Safe Harbor Acquisition of Control for Spin-Offs

Code Section 355, and related Code provisions, when applicable, will allow a corporation to spin-off or split-off a subsidiary corporation to its shareholders without triggering gain to the corporation or its stockholders. One of the requirements for this treatment is that the distributing corporation “control” the distributed corporation (i.e., own 80% or more of the voting power and number of shares of the distributed corporation) immediately before distributing it to its shareholders.

To come under Section 355, the distributing corporation may intentionally acquire control before the spin-off or split-off, and then transactions are undertaken after the distribution that reverse in whole or in part such acquired control as to the shareholders that succeed to ownership of the distributed corporation. Determining whether the IRS will respect such acquisition and subsequent disposition of control and the application of Section 355 can be difficult to determine.

The IRS has now issued a Revenue Procedure…

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