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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IRS waives rollover deadline after IRA was sent to the state
A retired taxpayer owned an IRA certificate of deposit that she expected to renew automatically after receiving her required minimum distribution. Instead, the financial institution sent the remaining…
IRS waives rollover deadline after illness and incarceration
A taxpayer received a retirement-plan distribution under a divorce settlement but did not complete the rollover within 60 days. During the rollover period, she experienced severe depression, injuries,…
Cancer treatment supports waiver of IRA rollover deadline
A taxpayer withdrew funds from an IRA intending to roll them into another IRA. After being diagnosed with cancer that had spread, she used the funds to pay off her home mortgage so her husband would n…
IRS waives the 60-day IRA rollover deadline after the account owner's death
An estate's executrix asked the IRS to waive the 60-day deadline for rolling an IRA distribution into another IRA. The account owner had severe cognitive impairment from a terminal illness and died du…
IRS grants rollover relief only for funds that remained available
A taxpayer asked the IRS to waive the 60-day deadline for rolling part of a qualified plan distribution into another retirement plan. Family deaths, a move, and failure to receive a rollover notice co…
Employees of a disregarded LLC may join the tax-exempt owner's retirement plans
Chief Counsel considered whether employees of a disregarded single-member LLC could participate in retirement plans sponsored by its tax-exempt owner. Because the LLC is treated as a branch or divisio…
Inherited IRA distributions may use a trust beneficiary's life expectancy
A decedent named a testamentary trust as beneficiary of three IRAs that were later combined into one inherited IRA. The IRS ruled that the trust met the regulatory requirements for its beneficiaries, …
Surviving spouse may roll trust-held IRAs into her own IRA
A married couple's revocable trust became beneficiary of the deceased spouse's two IRAs, which the surviving spouse controlled as sole trustee. She allocated the IRAs to a survivor's subtrust in which…
Partial annuity rider allocations create separate contracts
A life insurer proposed adding a deferred-income-annuity rider to a variable annuity contract. An owner could irrevocably transfer part of the contract's accumulation value to the rider while leaving …
Mental condition supports waiver of the 60-day IRA rollover deadline
An IRA owner withdrew a redacted amount expecting to consolidate several retirement accounts, but the credit union deposited the money into her savings account instead. Because of a diagnosed conditio…
Caregiving crisis supports waiver of the 60-day IRA rollover deadline
An IRA owner took a distribution intending to roll it into another IRA. During the rollover period, his mother-in-law suffered a serious automobile accident, remained hospitalized, and later died whil…
Dementia supports waiver of the 60-day IRA rollover deadline
An IRA owner received a distribution but did not complete a rollover within 60 days. Medical records showed that she had dementia, needed help managing finances and records, and was impaired in her ab…
Pension funding extension ends after a condition failure
A pension plan had received conditional approval in 2005 to extend the period for amortizing unfunded liabilities by ten years. The IRS modified that ruling so a failure to meet a condition would end …
IRS waives IRA rollover deadline after bank error
A taxpayer received an IRA distribution after a bank representative moved funds from her maturing IRA certificate of deposit into a non-IRA money market account. The taxpayer had medical conditions th…
IRS waives two IRA rollover deadlines for elderly couple
An elderly husband withdrew funds from his IRA and his wife's IRA and deposited them into non-IRA accounts. The husband had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and the wife relied on him to handl…
IRS waives rollover deadline after IRA transfer error
A taxpayer requested a trustee-to-trustee IRA transfer, and the original financial institution issued a check payable to the receiving institution for the taxpayer's benefit. The receiving institution…
Dementia supports waiver of three IRA rollover deadlines
An IRA owner closed three retirement accounts and deposited the checks into ordinary checking and savings accounts at banks closer to his home. He did not understand that the distributions had to be p…
Court reformation cannot create an IRA designated beneficiary
An IRA owner intended only to move retirement assets to a new custodian but signed a form naming the estate as sole beneficiary instead of preserving three trusts as beneficiaries. After the owner's d…
Court reformation cannot create an IRA designated beneficiary
An IRA owner intended only to move retirement assets to a new custodian but signed a form naming the estate as sole beneficiary instead of preserving three trusts as beneficiaries. After the owner's d…
Court reformation cannot create an IRA designated beneficiary
An IRA owner intended only to move retirement assets to a new custodian but signed a form naming the estate as sole beneficiary instead of preserving three trusts as beneficiaries. After the owner's d…
