SECTION 6. AREAS COVERED BY

AUTOMATIC APPROVAL PROCEDURES IN WHICH RULINGS WILL NOT ORDINARILY BE ISSUED

.01 Section 442.—Change of Annual Accounting Period.—All requests for change in annual accounting period where the Service has provided an administrative procedure for obtaining a change in annual accounting period. See Rev. Procs. 2002– 39, 2002–22 I.R.B. 1046 (general procedures for prior approval), 2002–37, 2002–22 I.R.B. 1030 (certain corporations); 2002– 38, 2002–22 I.R.B. 1037 (partnership, S corporation, or personal service corporation

.02 General areas.

(1) Any matter in which the determination requested is primarily one of fact, e.g., market value of property, or whether an interest in a corporation is to be treated as stock or indebtedness.

(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.

(3) Situations where two or more items or sub-methods of accounting are interrelated. If two or more items or submethods of accounting are interrelated, ordinarily a letter ruling will not be issued on a change in accounting method involving only one of the items or submethods.

(4) The tax effect of any transaction to be consummated at some indefinite future time.

(5) Any matter dealing with the question of whether property is held primarily for sale to customers in the ordinary course of a trade or business.

(6) The tax effect of a transaction if any part of the transaction is involved in litigation among the parties affected by the transaction, except for transactions involving bankruptcy reorganizations.

(7)(a) Situations where the taxpayer or a related party is domiciled or organized in a foreign jurisdiction with which the United States does not have an effective mechanism for obtaining tax information with respect to civil tax examinations and criminal tax investigations, which would preclude the Service from obtaining information located in such jurisdiction that is relevant to the analysis or examination of the tax issues involved in the ruling request.

(b) The provisions of subsection (a) above shall not apply if the taxpayer or affected related party (i) consents to the disclosure of all relevant information requested by the Service in processing the ruling re

quest or in the course of an examination in order to verify the accuracy of the representations made and to otherwise analyze or examine the tax issues involved in the ruling request, and (ii) waives all claims to protection of bank or commercial secrecy laws in the foreign jurisdiction with respect to the information requested by the Service. In the event the taxpayer’s or related party’s consent to disclose relevant information or to waive protection of bank or commercial secrecy is determined by the Service to be ineffective or of no force and effect, then the Service may retroactively rescind any ruling rendered in reliance on such consent.

(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. 2003–1.

(9) Except as otherwise provided in this revenue procedure ( e.g., under section 3.02(29), where the Service already is ruling on a significant issue in the same transaction), a letter ruling will not ordinarily 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. However, the Service may in its discretion determine to issue a ruling on such an issue if the Service otherwise is issuing a ruling on another issue arising in the same transaction.

Sec. 4.02 January 6, 2003 120 2003–1 I.R.B.

sents on consolidated return issues. See Rev. Procs. 2002–32, 2002–20 I.R.B. 959 (certain corporations seeking reconsolidation within the 5-year period specified in § 1504(a)(3)(A)); 90–39, 1990–2 C.B. 365 (certain affiliated groups of corporations seeking, for earnings and profits determinations, to make an election or a change in their method of allocating the group’s consolidated federal income tax liability); and 89–56, 1989–2 C.B. 643 (certain affiliated groups of corporations seeking to file a consolidated return where member(s) of the group use a 52–53 week taxable year).

.06 Section 704(c).—Contributed Property.—Requests from Qualified Master Feeder Structures, as described in section 4.02 of Rev. Proc. 2001–36, 2001–23 I.R.B. 1326, for permission to aggregate built-in gains and losses from contributed qualified financial assets for purposes of making § 704(c) and reverse § 704(c) allocations.