[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 232 (Wednesday, December 2, 2020)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 77952-77984]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-25954]



[[Page 77951]]

Vol. 85

Wednesday,

No. 232

December 2, 2020

Part V





 Department of the Treasury





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Internal Revenue Service





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26 CFR Parts 1 and 602





 Unrelated Business Taxable Income Separately Computed for Each Trade 
or Business; Final Rule

  Federal Register / Vol. 85 , No. 232 / Wednesday, December 2, 2020 / 
Rules and Regulations  

[[Page 77952]]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Internal Revenue Service

26 CFR Parts 1 and 602

[TD 9933]
RIN 1545-BO79


Unrelated Business Taxable Income Separately Computed for Each 
Trade or Business

AGENCY: Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Treasury.

ACTION: Final rule.

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SUMMARY: This document contains final regulations that provide guidance 
on how an exempt organization subject to the unrelated business income 
tax determines if it has more than one unrelated trade or business, 
and, if so, how the exempt organization calculates unrelated business 
taxable income. The final regulations also clarify that the definition 
of ``unrelated trade or business'' applies to individual retirement 
accounts. Additionally, the final regulations provide that inclusions 
of ``subpart F income'' and ``global intangible low-taxed income'' are 
treated in the same manner as dividends for purposes of determining 
unrelated business taxable income. The final regulations affect exempt 
organizations that are subject to the unrelated business income tax.

DATES: 
    Effective date: The final regulations are effective on December 2, 
2020.
    Applicability date: For dates of applicability, see Sec. Sec.  
1.170A-9(k)(3), 1.509(a)-3(o), 1.512(a)-1(h), 1.512(a)-6(i), 1.512(b)-
1(a)(3), 1.512(b)-1(g)(5), and 1.513-1(h).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jonathan A. Carter at (202) 317-5800 
or Stephanie N. Robbins at (202) 317-4086 (not toll-free numbers).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    This document amends the Income Tax Regulations (26 CFR part 1) by 
adding final regulations under section 512(a)(6) of the Internal 
Revenue Code (Code). Section 512(a)(6) was added to the Code by section 
13702 of Public Law 115-97, 131 Stat. 2054 (2017), commonly referred to 
as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). Section 512(a)(6) requires an 
exempt organization subject to the unrelated business income tax under 
section 511 (UBIT) that has more than one unrelated trade or business, 
to calculate unrelated business taxable income (UBTI), separately with 
respect to each such trade or business including for purposes of 
determining any net operating loss (NOL) deduction.
    In August 2018, the Department of the Treasury (Treasury 
Department) and the IRS released Notice 2018-67 (2018-36 IRB 409 (Sept. 
4, 2018)), which discussed and solicited comments regarding various 
issues arising under section 512(a)(6) and set forth interim guidance 
and transition rules relating to that section. The Treasury Department 
and the IRS received 24 comments in response to Notice 2018-67.
    On April 24, 2020, the Treasury Department and the IRS published a 
notice of proposed rulemaking (REG-106864-18) in the Federal Register 
(85 FR 23172) that proposed regulations to provide guidance regarding 
how an exempt organization subject to UBIT (hereinafter referred to as 
an exempt organization) determines if it has more than one unrelated 
trade or business, and, if so, how the exempt organization calculates 
UBTI under section 512(a)(6) (proposed regulations). No public hearing 
was requested or held. The Treasury Department and the IRS received 17 
comments in response to the proposed regulations.
    The proposed regulations reserved two issues for additional 
consideration. The first issue relates to the allocation of expenses, 
depreciation, and similar items shared between an exempt activity and 
an unrelated trade or business or between more than one unrelated trade 
or business. The second issue relates to changes made to the section 
172 NOL deduction by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security 
Act, Public Law 116-136, 134 Stat. 281 (2020) (CARES Act). The Treasury 
Department and the IRS anticipate publishing a separate notice of 
proposed rulemaking that will address these issues.
    After consideration of the comments received, the proposed 
regulations are adopted as modified by this Treasury Decision. The 
major areas of comment and the revisions to the proposed regulations 
are discussed in the following Summary of Comments and Explanation of 
Revisions. The comments are available for public inspection at 
www.regulations.gov or on request. Other minor, non-substantive 
modifications made to the proposed regulations and adopted in these 
final regulations are not discussed in the Summary of Comments and 
Explanation of Revisions.

Summary of Comments and Explanation of Revisions

    These final regulations provide guidance on how an exempt 
organization determines if it has more than one unrelated trade or 
business, and, if so, how the exempt organization calculates UBTI under 
section 512(a)(6). The final regulations also clarify that the 
definition of ``unrelated trade or business'' in section 513(b) applies 
to individual retirement accounts and that inclusions of subpart F 
income and global intangible low-taxed income are treated in the same 
manner as dividends for purposes of section 512.

