Skip to content

Introduction

SECTION 5. AREAS UNDER

Internal Revenue Bulletin 2009-1 · 2026-10-03 edition · updated 2026-10-04 · United States

STUDY IN WHICH RULINGS OR DETERMINATION LETTERS WILL NOT BE ISSUED UNTIL THE SERVICE RESOLVES THE ISSUE THROUGH PUBLICATION OF A REVENUE RULING, REVENUE PROCEDURE, REGULATIONS OR OTHERWISE

.01 Section 62(c).—Reimbursement Arrangements.—Whether amounts related to a salary reduction and paid under a purported reimbursement or other expense allowance arrangement will be treated as paid under an “accountable plan” in accordance with § 1.62–2(c)(2).

.02 Section 72.—Annuities; Certain Proceeds of Endowment and Life Insurance Contracts.—The income tax consequences of a transaction (sometimes referred to as a “partial annuitization”) in which the holder of an annuity contract irrevocably elects to apply only a portion of the contract to purchase a stream of annuity payments under the contract, leaving the remainder of the contract to accumulate income on a tax-deferred basis.

.03 Sections 101 and 7702.—Certain Death Benefits; Life Insurance Contract Defined.—Whether amounts received under an arrangement that is not regulated as an insurance company may be treated as received under a “life insurance contract” within the meaning of §§ 101(a) and 7702.

determined under § 7520 of the right to receive the trust corpus at the expiration of the term of the trust. The possibility that the grantor may die prior to the expiration of the specified term is not taken into account, nor is the value of any reversion retained by the grantor or the grantor’s estate.

(52) Section 2702.—Special Valuation Rules in Case of Transfers of Interests in Trusts.—Whether a trust with one term holder satisfies the requirements of § 2702(a)(3)(A) and § 25.2702–5(c) to be a qualified personal residence trust.

(53) Section 3121.—Definitions.—Determinations as to which of two entities, under common law rules applicable in determining the employer-employee relationship, is the employer, when one entity is treating the worker as an employee.

.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. 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.

(3) Situations where two or more items or sub-methods of accounting are interrelated. If two or more items or sub-methods 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 sub-methods.

(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 request 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. 2009–1. (9) Except as otherwise provided in this revenue procedure ( e.g., under section 3.01(38), where the Service already is

Sec. 5 2009–1 I.R.B. 115 January 5, 2009

to make a valid section 338 election that have not filed Form 8023 by its due date).

.02 Section 442.—Change of Annual Accounting Period.—All requests for change in annual accounting period where the Service has provided an automatic change procedure for obtaining a change in annual accounting period. See Rev. Proc. 2002–39, 2002–1 C.B. 1046 (general procedures for prior approval), as clarified and modified by Notice 2002–72, 2002–2 C.B. 843, and modified by Rev. Proc. 2003–34, 2003–1 C.B. 856, and Rev. Proc. 2003–79, 2003–2 C.B. 1036; Rev. Proc. 2002–37, 2002–1 C.B. 1030 (certain corporations), as clarified and modified by Notice 2002–72 and modified by Rev. Proc. 2003–34; Rev. Proc. 2002–38, 2002–1 C.B. 1037 (partnership, S corporation, or personal service corporation seeking a natural business year or an ownership taxable year), as clarified and modified by Notice 2002–72 and modified by Rev. Proc. 2003–79; and Rev. Proc. 2003–62, 2003–2 C.B. 299 (individual seeking a calendar year).

.03 Section 446.—General Rule for Methods of Accounting.—Except as otherwise specifically provided in applicable procedures published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin, all requests for change in method of accounting where the Service has provided an automatic change request procedure for obtaining a change in method of accounting. See the automatic change request procedures listed in section 9.22 of Rev. Proc. 2009–1 (this Bulletin). .04 Section 461.—General Rule for Taxable Year of Deduction.—All requests for making or revoking an election under § 461 where the Service has provided an administrative procedure for making or revoking an election under § 461. See Rev. Proc. 92–29, 1992–1 C.B. 748 (dealing with the use of an alternative method for including in basis the estimated cost of certain common improvements in a real estate development).

