The US Department of the Treasury (Treasury Department) and the IRS recently released Revenue Procedure 2024-24 (Revenue Procedure) and Notice 2024-38 (Notice) establishing revised standards and procedures for taxpayers...more
On May 17, 2019, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published private letter ruling 201920008 (the PLR), which concluded that a transaction qualifies as a tax-free spin-off under Section 355 despite the fact that the...more
In our recent article on spin-offs (click here), we discussed an announcement made by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) signaling a change in the application of the active trade or business (ATB) requirement under Section...more
Our Federal Tax Group considers ways to pass the inscrutable device prohibition in the Section 355 rules. - An “out” from device - How about a Morris Trust transaction? - Where does the cash come in?...more
The “five-year active trade or business” or “ATB” requirement of section 355 is notorious for defeating many otherwise promising tax-free spin-off transactions. Consider the following common scenarios... Originally...more
On September 25, 2018, the IRS announced that it is undertaking a study regarding the application of the five-year active trade or business requirement of Section 355(b) (the “ATB Requirement”) to entrepreneurial ventures...more
On September 25, 2018, the Internal Revenue Service (the IRS) released a statement announcing a study of the "active trade or business" test for tax-free spin-offs under Section 355 (the ATB Test), as applied to...more
Sometimes, it becomes necessary for a corporation to be divided, in which a shareholder or a group of shareholders would separate from the corporation and take with them a business division, unit or location. Parties...more
On September 21, 2017, the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) issued Revenue Procedure 2017-52 (the “Rev. Proc.”), introducing an 18-month “pilot program” in respect of corporate “spin-off,” “split-up” and “split-off”...more
The active trade or business rules are detailed and highly fact specific, and the IRS continues to refine its view on the qualification requirements. In order to separate two businesses housed in one corporation or in a...more
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) released Revenue Procedure 2016-45 (the “Revenue Procedure”) on August 26, 2016, permitting taxpayers once again to seek private letter rulings on issues of “corporate business...more
In July the Treasury proposed regulations reinterpreting Section 355 in cases where one of the corporations involved in the spinoff has more investment assets than the other or very little five-year active trade or business...more
On July 15, 2016, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) published proposed regulations that would modify the device and active trade or business requirements for tax-free...more
The recent guidance under section 355 is a significant attempt by the IRS to clarify in a formal way what it historically has been able to do on a case-by-case basis through the private letter ruling process....more
In issuing IRS Notice 2015-59 and Rev. Proc. 2015-43 last week, the IRS intentionally created significant market uncertainty about the viability of “PropCo/OpCo” spin-offs as part of the PropCo’s REIT conversion (e.g., where...more
On September 14, 2015, the government released Notice 2015-59 and Rev. Proc. 2015-43, both relating to Section 355 spinoffs. They respond to government concerns about spinoff transactions that result in the distributing...more
On Monday, the IRS released Notice 2015-59. In it, the IRS announced that the IRS will no longer issue private letter rulings on whether a distribution satisfies the requirements of Section 355 for a tax-free spin-off where...more
The IRS announced earlier this week that it may temporarily stop reviewing private letter ruling requests on the issue of whether a spin-off qualifies as tax-free under Section 355. More specifically, the IRS may hit pause on...more
In certain recent transactions, a corporation distributes a subsidiary corporation holding the distributing corporation’s real estate assets to the distributing corporation’s shareholders in a tax-free “spin-off.” Not only...more
On January 2, 2013, the Internal Revenue Service (the Service) released Rev. Proc. 2013-3, its annual list of areas in which it no longer will issue private letter rulings or determination letters (the 2013 No-Rule List). Of...more