IRS To EOs: We Can't Help

Every January, the IRS releases a series of revenue procedures detailing how organizations can obtain private letter rulings and determinations and listing issues on which the IRS will not rule during the coming year. This year's procedures make clear that tax-exempt organizations will no longer be able to receive a ruling or any comfort from the IRS that changes in their operations are consistent with their tax-exempt status. In other words, exempt organizations are on their own.

Until recently, an organization could request a private letter ruling from the Exempt Organizations technical branch that a particular activity or transaction would not generate unrelated business taxable income or adversely affect exempt status. The IRS would not rule on factual issues, such as whether a proposed transaction was at a fair market value price, and would not rule on a few specific issues, such as whether participation in a joint venture with a for-profit entity would affect