Couple receives IRA rollover waivers after surgery-related memory loss
An 86-year-old husband withdrew funds from his IRA and his wife's IRA and placed both distributions in their joint checking account while considering new investments. He had suffered memory loss and c…
Adviser error supports waiver for inherited plan rollover
A deceased participant's qualified-plan benefit was payable to a trust whose trustee and beneficiary was the participant's surviving spouse. The spouse instructed a financial adviser to place the dist…
Non-IRA certificate deposit corrected through rollover waiver
An IRA owner received a distribution when an IRA certificate of deposit matured and took the check to another financial institution to open a new IRA certificate. Because of a misunderstanding, the in…
Multiemployer plan receives five-year funding extension
A multiemployer pension plan requested a five-year extension for amortizing specified unfunded liabilities. Its actuary certified that without relief the plan would have an accumulated funding deficie…
Broker error earns waiver for missed IRA rollover
An IRA owner received an IRA distribution and separate non-IRA funds, then sent a combined check to an investment adviser with instructions to place the IRA portion in a new IRA. The adviser instead d…
Cancer treatment supports waiver of IRA rollover deadline
An IRA owner withdrew funds intending to research mutual funds and move the money into a new IRA within 60 days. Eleven days later, she was diagnosed with cancer and then underwent surgery and chemoth…
Concussions and mental stress support rollover waiver
An IRA owner with memory and impulse problems following an assault suffered two additional concussions in early 2014. Ten days after the second concussion, he withdrew IRA funds and placed them in a n…
Confusing account names support IRA rollover waiver
An elderly taxpayer held an IRA and a non-IRA account at the same financial company, both bearing the same “Retirement Balanced Account” title. Believing the accounts were duplicate IRAs, she withdrew…
IRS denies rollover waiver after IRA funds finance a family home purchase
An IRA owner withdrew a redacted amount to prevent foreclosure on her daughter's home, expecting to replace the money after selling a vacation home. The sale did not close until after the 60-day rollo…
Financial institution error earns waiver for a partial plan rollover
A taxpayer asked a financial institution to roll assets from three 401(k) plans directly into an IRA. The institution confirmed that the rollover was complete, but it later issued checks to the taxpay…
Public retiree-health asset transfers avoided specified excise taxes
A state public retirement system planned to terminate retiree-health accounts under section 401(h) after satisfying all medical-benefit liabilities, credit the remaining assets back to participating p…
A checking-account transfer between annuities was taxable
A taxpayer inherited part of an annuity and mistakenly signed a lump-sum payment form, believing it was a section 1035 exchange form. The insurer deposited the proceeds into the taxpayer's checking ac…
A plan received a five-year funding amortization extension
A multiemployer pension plan requested a five-year extension for amortizing specified unfunded liabilities beginning with its July 1, 2014 plan year. Its actuary certified that without the extension t…
Surviving spouse could not roll over assets from child's inherited IRA
A surviving spouse sought to roll over part of an IRA that the decedent had left to their child. A state court had approved a settlement assigning that amount to the spouse as her community property i…
IRS waived rollover deadline after financial institution errors
A retiree missed the 60-day deadline to roll a qualified plan distribution into an IRA. The check stub gave misleading information about the taxable amount, and the financial institution did not provi…
IRS waived rollover deadline after funds entered the wrong annuity
An IRA owner intended to roll a distribution into an IRA annuity and relied on an employee of the annuity company to complete the application. Although the check and application identified the transac…
IRS waived rollover deadline due to declining health
An IRA owner withdrew funds intending to move them to a new IRA but instead deposited part of the distribution into a non-IRA money market account. She believed she had completed a rollover and did no…
IRS waived rollover deadline for family caregiving demands
An IRA owner took a distribution intending to move the funds to a bank closer to her home. During the rollover period, she and her husband traveled frequently to care for her father-in-law, who had se…
IRS waived late SEP IRA rollover but excluded the excess amount
A taxpayer took a SEP IRA distribution because of concerns about expenses from Hurricane Sandy damage to his home. A neurological assessment indicated a neurodegenerative condition, and the IRS found …
IRA rollover deadline waived after the custodian surrendered the wrong account
A taxpayer instructed a financial institution to surrender a nonqualified annuity, but the institution mistakenly surrendered the taxpayer’s IRA instead. The resulting IRA distribution was not rolled …
IRA rollover deadline waived after employer and trustee setup errors