1. Separate Unrelated Trade or Business

    Consistent with section 512(a)(6) and the proposed regulations, the 
final regulations provide that an exempt organization with more than 
one unrelated trade or business must compute UBTI separately with 
respect to each unrelated trade or business, without regard to the 
specific deduction in section 512(b)(12), including for purposes of 
determining any NOL deduction.
a. NAICS 2-Digit Codes Retained
    The proposed regulations generally provided that an exempt 
organization must identify each of its separate unrelated trades or 
businesses using the first two digits of the North American Industry 
Classification System code (NAICS 2-digit code) that most accurately 
describes the unrelated trade or business. Most commenters agreed with 
the proposed regulations' adoption of NAICS 2-digit codes over NAICS 6-
digit codes, which Notice 2018-67, for purposes of interim guidance, 
provided was a reasonable way to identify separate trades or 
businesses. One commenter discussed how the use of NAICS 2-digit codes 
balances legislative intent of not allowing the losses from one 
unrelated trade or business to offset the income from another unrelated 
trade or business with the need for an administrable and efficient 
method of identifying separate unrelated trades or businesses. Other 
commenters agreed that NAICS 2-digit codes offer the most administrable 
and least burdensome method of identifying separate unrelated trades or 
businesses for both exempt organizations and the IRS.
    One commenter disagreed with the use of NAICS 2-digit codes to 
identify separate unrelated trades or businesses. This commenter noted 
that, in passing the TCJA, Congress intended to limit exempt 
organizations' use of tax benefits that are unrelated to their tax-
exempt purpose or purposes, and the commenter asserted that the 
proposed regulations reversed this congressional intent by identifying 
separate unrelated trades or businesses using the twenty broad 
categories provided by NAICS 2-digit codes. This commenter

[[Page 77953]]

recommended instead that the rules relating to the qualified business 
deduction under section 199A for identifying a separate trade or 
business should be used for purposes of section 512(a)(6). The 
regulations under section 199A provide that the term ``trade or 
business'' has the same meaning as in section 162. The commenter 
contended that enough case law exists with respect to section 162 to 
define ``trade or business'' and that the section 199A regulations have 
provided practitioners with enough experience to identify a trade or 
business using this definition.
    The final regulations do not adopt the approach taken by the 
section 199A regulations as a method of identifying separate unrelated 
trades or businesses for purposes of section 512(a)(6) because, 
although sections 199A and 512(a)(6) were both enacted as part of the 
TCJA, they serve different purposes. Section 199A, in part, provides 
individuals, estates, and certain trusts a deduction of up to 20 
percent of business income from certain domestic trades or businesses. 
Such taxpayers might be engaged in one or more trades or businesses for 
which they may be entitled to the section 199A deduction. For purposes 
of computing the section 199A deduction, taxpayers are required to 
determine the specific lines between trades or business to ensure that 
only qualified items of income and expense traced to each qualified 
trade or business are used to compute the deduction and that the W-2 
wage and unadjusted basis immediately after acquisition (UBIA) 
limitations are properly applied. Therefore, the section 199A 
regulations look to section 162 to determine how these lines should be 
drawn. By contrast, section 512 looks to section 162 to determine 
whether a trade or business exists but employs a simplified regime to 
identify separate unrelated trades or businesses under section 
512(a)(6) for exempt organizations because they are not primarily 
engaged in section 162 for-profit trades or businesses. The regime also 
applies for a more limited purpose, that is preventing exempt 
organizations from using losses of one unrelated trade or business to 
offset the gains of any other unrelated trade or business, and 
uniformly to all of an exempt organization's separate unrelated trades 
or businesses. The Treasury Department and IRS believe that using NAICS 
2-digit codes in this context provides an objective means to identify 
separate trades or businesses consistent with Congress's intent without 
imposing an undue burden on exempt organizations. Accordingly, the 
final regulations under section 512(a)(6) do not adopt this comment.
b. No Additional Methods of Identifying Separate Unrelated Trades or 
Businesses
    One commenter recommended that NAICS 2-digit codes be used as a 
safe-harbor and that a facts and circumstances test be applied as the 
primary method of identifying separate unrelated trades or businesses. 
This commenter asserted that a facts and circumstances test would be 
more consistent with other parts of the Code (including the regulations 
under section 199A) and would provide a more flexible framework for 
variations in activities across exempt organizations. This commenter 
proposed considering multiple factors for identifying separate trades 
or businesses that would include the interdependence of the activities, 
the geographic location of the activities, and the relationship the 
exempt organization has with the operation of the activity. The 
commenter opined that a facts and circumstances test would help 
alleviate any inequity caused by section 512(a)(6).
    As explained both in Notice 2018-67 and the preamble to the 
proposed regulations, Congress did not provide any explicit criteria 
for determining whether an exempt organization has ``more than one 
unrelated trade or business'' or for identifying ``separate'' unrelated 
trades or businesses for purposes of calculating UBTI in accordance 
with section 512(a)(6). The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) noted 
that ``it is intended that the Secretary issue guidance concerning when 
an activity will be treated as a separate unrelated trade or business 
for purposes of [section 512(a)(6)].'' Staff of the Joint Committee on 
Taxation, General Explanation of Public Law 115-97 (December 2018), at 
293 (General Explanation). Notice 2018-67 stated that the Treasury 
Department and the IRS would like to set forth a more administrable 
method than a facts and circumstances test for identifying separate 
unrelated trades or businesses. Nonetheless, the Treasury Department 
and the IRS considered a facts and circumstances test as a method of 
identifying separate unrelated trades or businesses in response to 
comments received following the enactment of section 512(a)(6) and 
again in response to Notice 2018-67. The factors suggested by 
commenters, and previously considered, generally were derived from 
other Code provisions, such as sections 132, 162, 183, 414, and 469. 
However, these Code provisions primarily consider whether an activity 
is a trade or business and not whether one trade or business is 
``separate'' from another. Accordingly, the Treasury Department and the 
IRS continue to consider these Code provisions, alone or in conjunction 
with each other, as unhelpful models for identifying separate trades or 
businesses for purposes of section 512(a)(6).
    It continues to be the case that adoption of a facts and 
circumstances test, as the only identification method or in addition to 
a safe harbor using NAICS 2-digit codes, would increase the 
administrative burden on exempt organizations in complying with section 
512(a)(6) because a fact-intensive analysis would be required with 
respect to each unrelated trade or business. Additionally, adoption of 
a facts and circumstances test would offer exempt organizations less 
certainty and likely result in inconsistency among exempt organizations 
conducting more than one unrelated trade or business because of 
differing approaches exempt organizations would take in applying such a 
test. Also, a facts and circumstances test would increase the 
administrative burden on the IRS, which, upon examination, must perform 
the same fact-intensive analysis with respect to each of the unrelated 
trades or businesses identified by the exempt organization for purposes 
of calculating UBTI. Accordingly, the final regulations do not adopt a 
facts and circumstances test in addition to or in place of NAICS 2-
digit codes as a method of identifying separate unrelated trades or 
businesses for purposes of section 512(a)(6).
c. Identifying the Appropriate NAICS 2-Digit Code
    The proposed regulations provided that an exempt organization's 
separate unrelated trades or businesses are determined based on the 
applicable NAICS 2-digit code. Before an exempt organization can 
identify its ``separate'' unrelated trades or businesses, it must first 
determine whether it regularly carries on unrelated trades or 
businesses within the meaning of sections 511 through 514. Section 
1.513-1(a) clarifies that, unless one of the specific exceptions of 
section 512 or 513 applies, gross income of an exempt organization is 
includible in the computation of UBTI if: (1) It is income from a trade 
or business; (2) such trade or business is regularly carried on by the 
organization; and (3) the conduct of such trade or business is not 
substantially related (other than through the production of funds) to 
the organization's performance of its exempt functions. Accordingly, 
the final regulations provide that an exempt organization determines 
whether it carries on unrelated trades or

