There have been times in my career when I have had to ask for a private letter ruling (PLR). The reason you ask for a PLR from the IRS is because you need guidance.
A PLR is defined as: a written statement issued to a taxpayer that interprets and applies tax laws to the taxpayer’s represented set of facts. A private letter ruling is requested when the taxpayer wishes to confirm with the IRS that a prospective transaction will not likely result in a tax violation. This ruling interprets the tax laws and applies them to the taxpayer’s specific set of facts and gives that taxpayer something he may rely upon.
So you may have to write one of these, and if you do, they cost a fortune. Revenue Procedure 2017-1 provides the fees that the IRS charges for these letters:
Taxpayers with gross income of under $250,000 have to pay $2,400.
Taxpayers with gross income greater than $250,000 and less than $1 million pay $7,600.
Taxpayers with gross income of $1 million or more pay $10,000.
That doesn’t include your fee to write the letter.
Basically, a PLR addresses your client’s particular situation and it cannot be used as precedent. For example, let’s say that your client has a situation that is similar to a PLR that you read about and it gets examined. You can’t then go back and use the document as precedent like you could with a court case.
PLRs are public information, and I find them in my research emails every morning. But I never read them because unless I was the one writing the letter for my client’s specific scenario, the ruling in the letter means nothing.
You can study these letters and try to decipher them, but honestly, you are wasting your time because, again, they mean nothing.
I guess that is kind of radical thinking. I hear tax professionals refer to PLRs all the time about this case or that case, and I always zone out as they are talking because what they are saying has no relevance to me.
The only value that I can see from immersing yourself in PLRs would be to find out what the IRS may be thinking about in a certain scenario, but that would be it.
I am an early riser. I don’t believe in alarm clocks because I like to wake up naturally. On a typical night, I will fall asleep at 11 p.m. and be awake by 3:30 or 4 a.m. This only backfires on me once in a while, when I will sleep until 7:30 a.m. or so.
Around 4:30 a.m., I start getting emails. I get them from my research software, and I subscribe to just about every tax newsletter out there. I usually spend about two hours in the morning reading articles and deciphering US Tax Court cases. When I see something interesting, I will do research and write an article. I read pretty much anything – except PLRs.
There is no point in my mind to read something that I can never use in practice. I will read Tax Court cases that don’t apply to me or my clients because you never know. Even during my downtime, you can find me perusing the Journal of Accountancy or any tax magazine that I can get my hands on.
The point is, there is so much information out there that you can use, so unless you just love PLRs, they are a complete waste of your time.