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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Couple receives 120 days to opt out of automatic GST allocations
A taxpayer created an irrevocable trust for a spouse and four children, then later made cash gifts that the spouses elected to split for gift tax purposes. Their tax professionals prepared the gift ta…
Court-approved trust termination preserves GST exemption
A trust created before September 25, 1985 had eighteen living beneficiaries and had become disproportionately difficult and costly to administer. A court-approved settlement would terminate the trust …
A trust received time for severance and a reverse-QTIP election
A decedent's revocable trust directed the trustee to create one share funded with the decedent's unused generation-skipping transfer tax exemption and another share for the balance. The original trust…
Estates granted relief for GST elections and trust severances
A tax professional mistakenly reported gifts to two trusts as outright gifts to the donors' children, causing the married donors to miss elections out of automatic generation-skipping transfer exempti…
Estate received relief for GST allocations and election-outs
A married donor funded five trusts for grandchildren and elected gift splitting with the donor's spouse. Their first tax preparer failed to allocate the spouse's generation-skipping transfer exemption…
Donor receives extra time for GST exemption allocations and an election out of automatic allocation
A donor created five trusts for grandchildren and made later direct-skip gifts. Tax professionals prepared the donor’s gift tax returns but failed to allocate generation-skipping transfer tax exemptio…
Spouses get 120 days to complete GST allocations
A married couple made split gifts to two irrevocable trusts with generation-skipping transfer tax potential. Their Forms 709 reported amounts of GST exemption, but the accountant failed to attach the …
Couple gets 120 days for trust GST allocations
A married couple treated a gift to an irrevocable trust as made one-half by each spouse and reported amounts of GST exemption on their Forms 709. Their accountant advised them to allocate the exemptio…
Unneeded QTIP election voided, but spouse becomes GST transferor
An estate made a QTIP election for a marital trust even though the spouse already held a qualifying lifetime income interest and a testamentary general power of appointment. Because the election was u…
Spouses receive 120 days to elect out of automatic GST allocations
A husband and wife made transfers to several irrevocable trusts with generation-skipping transfer tax potential and elected gift splitting on their annual gift tax returns. Their tax professionals fai…
Estate receives 120 days to document a decedent's mental incompetency
A decedent created a revocable trust before October 22, 1986, that later continued for descendants across multiple generations. The estate timely filed Form 706 but did not attach a physician's certif…
Taxpayer receives more time to allocate GST exemption
A married couple made several pre-2001 cash transfers to an irrevocable trust with generation-skipping transfer potential and elected gift splitting on their Forms 709. Their accountant failed to allo…
Estate and spouse may allocate GST exemptions late
Spouses created a trust for their descendants and timely allocated GST exemptions to an initial split gift. For a later transfer, their attorney failed to prepare Forms 709 or advise them to allocate …
Estate and spouse receive more time to allocate GST exemptions
A married couple transferred property to a trust for their children and more remote descendants, but their attorney failed to prepare gift tax returns for a later transfer or advise them to allocate t…
Estate receives 120 days to allocate GST exemption
A decedent transferred stock to an irrevocable trust but failed to allocate generation-skipping transfer tax exemption to the transfer. The decedent believed accountants would prepare the gift-tax ret…
Estate receives 120 days for QTIP and GST elections
A decedent's will divided the residuary estate between GST-exempt and GST-nonexempt marital trusts for the surviving spouse. The return preparer mistakenly reported the combined value as passing outri…
GST allocations receive relief and automatic treatment
A taxpayer and spouse made gifts to three irrevocable trusts for their children over several years, but their accountant did not file gift tax returns or allocate the taxpayer's generation-skipping tr…
GST allocations receive relief and automatic treatment
A taxpayer and spouse made gifts to three irrevocable trusts for their children over several years, but their accountant did not file gift tax returns or allocate the taxpayer's generation-skipping tr…
Trust settlement preserves grandfathered GST exemption
An irrevocable trust created before September 25, 1985 divided its assets into separate shares for the grantor's children. One child later died without a spouse or descendants, did not exercise her ap…
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…
Division into three family trusts preserves tax attributes
An irrevocable trust for three daughters and their descendants had a zero generation-skipping transfer tax inclusion ratio. A state court conditionally approved dividing it into three equal trusts, ea…
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 …
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…
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.