[[Page 77954]]

businesses by applying sections 511 through 514. Under the final 
regulations, the exempt organization then identifies its separate 
unrelated trades or businesses for purposes of section 512(a)(6) using 
the methods described in the final regulations. With respect to most 
unrelated trade or business activities, an exempt organization 
determines whether those activities are separate unrelated trades or 
businesses for purposes of section 512(a)(6) based on the most accurate 
NAICS 2-digit codes describing the activities.
    Several commenters requested additional guidance regarding how to 
choose the ``most accurate'' NAICS 2-digit code. These commenters 
suggested that strict adherence to NAICS 2-digit codes can result in 
unrelated trade or business activities that the exempt organization 
considers to be one unrelated trade or business being separated into 
two or more unrelated trades or businesses. Other commenters requested 
that aggregation of NAICS 2-digit codes be allowed in certain 
circumstances. The commenters provided examples of unrelated trade or 
business activities that they considered to be one unrelated trade or 
business but that may be identified as more than one unrelated trade or 
business when using NAICS 2-digit codes.
    For example, one commenter stated that an organization operating a 
gift shop that sells clothing, electronics, and books in a bricks-and-
mortar store and online would report those activities under two 
different NAICS 2-digit codes--one for the sale of clothing and 
electronics (44) and one for books and online sales (45). Another 
example provided by a commenter is a museum that provides catering 
services, valet parking, and personal property rentals as part of a 
package for special events, such as weddings, held on its premises. The 
commenter noted that the museum may be required to identify these 
activities using three different NAICS 2-digit codes--one for catering 
(72), one for parking (81), and one for rentals (53). The commenter 
posited that the museum should be able to treat this activity as one 
trade or business based on a reasonable and common sense understanding 
of the service provided (hosting an event), rather than the various 
components of the provided services.
    The Treasury Department and the IRS note that NAICS 2-digit codes 
aggregate trade or business activities into only 20 separate trades or 
businesses, compared to the more than 1,000 trades or businesses 
identified at the NAICS 6-digit code level. Like the proposed 
regulations, the final regulations provide that a separate unrelated 
trade or business is identified by the NAICS 2-digit code that most 
accurately describes the exempt organization's trade or business 
activity. In addition, the final regulations add that this 
determination is based on the more specific NAICS code, such as at the 
6-digit level, that describes the activity that it conducts. The final 
regulations also state that the descriptions in the current NAICS 
manual (available at www.census.gov) of trades or businesses using more 
than two digits of the NAICS codes are relevant in this determination. 
In response to commenter examples, the final regulations incorporate a 
rule used in NAICS for identifying certain industries \1\ and provide 
that, in the case of the sale of goods, both online and in stores, the 
separate unrelated trade or business is identified by the goods sold in 
stores if the same goods generally are sold both online and in stores.
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    \1\ The NAICS code for ``Electronic Shopping and Mail-Order 
Houses'' provides that ``Store retailing or a combination of store 
retailing and nonstore retailing in the same establishment--are 
classified in Sector 44-45, Retail Trade, based on the 
classification of the store portion of the activity.''
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    With respect to the museum example, the Treasury Department and the 
IRS note that income from activities that is appropriately 
characterized as income from rentals is generally exempt from UBTI 
under section 512(b)(3). The analysis of whether an activity produces 
rental income depends, in part, on whether other services are provided 
by the exempt organization in connection with the possible rental 
activity (such as providing space for a wedding). To the extent other 
services are provided, income from the use of space may cease to be 
rent from real property and instead take on the character of the 
services provided. See Sec.  1.512(b)-1(c)(5). Exempt organizations 
already need to do this analysis of the facts and circumstances to 
determine their UBTI. Similarly, whether services provided in 
connection with hosting an event should be aggregated or not depends on 
the facts and circumstances, including the language of the contract or 
contracts, the services provided, who is providing the services, etc. 
It is possible that the activities could be separate trades or 
businesses based on the fragmentation rule contained in section 513(c) 
and Sec.  1.513-1(b) (``[a]ctivities of producing or distributing goods 
or performing services from which a particular amount of gross income 
is derived do not lose identity as trade or business merely because 
they are carried on within a larger aggregate of similar activities or 
within a larger complex of other endeavors which may, or may not, be 
related to the exempt purposes of the organization'').
    Because the NAICS at the 2-digit code level aggregates all trade or 
business activities into only 20 separate trades or businesses, many 
trade or business activities that could be considered separate trades 
or businesses, such as the provision of food or lodging, are already 
aggregated into broad categories (NAICS code 72 includes both lodging 
and food services) and therefore treated as one trade or business under 
the final regulations. Accordingly, if an exempt organization 
determines that, based on the facts and circumstances, its trade or 
business activities must be separated into two or more unrelated trades 
or businesses under NAICS 2-digit codes, the Treasury Department and 
the IRS view that result as appropriate to achieve the balance of tax 
administrability and carrying out the purposes of section 512(a)(6). 
Thus, under the final regulations, if trade or business activities 
would be best described by different NAICS 2-digit codes, those 
activities should be identified using different NAICS 2-digit codes and 
treated as separate unrelated trades or businesses.
    In addition, consistent with the proposed regulations, the final 
regulations continue to provide that the NAICS 2-digit code must 
identify the separate unrelated trade or business in which the exempt 
organization engages (directly or indirectly). The NAICS 2-digit code 
cannot describe activities the conduct of which are substantially 
related to the exercise or performance by such organization of its 
charitable, educational, or other purpose or function constituting the 
basis for its exemption under section 501 (or, in the case of an 
organization described in section 511(a)(2)(B), to the exercise or 
performance of any purpose or function described in section 501(c)(3)). 
For example, a college or university described in section 501(c)(3) or 
511(a)(2)(B) cannot use the NAICS 2-digit code for educational services 
to identify all of its separate unrelated trades or businesses, and a 
qualified retirement plan described in section 401(a) cannot use the 
NAICS 2-digit code for finance and insurance to identify all of its 
unrelated trades or businesses.
    Also consistent with the proposed regulations, the final 
regulations continue to provide that an organization will report each 
NAICS 2-digit code only once. The Treasury Department and the IRS note 
that this rule permits exempt organizations to aggregate trade or 
business activities that may occur in