.05 Section 704(c).—Contributed Property.—Requests from Qualified Master Feeder Structures, as described in section 4.02 of Rev. Proc. 2001–36, 2001–1 C.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.

.06 Section 1362.—Election; Revocation; Termination.—All situations in

.04 Section 148.—Arbitrage.—Permission to use a single yield for two or more issues of qualified mortgage bonds or qualified student loan bonds under § 1.148–4(a).

.05 Sections 162 and 1502.—Trade or Business Expenses; Consolidated Returns.—Treatment of manufacturer incentive payments under the intercompany transaction regulations of § 1.1502–13. See T.D. 9261, 2006–1 C.B. 919.

.06 Sections 302 and 304.—Certain Redemptions.—Treatment of basis in a §§ 302/304 redemption. See Announcement 2006–30, 2006–1 C.B. 879.

.07 Sections 351, 358 and 362(a).—Transfers to Corporation Controlled by Transferors; Basis to Distributees; Basis to Corporations.—The issues described as being under study in Rev. Rul. 2006–2, 2006–1 C.B. 261.

.08 Section 451.—General Rule for Taxable Year of Inclusion.—The income tax consequences as a result of being a beneficiary of a trust that an Indian tribe (as defined in 25 U.S.C. § 2703(5)) establishes to receive and invest per capita payments for its members (regardless of whether they are minors or legal incompetents) under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (25 U.S.C. §§ 2701–2721) if the trust does not meet the requirements of section 5.02 of Rev. Proc. 2003–14, 2003–1 C.B. 319. .09 Section 664.—Charitable Remainder Trusts.—Whether the termination of a charitable remainder trust before the end of the trust term as defined in the trust’s governing instrument, in a transaction in which the trust beneficiaries receive their actuarial shares of the value of the trust assets, causes the trust to have ceased to qualify as a charitable remainder trust within the meaning of § 664.

.10 Sections 671 to 679.—Grantors and Others Treated as Substantial Owners.—Whether an Indian tribe (as defined in 25 U.S.C. § 2703(5)) that establishes a trust to receive and invest per capita payments for its members (regardless of whether they are minors or legal incompetents) under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (25 U.S.C. §§ 2701–2721) is the grantor and owner of the trust if the trust does not meet the requirements of section 5.02 of Rev. Proc. 2003–14, 2003–1 C.B. 319.

.11 Section 1361.—Definition of a Small Business Corporation.—Whether a State law limited partnership electing under § 301.7701–3 to be classified as an association taxable as a corporation has more than one class of stock for purposes of § 1361(b)(1)(D). The Service will treat any request for a ruling on whether a State law limited partnership is eligible to elect S corporation status as a request for a ruling on whether the partnership complies with § 1361(b)(1)(D).

.12 Section 1502.—See section 5.05, above.

.13 Section 2036.—Transfers with Retained Life Estate.—Whether the corpus of a trust will be included in a grantor’s estate when the trustee of the trust is a private trust company owned partially or entirely by members of the grantor’s family.

.14 Section 2038.—Revocable Transfers.—Whether the corpus of a trust will be included in a grantor’s estate when the trustee of the trust is a private trust company owned partially or entirely by members of the grantor’s family.

.15 Section 2041.—Powers of Appointment.—Whether the corpus of a trust will be included in an individual’s estate when the trustee of the trust is a private trust company owned partially or entirely by members of the individual’s family.

.16 Section 6050P.—Returns Relating to the Cancellation of Indebtedness by Certain Entities.—Whether amounts reduced pursuant to the terms of a debt instrument are reportable under § 6050P and the regulations.

.17 Section 7702.—See section 5.03, above.

Get a plain-English answer with a citation back to this text.

Ask AI about this code
▸Contents — Internal Revenue Bulletin 2009-1

GoCodebook provides public access, search, citation, multilingual explanation, and practical interpretation of legally adopted building regulations. It is not a substitute for the official ICC or California code publications.