Unless the issue is covered by section 6 of this revenue procedure, Rev. Proc. 2009-3, this Bulletin, or Rev. Proc. 2009-7, this Bulletin, a letter ruling may be issued before the issuance of a temporary or final regulation or other published guidance that interprets the provisions of any act.
The Service ordinarily does not issue letter rulings or determination letters in certain areas because of the factual nature of the problem involved or for other reasons. Rev. Proc. 2009-3, this Bulletin, and Rev. Proc. 2009-7, this Bulletin, provide a list of these areas. This list is not all-inclusive because the Service may decline to issue a letter ruling or a determination letter when appropriate in the interest of sound tax administration or on other grounds whenever warranted by the facts or circumstances of a particular case.
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Generally, the Service will not issue a letter ruling or a determination letter if the request presents an issue that cannot be readily resolved before a regulation or any other published guidance is issued. When the Service has closed a regulation project or any other published guidance project that might have answered the issue or decides not to open a regulation project or any other published guidance project, the Associate offices may consider all letter ruling requests unless the issue is covered by section 6 of this revenue procedure, Rev. Proc. 2009-3, this Bulletin, or Rev. Proc. 2009-7, this Bulletin.
Except as otherwise provided in Rev. Proc. 2009-3, this Bulletin (e.g., under section 3.01 (38), where the Associate office already is ruling on a significant issue in the same transaction), a letter ruling will not be issued with respect to an issue that is clearly and adequately addressed by statute, regulations, decisions of a court, revenue rulings, revenue procedures, notices, or other authority published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin. The Associate office may in its discretion decide to issue a letter ruling on such an issue if the Associate office is otherwise issuing a ruling to the taxpayer on another issue arising in the same transaction.
EXPEDITED LETTER RULING PROCESS FOR REORGANIZATIONS UNDER 368 AND FOR DISTRIBUTIONS UNDER 355: If a taxpayer requests a letter ruling on whether a transaction constitutes a reorganization under 368 or a distribution under 355 and asks for expedited handling pursuant to this provision, the Service will grant expedited handling. If expedited handling is granted, the Service will endeavor to complete and issue the letter ruling, subject to Section 3.01(38) of Rev. Proc. 2009-3, within ten weeks after receiving the ruling request. If the transaction involves an issue or issues not entirely within the jurisdiction of the Associate Chief Counsel (Corporate), the letter ruling request will be processed in the usual manner, unless each Associate Chief Counsel having jurisdiction over an issue in the transaction agrees to process the letter ruling request on an expedited basis.
Determination letters issued under sections 12.01 through 12.04 of this revenue procedure are not reviewed by the Associate offices before they are issued. If a taxpayer believes that a determination letter of this type is in error, the taxpayer may ask the Director to reconsider the matter or to request technical advice from an Associate office as explained in Rev. Proc. 2009-2, this Bulletin.
Under 7805(b), the Service may prescribe the extent to which a revocation or modification of a determination letter will be applied without retroactive effect. A Director does not have authority under 7805(b) to limit the revocation or modification of the determination letter. Therefore, if the field office proposes to revoke or modify a determination letter, the taxpayer may request limitation of the retroactive effect of the revocation or modification by asking the Director that issued the determination letter to seek technical advice from the Associate office. See section 14.02 of Rev. Proc. 2009-2, this Bulletin.
(1) Requests involving several offices. If a request dealing with only one transaction involves more than one office within the Service (for example, one issue is under the jurisdiction of the Associate Chief Counsel (Passthroughs and Special Industries) and another issue is under the jurisdiction of the Commissioner, Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division), only one fee applies, namely the highest fee that otherwise would apply to each of the offices involved. See Rev. Proc. 2009-8, this Bulletin, for the user fees applicable to issues under the jurisdiction of the Commissioner, Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division.
.02 The procedures for requesting technical advice on issues under the jurisdiction of the Commissioner, Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division, are found in Rev. Proc. 2009-5, this Bulletin. The procedures under Rev. Proc. 2009-2, however, must be followed to request technical advice on issues pertaining to tax-exempt bonds, tax credit bonds, Indian tribal governments, federal, state, or local governments, mortgage credit certificates, and deferred compensation plans under 457.
.03 Even though the Associate Chief Counsel (Passthroughs and Special Industries) has jurisdiction over issues arising under 521, the procedures under Rev. Proc. 2009-5 of this Bulletin and Rev. Proc. 2008-9, 2008-2 I.R.B. 258, must be followed.