[[Page 77955]]

different geographic locations. The final regulations include the same 
example as provided by the proposed regulations--the pharmacies 
operated in different geographic locations that are one unrelated trade 
or business for purposes of section 512(a)(6) because the pharmacy 
trade or business is identified using one NAICS 2-digit code.
d. Changing NAICS 2-Digit Codes
    The proposed regulations generally provided that, once an 
organization has identified a separate unrelated trade or business 
using a particular NAICS 2-digit code, the organization cannot change 
the NAICS 2-digit code describing that separate unrelated trade or 
business unless two requirements are met. First, the exempt 
organization must show that the NAICS 2-digit code chosen was due to an 
unintentional error. Second, the exempt organization must show that 
another NAICS 2-digit code more accurately describes the unrelated 
trade or business. The preamble to the proposed regulations stated that 
the instructions to the Form 990-T, ``Exempt Organization Business 
Income Tax Return,'' would be updated to describe how an exempt 
organization notifies the IRS of a change in a NAICS 2-digit code due 
to an unintentional error.
    At least one commenter requested clarification regarding what is 
meant by ``unintentional error.'' Commenters also suggested that the 
final regulations should include additional circumstances in which 
exempt organizations can change the NAICS 2-digit code describing a 
separate unrelated trade or business. Several commenters explained that 
the nature of a separate unrelated trade or business may change or 
evolve to the extent that the unrelated trade or business would be more 
accurately reported under a different NAICS 2-digit code. One commenter 
likened this shift in trade or business activities to the commencement 
of a new unrelated trade or business. Accordingly, these commenters 
recommended that an exempt organization be permitted to change the 
NAICS 2-digit code identifying a separate unrelated trade or business 
if a change in the unrelated business activity results in it being 
better described by a different NAICS 2-digit code. Finally, one 
commenter requested that a code change be permitted if the exempt 
organization's tax preparer reasonably believes that an unrelated trade 
or business activity is more accurately described by a different NAICS 
2-digit code.
    Several commenters also requested clarification of the process for 
reporting an erroneous code. One commenter recommended that the 
instructions to the Form 990-T clarify that an exempt organization 
should provide such notification to the IRS on the Form 990-T--
including an explanation of the change and any necessary supporting 
information--and that such change would be effective on the first day 
of the taxable year beginning after the taxable year for which the Form 
990-T providing such notification is filed. This commenter also 
questioned whether reconciliation was required for the prior taxable 
year or years in which the erroneous code was used and, if so, how an 
adjustment resulting from such reconciliation would be applied.
    In response to these comments, the final regulations remove the 
restriction on changing NAICS 2-digit codes. Instead, the final 
regulations require an exempt organization that changes the 
identification of a separate unrelated trade or business to report the 
change in the taxable year of the change in accordance with forms and 
instructions. See section 6012(a)(2) and Sec.  1.6012-2(e). The final 
regulations clarify that a change in identification of a separate 
unrelated trade or business includes the changed identification of the 
separate unrelated trade or business with respect to a partnership 
interest that was incorrectly designated as a qualifying partnership 
interest (discussed in part 2.b of this Summary of Comments and 
Explanation of Revisions). To report the change in identification, the 
final regulations require an organization to provide certain 
information with respect to each separate unrelated trade or business 
the identification of which changes: The identification of the separate 
unrelated trade or business in the previous taxable year, the 
identification of the separate unrelated trade or business in the 
current taxable year, and the reason for the change. The Treasury 
Department and the IRS anticipate that the instructions to the Form 
990-T will be revised for taxable years for which the final regulations 
are effective to provide instructions regarding where and how changes 
in identification are reported. The effect on NOLs caused by changes of 
the identification of separate unrelated trades or businesses are 
discussed in part 6.d of this Summary of Comments and Explanation of 
Revisions.
e. Transition From NAICS 6-Digit Codes to NAICS 2-Digit Codes
    The preamble to the proposed regulations provided that, for taxable 
years beginning before the date the proposed regulations are published 
in the Federal Register as final regulations, an exempt organization 
may rely on a reasonable, good-faith interpretation of sections 511 
through 514, considering all the facts and circumstances, when 
identifying separate unrelated trades or businesses for purposes of 
section 512(a)(6). The preamble to the proposed regulations provided 
that an exempt organization could rely on the proposed regulations in 
their entirety or, alternatively, the methods of aggregating or 
identifying separate trades or businesses provided in Notice 2018-67, 
which provided that a reasonable, good-faith interpretation included 
using NAICS 6-digit codes.
    One commenter recommended that the final regulations confirm that 
an exempt organization that reported separate unrelated trades or 
businesses using NAICS 6-digit codes in taxable years beginning prior 
to the exempt organization's first taxable year for which the final 
regulations are effective can reclassify their activities using NAICS 
2-digit codes without having to report an unintentional error.
    As discussed in the Applicability Dates section of this preamble, 
these final regulations are applicable to taxable years beginning on or 
after December 2, 2020. Although an exempt organization may have used 
NAICS 6-digit codes to identify its separate unrelated trades or 
businesses in taxable years beginning before this date, the transition 
from NAICS 6-digit codes to NAICS 2-digit codes does not require the 
reporting of a code change because the exempt organization will be 
using the same NAICS code to identify its separate unrelated trades or 
businesses--just with fewer digits. The move from NAICS 6-digit codes 
to NAICS 2-digit codes may result in the combination of NOLs if an 
exempt organization has trade or business activities that would be 
separate unrelated trades or businesses if identified using NAICS 6-
digit codes but would be one unrelated trade or business if identified 
using NAICS 2-digit codes. An exempt organization may choose, but is 
not required, to amend Forms 990-T filed prior to December 2, 2020 to 
report separate unrelated trades or businesses using NAICS 2-digit 
codes.
f. No De Minimis Exception Provided
    The preamble to the proposed regulations discussed one comment with 
respect to Notice 2018-67 that suggested the Treasury Department and 
the IRS adopt a de minimis exception for exempt organizations reporting 
less than $100,000 of gross UBTI. The preamble to the proposed 
regulations explained that the Treasury Department

[[Page 77956]]

