2011-12-20
This past week the IRS published the following Private Letter Rulings and other written determinations relating to international taxation:
In seventeen PLRs (PLR 201150001 thru 201150017), late entity classification elections were granted for foreign entities “due to inadvertence.”
PLR 201150019: This lengthy PLR (21 pages) includes a Code §351 exchange, multiple Code §332 liquidations, a Code §368(a)(1)(C) reorganization, and a divisive Code §368(a)(1)(D) reorganization with a Code §355 spin-off.
PLR 201150021: Another lengthy PLR (29 pages) that includes a Code §304 transaction, multiple Code §351 exchanges (including preferred equity certificates, or “PECs”), three acquisitive Code §368(a)(1)(D) reorganizations, and one Code §368(a)(1)(A) merger.
CCA 201150029: In this chief counsel advice the issue was whether the Code §6677 penalty for failure to file information with respect to foreign trusts under Code §6048 (see Forms 3520 and 3520-A) is a “divisible tax” such that a taxpayer would need to pay only a portion of the penalty to sue for a refund. The CCA concludes that the penalty is not a “divisible tax” and that a taxpayer must pay the full amount of the penalty to challenge the entire penalty assessment under Code §6677 for a particular year. However, if a taxpayer chooses only to contest a portion of the penalty relating to one or more particular failures to report, but not all failures, the taxpayer may pay that portion and sue for refund.