.01 The purpose of this revenue procedure is to update Rev. Proc. 2008-3, 2008-1 C.B. 110, by providing a revised list of those areas of the Internal Revenue Code under the jurisdiction of the Associate Chief Counsel (Corporate), the Associate Chief Counsel (Financial Institutions and Products), the Associate Chief Counsel (Income Tax and Accounting), the Associate Chief Counsel (Passthroughs and Special Industries), the Associate Chief Counsel (Procedure and Administration), and the Division Counsel/Associate Chief Counsel (Tax Exempt and Government Entities) relating to issues on which the Internal Revenue Service will not issue letter rulings or determination letters. For a list of areas under the jurisdiction of the Associate Chief Counsel (International) relating to international issues on which the Service will not issue letter rulings or determination letters, see Rev. Proc. 2009-7, this Bulletin. For a list of areas under the jurisdiction of the Commissioner, Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division relating to issues, plans or plan amendments on which the Service will not issue letter rulings and determination letters, see, respectively, section 8 of Rev. Proc. 2009-4 (this Bulletin) and section 3.02 of Rev. Proc. 2009-6 (this Bulletin).
(2) Situations where the requested ruling deals with only part of an integrated transaction. Generally, a letter ruling will not be issued on only part of an integrated transaction. If, however, a part of a transaction falls under a no-rule area, a letter ruling on other parts of the transaction may be issued. Before preparing the letter ruling request, a taxpayer should call the Office of the Associate Chief Counsel having jurisdiction for the matters on which the taxpayer is seeking a letter ruling to discuss whether a letter ruling will be issued on part of the transaction. To determine which division has jurisdiction over a particular issue see section 3 of Rev. Proc. 2009-1 (this Bulletin). For a list of telephone numbers for the different divisions, see section 10.07 of Rev. Proc. 2009-1.
(8) A matter involving the Federal tax consequences of any proposed Federal, State, local, municipal, or foreign legislation. The Service may provide general information in response to an inquiry. However, the Office of Division Counsel/Associate Chief Counsel (Tax Exempt and Government Entities) may issue letter rulings regarding the effect of proposed State, local, or municipal legislation upon an eligible deferred compensation plan under 457(b) provided that the letter ruling request relating to the plan complies with the other requirements of Rev. Proc. 2009-1.
The principal author of this revenue procedure is Daniel F. Heins of the Office of the Associate Chief Counsel (Corporate). For further information about this revenue procedure, please contact Mr. Heins at (202) 622-7930 (not a toll-free call), or call the division contacts listed in section 10.07 of Rev. Proc. 2009-1 (this Bulletin). To determine which division has jurisdiction over a particular issue, see section 3 of Rev. Proc. 2009-1.
.05 The procedures for obtaining rulings, closing agreements, and information letters on issues within the jurisdiction of the Chief Counsel are contained in Rev. Proc. 2009-1, page , this Bulletin, including tax issues involving interpreting or applying the federal tax laws and income tax treaties relating to international transactions.
.03 In employee plans matters, the Employee Plans Determinations office issues determination letters on the qualified status of employee plans under 401, 403(a), 409 and 4975(e)(7), and the exempt status of any related trust under 501. See Rev. Proc. 2009-6, this Bulletin.
.08 Determination letters issued under sections 7.02 through 7.04 of this revenue procedure are not reviewed by EP or EO Technical before they are issued. If a taxpayer believes that a determination letter of this type is in error, the taxpayer may ask EP or EO Determinations to reconsider the matter or to request technical advice from EP or EO Technical as explained in Rev. Proc. 2009-5, page , this Bulletin.
.08 The Service does not issue letter rulings or determination letters on whether a cafeteria plan satisfies the requirements of 125. See also Rev. Proc. 2009-3, also in this Bulletin, for areas under the jurisdiction of the Division Counsel/Associate Chief Counsel (Tax Exempt and Government Entities) involving cafeteria plans in which advance rulings or determination letters will not be issued.
(3) Refunds of user fee. The user fee will not be returned for a letter ruling request that is withdrawn. If the Service declines to issue a letter ruling on all of the issues in the request, the user fee will be returned. If the Service, however, issues a letter ruling on some, but not all, of the issues, the user fee will not be returned. See section 10 of Rev. Proc. 2009-8 for additional information regarding refunds of user fees. 2ff7e9595c
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