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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REIT liquidation sales are not prohibited transactions
A real estate investment trust considered selling its portfolio under a complete liquidation plan after reviewing alternatives for increasing shareholder value. It represented that it had acquired and…
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…
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…
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…
Investment fund receives more time to make foreign-tax election
A regulated investment company intended to elect under IRC § 853 so its shareholders would be treated as paying their shares of foreign taxes withheld from the fund's dividends. Its adviser resigned a…
Parking-garage income qualifies as rent from real property
A real estate investment trust planned for a partnership it partly owned to acquire a parking garage next to an office building. The garage primarily served the office park's tenants, employees, custo…
Parking-garage income qualifies as rent from real property
A real estate investment trust planned for a partnership it partly owned to acquire a parking garage next to an office building. The garage primarily served the office park's tenants, employees, custo…
Permanently moored casino facilities qualify as real property
A gaming company planned a transaction in which casino real estate would be owned by a real estate investment trust and leased to an operating company. Several casino facilities were built on barges o…
Replacement plant preserved foreclosure-property status
A REMIC acquired a shopping-mall property through foreclosure after the mortgage default became imminent. The property's aging wastewater treatment system was already undergoing a multiyear improvemen…
REIT may exclude its indirect share of related management fees from income tests
A real estate investment trust held mortgage and foreclosed-property investments through an operating partnership. After a restructuring, the operating partnership would own part of the manager that i…
Investment funds receive relief for elections on late-filed returns
Four regulated investment company funds timely extended their returns, but the employees who coordinated filing at the adviser and custodian both left before the extended due date. The unfiled returns…
REIT gets 90 days for two subsidiary elections
A REIT intended two corporations in its investment structure to be taxable REIT subsidiaries, but outside advisers failed to coordinate the required joint Form 8875 elections. The entities had no empl…
REIT and subsidiary receive 90 days for a late TRS election
A real estate investment trust and its wholly owned subsidiary intended to file Form 8875 so the subsidiary would be treated as a taxable REIT subsidiary for an acquired hotel property. Their tax advi…
REIT portfolio exchanges and captive-REIT distributions receive favorable safe-harbor treatment
A REIT planned to realign its real-estate portfolio through like-kind exchanges, sales by captive REITs, and possible captive-REIT liquidations. The IRS ruled that a qualifying section 1031 exchange i…
REIT liquidation sales avoided prohibited-transaction tax
A real estate investment trust planned to sell all of its residential rental properties under a plan of liquidation. It asked whether the sales would be prohibited transactions subject to the 100 perc…
Foreign inclusions qualify for REIT income test and currency gains are excluded
A timberland REIT operated abroad through foreign subsidiaries, including controlled foreign corporations and passive foreign investment companies. It expected subpart F, qualified electing fund, and …
Patronage dividends are excluded from REIT income tests
A timberland REIT borrowed under a credit agreement from cooperative lenders and received annual patronage dividends based on its borrowing activity. Those dividends were includible in the REIT's gros…
Mortgage settlement payments preserve REMIC status and interest classifications
A trustee for numerous residential mortgage REMICs entered a court-approved settlement over alleged breaches of loan representations, warranties, and servicing duties. The settlement allocated payment…
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…
Ski lift towers qualify as real property for REIT rules
A publicly traded real estate investment trust planned to acquire ski resort assets and lease them to operators. It asked whether the concrete foundations, steel towers, tower head assemblies, and wal…
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.