and the IRS declined to adopt the comment because section 512(a)(6) 
does not provide discretionary authority for the Treasury Department 
and the IRS to establish a de minimis exception. Further, the preamble 
to the proposed regulations explained that, even at a lower threshold, 
a de minimis rule would be contrary to the stated congressional intent 
of not permitting exempt organizations to use losses from one unrelated 
trade or business to offset the gains from another unrelated trade or 
business.
    One commenter on the proposed regulations nonetheless recommended 
the adoption of a de minimis exception. This commenter proposed that an 
exempt organization with less than $10,000 of total gross revenues from 
all unrelated trade or business activities be permitted to treat all 
its unrelated trades or businesses as one trade or business for 
purposes of section 512(a)(6). For exempt organizations with more than 
$10,000 of total gross revenues from all unrelated trade or business 
activities, the commenter suggested aggregation of all separate 
unrelated trades or businesses with less than $1,000 of total gross 
revenues. The commenter reasoned that exempt organizations with less 
than $10,000 of total gross revenues from unrelated trade or business 
activities likely lack the resources necessary to comply with section 
512(a)(6).
    The commenter attempted to refute the argument that the Treasury 
Department and the IRS lack the authority to promulgate a de minimis 
exception by noting that the Treasury Department and the IRS already 
exercised discretion by permitting exempt organizations to treat their 
activities in the nature of investments as a separate unrelated trade 
or business for purposes of section 512(a)(6). The commenter cites the 
JCT General Explanation as confirmation that the Treasury Department 
and the IRS are authorized to permit the aggregation of separate 
unrelated trades or businesses.
    Permitting the aggregation of certain investment activities is an 
administrative rule premised on the difficulty an exempt organization 
partner may experience in certain situations in obtaining the 
information needed to determine whether the trades or businesses 
conducted by the partnership are separate unrelated trades or 
businesses with respect to the exempt organization partner (see part 2 
of this Summary of Comments and Explanation of Revisions for a more in 
depth discussion). By contrast, permitting the aggregation of ``de 
minimis'' separate unrelated trades or businesses is contrary to the 
congressional intent of not permitting exempt organizations to offset 
the losses from one unrelated trade or business with the gains from 
another, without regard to the amount of the gross receipts in either 
trade or business. Finally, the concept of a de minimis amount of UBTI 
is incompatible with the fragmentation rule in section 513(c); Sec.  
1.513-1(b). That is, the fragmentation rule requires the identification 
of unrelated trade or business activities no matter the size.
    To the extent that smaller exempt organizations may have difficulty 
complying with section 512(a)(6), the Treasury Department and the IRS 
expect that adoption of NAICS 2-digit codes, as opposed to NAICS 6-
digit codes, may relieve much of this burden because smaller exempt 
organizations are unlikely to have numerous unrelated trades or 
businesses under these final regulations. Furthermore, under Sec.  
1.6012-2(e), an exempt organization is required to file Form 990-T only 
``if it has gross income, included in computing [UBTI] for such taxable 
year, of $1,000 or more.'' This filing threshold, which applies 
regardless of the number of separate unrelated trades or businesses 
conducted by the exempt organization, serves as a de minimis rule for 
small exempt organizations. Accordingly, the Treasury Department and 
the IRS do not adopt this comment in the final regulations for these 
reasons as well as the reasons cited in the preamble to the proposed 
regulations.
g. Allocation of Directly Connected Deductions
i. In General
    Section 512(a)(1) permits an exempt organization with an unrelated 
trade or business to take the deductions allowed under chapter 1 of the 
Code (chapter 1) that are directly connected with the carrying on of 
such unrelated trade or business. Section 512(a)(3) similarly permits a 
social club described in section 501(c)(7), a voluntary employees' 
beneficiary association (VEBA) described in section 501(c)(9), or a 
supplemental unemployment benefits trust (SUB) described in section 
501(c)(17) to take the deductions allowed under chapter 1 that are 
directly connected with the production of gross income (excluding 
exempt function income). To the extent that an exempt organization may 
have items of deduction that are shared between an exempt activity and 
an unrelated trade or business, Sec.  1.512(a)-1(c) provides special 
rules for allocating such expenses. For example, if facilities are used 
