SECTION 11. HOW DOES

THE NATIONAL OFFICE HANDLE LETTER RULING REQUESTS?

In general .01 The national office will issue letter rulings on the matters and under the circumstances explained in sections 4 and 6 of this revenue procedure and in the manner explained in this section and section 13 of this revenue procedure.

Is not bound by informal .02 The Service will not be bound by the informal opinion expressed by the branch opinion expressed representative or any other authorized Service representative under this procedure, and such an opinion cannot be relied upon as a basis for obtaining retroactive relief under the provisions of § 7805(b).

Tells taxpayer if request lacks .03 If a request for a letter ruling or determination letter does not comply with all the essential information provisions of this revenue procedure, the request will be acknowledged and the Service during initial contact representative will tell the taxpayer during the initial contact which requirements have not been met.

Information must be If the request lacks essential information, which may include additional information submitted within needed to satisfy the procedural requirements of this revenue procedure, as well as 30 calendar days substantive changes to transactions or documents needed from the taxpayer, the branch representative will tell the taxpayer during the initial contact that the request will be closed if the Service does not receive the information within 30 calendar days unless an extension of time is granted. See section 11.04 of this revenue procedure for information on extension of time and instructions on submissions of additional information.

Letter ruling request A request for a letter ruling sent to the key district director that does not comply with the mistakenly sent to key provisions of this revenue procedure will be returned by the key district director so that the district director taxpayer can make corrections before sending it to the national office.

Requires prompt submission .04 Material facts furnished to the Service by telephone or fax, or orally at a conference, of additional information must be promptly confirmed by letter to the Service. This confirmation and any additional requested after initial contact information requested by the Service that is not part of the information requested during the initial contact must be furnished within 21 calendar days to be considered part of the request.

Additional information submitted to the Service must be accompanied by the following declaration: “Under penalties of perjury, I declare that I have examined this informa- tion, including accompanying documents, and, to the best of my knowledge and be- lief, the information contains all the relevant facts relating to the request for the in- formation, and such facts are true, correct, and complete.” This declaration must be signed in accordance with the requirements in section 9.02(13)(b) of this revenue procedure. A taxpayer who submits additional factual information on several occasions may provide one declaration subsequent to all submissions that refers to all submissions.

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Encourage use of fax (1) To facilitate prompt action on letter ruling requests, taxpayers are encouraged to submit additional information by fax as soon as the information is available. The Service representative who requests additional information can provide a telephone number to which the information can be faxed. A copy of this information and a signed perjury statement, however, must be mailed or delivered to the Service.

Address to send (2) Additional information should be sent to the same address as the original letter ruling additional information request. See section 9.04. However, the additional information should include the name, office symbols, and room number of the Service representative who requested the information and the taxpayer’s name and the case control number (which the Service representative can provide).

Number of copies of (3) Generally, a taxpayer needs only to submit one copy of the additional information. additional information However, in appropriate cases, the national office may request additional copies of the to be submitted information.

30-day or 21-day period (4) An extension of the 30-day period under section 11.03 or the 21-day period under may be extended if section 11.04, will be granted only if justified in writing by the taxpayer and approved by justified and approved the branch chief of the branch to which the case is assigned. A request for extension should be submitted before the end of the 30-day or 21-day period. If unusual circumstances close to the end of the 30-day or 21-day period make a written request impractical, the taxpayer should notify the national office within the 30-day or 21-day period that there is a problem and that the written request for extension will be coming soon. The taxpayer will be told promptly, and later in writing, of the approval or denial of the requested extension. If the extension request is denied, there is no right of appeal.

If taxpayer does not submit (5) If the taxpayer does not follow the instructions for submitting additional information additional information or requesting an extension within the time provided, a letter ruling will be issued on the basis of the information on hand, or, if appropriate, no letter ruling will be issued. When the Service decides not to issue a letter ruling because essential information is lacking, the case will be closed and the taxpayer notified in writing. If the Service receives the infor- mation after the letter ruling request is closed, the request may be reopened and treated as a new request. However, the taxpayer must pay another user fee before the case can be reopened.

Near the completion of the .05 Generally, after the conference of right is held but before the letter ruling is issued, ruling process, advises the branch representative will inform the taxpayer or the taxpayer’s authorized representataxpayer of conclusions and, tive of the Service’s final conclusions. If the Service is going to rule adversely, the if the Service will rule adversely, taxpayer will be offered the opportunity to withdraw the letter ruling request. If the offers the taxpayer the taxpayer or the taxpayer’s representative does not promptly notify the branch representaopportunity to withdraw tive of a decision to withdraw the ruling request, the adverse letter will be issued. The the letter ruling request user fee will not be refunded for a letter ruling request that is withdrawn. See section 10 of Rev. Proc. 99–8.

May request draft of proposed .06 To accelerate issuance of letter rulings, in appropriate cases near the completion of letter ruling near the completion the ruling process, the Service representative may request that the taxpayer or the of the ruling process taxpayer’s representative submit a proposed draft of the letter ruling on the basis of discussions of the issues. The taxpayer, however, is not required to prepare a draft letter ruling in order to receive a letter ruling.

The format of the submission should be discussed with the Service representative who requests the draft letter ruling. The representative usually can provide a sample format of a letter ruling and will discuss the facts, analysis, and letter ruling language to be included.

Taxpayer may also submit In addition to a typed draft, taxpayers are encouraged to submit this draft on a disk in draft on a word processing disk either WordPerfect or ASCII. The typed draft will become part of the permanent files of the national office, and the word processing disk will not be returned. If the Service representative requesting the draft letter ruling cannot answer specific questions about the for

1999–1 I.R.B. 143 January 4, 1999

mat of the word processing disk, the questions can be directed to Alan Pipkin at (202) 6228400 (Employee Plans), or Wayne Hardesty at (202) 622-7644 (Exempt Organizations) (not toll-free calls).

The proposed letter ruling (both typed draft and word processing disk) should be sent to the same address as any additional information and contain in the transmittal the information that should be included with any additional information (for example, a penalties of perjury statement is required). See section 11.04 of this revenue procedure.