A newly hired employee tried to transfer an existing IRA into an IRA offered through the employer. The employer’s affiliate arranged the transfer, and the funds were placed in an account titled as an …
IRA rollover deadline waived while taxpayer cared for an ill stepson
A taxpayer withdrew money from an IRA certificate of deposit intending to move it to another IRA with a higher return. During the entire 60-day rollover period, the taxpayer was occupied around the cl…
IRA rollover deadline waived after custodian’s notice went to an old address
An IRA custodian resigned and distributed the account after custodial fees went unpaid. The custodian mailed its resignation notice to the taxpayer’s former address, and the notice was not forwarded a…
Multiemployer plan may retain amortization extension after small benefit increase
A multiemployer pension plan had an existing funding amortization extension and amended the plan to raise one employer group’s benefit accrual rate from 85 percent to 100 percent of the standard rate.…
IRA owner receives waiver for rollover delayed by bank error
An IRA owner intended to reinvest a certificate of deposit within his IRA, but a bank representative completed a distribution election without his signature or consent. The representative told him the…
Medical condition supports retirement-plan rollover waiver
A retirement-plan participant received a distribution while suffering from an undiagnosed illness that left him unable to work and required extensive testing and treatment. He did not complete a rollo…
Financial-institution procedures support IRA rollover waiver
An IRA owner received two distribution checks and promptly sent them to the custodian of her employer plan for rollover. The custodian returned the checks because they were payable to her rather than …
IRA rollover waiver denied for short-term business loan
An IRA owner withdrew funds so her spouse could make a business investment, then attempted to return the money ten days after the 60-day rollover deadline. She attributed the delay to concern about an…
Mistaken transfer to brokerage account receives rollover waiver
An IRA owner instructed a financial representative to keep her retirement accounts in nontaxable IRAs while transferring them to a new institution. One IRA was properly transferred, but another was pl…
Waiver denied for late rollover of tax withholding amount
A retirement-plan distribution included an amount paid to the taxpayer and a separate amount withheld for federal income tax. The taxpayer timely rolled the check amount into an IRA, so that portion n…
Surviving spouse may roll estate-received IRA proceeds into own IRA
A decedent died before age 70 1/2 without naming a beneficiary for an IRA, causing the account to pass to the estate. The decedent's surviving spouse was both the estate's sole executor and its sole b…
Taxpayer receives waiver for IRA rollover delay caused by custodian
An IRA custodian resigned without informing the taxpayer, causing assets held in three funds to be distributed from the IRA. The taxpayer learned of the resignation only after one fund sent a redempti…
Taxpayer receives waiver after Roth IRA funds lacked a qualified custodian
A taxpayer moved money directly from two Roth IRAs into an investment fund after a capital management company represented that the investment could be held through an IRA. The company and taxpayer bel…
Caregiver receives waiver of IRA rollover deadline
A taxpayer received property from an IRA but did not roll it over within 60 days because caring for his mother impaired his ability to complete the transaction on time. During the rollover period, his…
Taxpayer receives waiver after Roth IRA investment lacked a qualified custodian
A taxpayer moved money directly from a Roth IRA into an investment fund after a capital management company represented that the investment could be held through an IRA. The company and taxpayer mistak…
Taxpayer receives waiver after IRA investment lacked a qualified custodian
A taxpayer moved money directly from an IRA into an investment fund after a capital management company represented that the investment could be held through an IRA. The company and taxpayer mistakenly…
Certain cash balance plans qualify only for indexed-benefit safe harbor
The IRS addressed age-discrimination safe harbors for cash balance plans whose lump-sum distributions equal the actuarial present value of the accrued benefit rather than the hypothetical account bala…
Insurer merger does not restart life policy tax tests
Two affiliated life insurance companies planned to merge, with one company surviving and assuming the other's policies. The policy terms would not change, and the surviving company would not issue rep…
Financial institution error supports rollover deadline waiver
A taxpayer directed a financial institution to roll funds from a qualified plan and an IRA into a traditional IRA, but the institution deposited both amounts into the wrong IRA. The taxpayer documente…
Multiemployer plan receives five-year funding extension
A multiemployer pension plan requested a five-year extension for amortizing specified unfunded liabilities beginning with its May 1, 2014 plan year. Its actuary certified that without the extension th…
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.