both to carry on exempt activities and to conduct unrelated trade or 
business activities, then expenses, depreciation, and similar items 
attributable to such facilities must be allocated between the two uses 
on a reasonable basis (reasonable basis standard).
    The preamble to the proposed regulations noted that an exempt 
organization with more than one unrelated trade or business must not 
only allocate shared expenses among exempt and taxable activities as 
described in Sec.  1.512(a)-1(c) but also among separate unrelated 
trades or businesses. Accordingly, the proposed regulations 
incorporated the existing allocation standard in Sec.  1.512(a)-1(c) 
for purposes of section 512(a)(6). No comments were received regarding 
this approach. Accordingly, the final regulations continue to provide 
that an exempt organization with more than one unrelated trade or 
business must allocate deductions between separate unrelated trades or 
businesses using the reasonable basis standard described in Sec.  
1.512(a)-1(c).
ii. The Unadjusted Gross-to-Gross Method Unreasonable in Certain 
Circumstances
    The preamble to the proposed regulations did, however, describe the 
concerns of the Treasury Department and the IRS regarding the 
administrability of the reasonable basis standard. The preamble to the 
proposed regulations announced that the Treasury Department and the IRS 
would continue to consider whether the reasonable basis standard should 
be retained and announced the intention to publish a separate notice of 
proposed rulemaking. As an initial matter, however, the proposed 
regulations stated that allocation of expenses, depreciation, and 
similar items using an unadjusted gross-to-gross method is not 
reasonable. In general, a gross-to-gross method of allocation uses a 
ratio of gross income from an unrelated trade or business activity over 
the total gross income from both unrelated and related activities 
generating the same indirect expenditures. The percentage resulting 
from this ratio is used to determine the percentage of the shared costs 
attributable to the unrelated trade or business activity (or 
activities). If a price difference exists between the provision of a 
good or service to different populations and no adjustment is made, the 
gross-to-gross ratio may be described as ``unadjusted.''
    Several commenters asserted that the unadjusted gross-to-gross 
method should not be considered unreasonable.

[[Page 77957]]

Of these commenters, two stated that the gross-to-gross method can be 
reasonable if there is no price difference for goods or services 
provided in related and unrelated activities or if adjustments are made 
for any price differences. One commenter further argued that no 
allocation method should be per se unreasonable because what is 
unreasonable with respect to one set of facts and circumstances may be 
reasonable with respect to another.
    In response to these commenters' recommendations, the final 
regulations clarify that allocation of expenses, depreciation, and 
similar items is not reasonable if the cost of providing a good or 
service in a related and an unrelated activity is substantially the 
same, but the price charged for that good or service in the unrelated 
activity is greater than the price charged in the related activity and 
no adjustment is made to equalize the price difference for purposes of 
allocating expenses, depreciation, and similar items based on revenue 
between related and unrelated activities. For example, if a social club 
described in section 501(c)(7) charges nonmembers a higher price than 
it charges members for the same good or service, but does not adjust 
the price of the good or service provided to members for purposes of 
allocating expenses, depreciation, and similar items attributable to 
the provision of that good or service, the allocation method is not 
reasonable.
    The Action on Decision (AOD) relating to Rensselaer Polytechnic 
Institute v. Commissioner stated that the IRS would not litigate the 
reasonableness of an allocation method ``until the allocation rules of 
[Sec.  1.512(a)-1(c)] are amended.'' 732 F.2d 1058 (2d Cir. 1984), 
aff'g 79 T.C. 967 (1982); AOD 1987-014 (Jun. 18, 1987). The final 
regulations amend the rules of Sec.  1.512(a)-1(c) and, as discussed in 
the Applicability Dates section of this preamble, are effective for 
taxable years beginning on or after December 2, 2020. Accordingly, the 
IRS rescinds the AOD to the limited extent of any allocation method 
that fails to equalize price differences between related activities and 
unrelated trade or business activities for such taxable years. The IRS 
will continue to refrain from litigating the reasonableness of other 
allocation methods pending the publication of further guidance, which 
the Treasury Department and the IRS continue to consider and expect to 
publish in a separate notice of proposed rulemaking.

