REIT subsidiary status from the date the subsidiary began operating a facility. Their accounting firm did not obtain the org…
Foreign entity receives late election for disregarded period
A foreign single-owner entity was classified by default as an association, and its U.S. parent unsuccessfully tried to elect disregarded-entity status on Form 8832. The entity later converted under lo…
Taxpayer may make late GST exemption allocation to trust
A taxpayer transferred property to an irrevocable trust with generation-skipping transfer tax potential. A tax professional failed to advise the taxpayer to allocate GST exemption on a timely Form 709…
Corporation may make late IC-DISC election
A domestic corporation was formed to operate as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation and filed returns on that basis. It later learned that neither its law firm nor accounting f…
Partnership may make late election out of bonus depreciation
A partnership claimed additional first-year depreciation on qualified property even though its transaction documents and financial projections reflected an intent not to claim it. The return preparer …
Corporation may replace invalid IC-DISC election
A domestic corporation was formed to operate as an interest charge domestic international sales corporation. It timely filed Form 4876-A and later filed IC-DISC returns, but the IRS found that the ele…
Estate receives 120-day extension to elect portability
An estate below the estate-tax filing threshold missed the deadline to elect portability of the decedent's unused estate and gift tax exclusion to the surviving spouse. The estate discovered the omiss…
Extension granted for depreciation elections after adviser error
A corporation relied on an outside return preparer who failed to analyze an ownership change and its limits on net operating losses. The corporation consequently missed elections to forgo bonus deprec…
Extension granted to amortize research expenditures
An affiliated corporate group intended to elect ten-year ratable deductions for research and experimental expenditures but did not make the election with its timely consolidated return. The group repr…
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.