2. Activities in the Nature of Investments

    The proposed regulations treat an exempt organization's activities 
in the nature of an investment (investment activities) as a separate 
trade or business for purposes of section 512(a)(6). Several commenters 
repeated the suggestion previously made in response to Notice 2018-67 
that the Treasury Department and the IRS should not treat an exempt 
organization's investment activities as an unrelated trade or business, 
and therefore the income and losses from these activities should not be 
considered for purposes of applying section 512(a)(6). The preamble to 
the proposed regulations explained that the Treasury Department and the 
IRS concluded that the structure and purposes of sections 511 through 
514 indicate that an exempt organization's investment activities are an 
unrelated trade or business for purposes of section 512(a)(6), although 
certain income from such investment activities (investment income) is 
excluded from the calculation of UBTI under modifications in section 
512(b). The Treasury Department and the IRS also noted that the 
language of section 512(a)(6)(B) states an organization's total UBTI is 
the sum of the UBTI computed for each separate unrelated trade or 
business under section 512(a)(6)(A). To conclude that investment income 
is not included in the separately computed UBTI under section 
512(a)(6)(A) would be to remove such income entirely from UBTI under 
section 512(a)(6)(B), even when no modification in section 512(b) 
applies to the income. Nothing in the legislative history or the 
statute suggests that Congress intended to amend the items of income 
that are taxable under section 511. Accordingly, the final regulations 
continue to treat an exempt organization's investment activities that 
are subject to UBIT as a separate unrelated trade or business for 
purposes of section 512(a)(6).
a. Exclusive List of Investment Activities
    The proposed regulations provided an exclusive list of an exempt 
organization's investment activities that may be treated as a separate 
unrelated trade or business for purposes of section 512(a)(6). Under 
the proposed regulations, for most exempt organizations, such 
investment activities are limited to: (i) Qualifying partnership 
interests (see part 2.b of this Summary of Comments and Explanation of 
Revisions); (ii) qualifying S corporation interests (see part 3.a of 
this Summary of Comments and Explanation of Revisions); and (iii) debt-
financed properties (see part 2.d of this Summary of Comments and 
Explanation of Revisions).\2\ Although commenters recommended 
modifications to the rules regarding the individual items included in 
this list, no commenters objected to the treatment of these items as 
investment activities. Accordingly, the final regulations adopt the 
list of investment activities provided in the proposed regulations 
without change.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \2\ Special rules discussed in part 4 of this Summary of 
Comments and Explanation of Revisions apply to social clubs 
described in section 501(c)(7).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Nonetheless, some commenters recommended that this exclusive list 
be expanded to include specified payments from controlled entities that 
are included in UBTI under section 512(b)(13) (discussed in part 2.a.i 
of this Summary of Comments and Explanation of Revisions) and certain 
amounts from controlled foreign corporations that are included in UBTI 
under section 512(b)(17) (discussed in part 2.a.ii of this Summary of 
Comments and Explanation of Revisions).
i. Specified Payments From Controlled Entities
    Section 512(b)(13)(A) requires an exempt organization, referred to 
as a ``controlling organization,'' that receives or accrues (directly 
or indirectly) a specified payment from another entity which it 
controls, referred to as a ``controlled entity,'' to include such 
payment as an item of gross income derived from an unrelated trade or 
business to the extent such payment reduces the net unrelated income of 
the controlled entity (or increases any net unrelated loss of the 
controlled entity). See also Sec.  1.512(b)-1(l)(1). Section 
512(b)(13)(C) defines the term ``specified payment'' as any interest, 
annuity, royalty, or rent. Accordingly, section 512(b)(13) treats 
certain amounts that would ordinarily be excluded from the calculation 
of UBTI under section 512(b)(1), (2), and (3) as income derived from an 
unrelated trade or business.
    The proposed regulations provided that, if an exempt organization 
controls another entity (within the meaning of section 512(b)(13)(D)), 
the specified payments from that controlled entity will be treated as 
gross income from a separate unrelated trade or business for purposes 
of section 512(a)(6). If a controlling organization receives specified 
payments from two different controlled entities, the proposed 
regulations treated the payments from each controlled entity as 
separate unrelated trades or businesses.

[[Page 77958]]

    Two commenters recommended that income included in UBTI under 
section 512(b)(13) should be part of the investment activities trade or 
business under section 512(a)(6). These commenters noted that different 
fact patterns can produce different tax results because of the 
interaction between section 512(b)(13) and the debt-financed property 
rules of section 514. For example, one commenter provided a series of 
examples in which a wholly owned taxable subsidiary rented space from 
its exempt organization parent in a debt-financed property owned by the 
parent.
    Section 1.514(b)-1(b)(2)(ii) of the current regulations states that 
section 514 does not apply to amounts specifically taxable under other 
provisions of the Code, such as rents and interest from controlled 
organizations includible pursuant to section 512(b)(13). Thus, if a 
controlling organization leases debt-financed property to a controlled 
organization, the amount of rents includible in the controlling 
organization's UBTI shall first be determined under section 512(b)(13), 
and only the portion of such rents not taken into account by operation 
of section 512(b)(13) are taken into account by operation of section 
514. See Sec.  1.512(b)-1(l)(5)(ii). Because the regulations provide a 
clear ordering rule that sets section 512(b)(13) income apart from the 
rules of section 514, section 512(b)(13) taxable income can never be 
debt-financed investment income.
    The Treasury Department and the IRS considered in the preamble to 
the proposed regulations whether specified payments should be included 
with an exempt organization's investment activities and concluded that 
this treatment would be inconsistent with the purpose of section 
512(b)(13)(A), which is to prevent a controlled entity from gaining a 
competitive advantage (in contravention of the purposes of section 512) 
through making deductible payments to a controlling organization that 
is exempt from tax. See S. Rep. No. 91-552, at 73 (1969) (explaining 
that certain ``rental'' arrangements between exempt organizations and 
taxable subsidiaries ``[enable] the taxable [subsidiary] to escape 
nearly all of its income taxes''). Consistent with this purpose, 
section 512(b)(13)(A) treats specified payments as income from an 
unrelated trade or business only ``to the extent such payment reduces 
the net unrelated income of the controlled entity (or increases any net 
unrelated loss of the controlled entity).'' Additionally, the required 
degree of control of the controlling organization over the controlled 
entity indicates that the controlled entities are not a part of the 
controlling organization's otherwise appropriately characterized 
investment activities.
    Alternatively, if specified payments are not included with an 
exempt organization's investment activities, these commenters requested 
that specified payments from any source be treated as one unrelated 
trade or business for purposes of section 512(a)(6). The commenters 
asserted that the aggregation of specified payments would reduce the 
incentive to restructure financial transactions to obtain more 
favorable tax results. One commenter set out an example in which the 
UBTI from the separate unrelated trades or businesses for specified 
payments received from two controlled entities of an exempt 
organization differed under section 512(b)(13) depending on whether the 
exempt organization owned both subsidiaries directly or one subsidiary 
directly and the other subsidiary indirectly through the first 
subsidiary. The commenter asserted that aggregating the UBTI from all 
the controlled entities would create the same tax result for all exempt 
organizations with these facts regardless of the structure of the 
subsidiaries and the rental payments.
    The Treasury Department and the IRS continue to view specified 
payments as not appropriately characterized as part of an exempt 
organization's investment activities. Furthermore, because section 
512(b)(13) views specified payments as stemming from the trade or 
business activity of the controlled entity rather than from its 
investment activities, the Treasury Department and the IRS decline to 
adopt the suggestion that all specified payments be treated as one 
unrelated trade or business for purposes of section 512(a)(6). Rather, 
because section 512(b)(13)(A) provides that specified payments from a 
controlled entity are income derived from an unrelated trade or 
business, the final regulations adopt the proposed regulations 
regarding specified payments without modification.
ii. Certain Amounts From Controlled Foreign Corporations
    Section 512(b)(17) requires any amount included in gross income 
under section 951(a)(1)(A) to be included as an item of gross income 
derived from an unrelated trade or business to the extent the amount so 
included is attributable to insurance income (as defined in section 
953) which, if derived directly by the exempt organization, would be 
treated as gross income from an unrelated trade or business. Section 
953(a)(1) defines ``insurance income'' as any income that (A) is 
attributable to the issuing (or reinsuring) of an insurance or annuity 
contract, and (B) would (subject to certain modifications not relevant 
here) be taxed under subchapter L of chapter 1 if such income were the 
income of a domestic insurance company. Thus, section 512(b)(17) 
``applies a look-through rule in characterizing certain subpart F 
insurance income for unrelated business income tax purposes.'' H. R. 
Rep. No. 104-586 (1996), at 137.
    The proposed regulations treated the provision of insurance by all 
controlled foreign corporations (CFCs) as one trade or business, 
regardless of whether such insurance income is received from more than 
one CFC, which is consistent with how NAICS would categorize the 
provision of insurance (52--Finance and Insurance). However, the 
proposed regulations did not permit the aggregation of an exempt 
organization's insurance income included in UBTI under section 
512(b)(17) with any insubstantial commercial-type insurance activities 
conducted directly by the exempt organization because the CFC, not the 
exempt organization, is engaged in the activity giving rise to the 
insurance income included in UBTI under section 512(b)(17). The 
insurance activity described in section 512(b)(17) is not attributed to 
the exempt organization and thus is distinguishable from any 
commercial-type insurance activity engaged in directly by the exempt 
organization.
    One commenter recommended that amounts included in income under 
section 512(b)(17) should be part of an exempt organization's 
investment activities. This commenter questioned the statement in the 
preamble to the proposed regulation that ``the required degree of 
control of the exempt organization over the controlled foreign 
corporation indicates that the exempt organization's interest in a 
controlled foreign corporation is probably not part of the exempt 
organization's otherwise appropriately characterized investment 
activities.'' The commenter explained that, with respect to insurance 
income specifically, the required ownership by United States 
shareholders for CFC status is reduced to 25 percent from the usual 50 
percent. The commenter asserted that an exempt organization shareholder 
therefore could hold less than a 10 percent interest in a CFC that as a 
whole is owned by United States shareholders. The commenter stated that 
the low percentage of ownership necessary to have such amounts included 
in UBTI should warrant inclusion with an exempt organization's

[[Page 77959]]

investment activities, based on the similarity to the ownership 
percentages for qualifying partnership interest status discussed in 
part 2.b of this Summary of Comments and Explanation of Revisions. 
However, another commenter recommended retention of the rules in the 
proposed regulations for amounts included in income under section 
512(b)(17).
    As explained in the preamble to the proposed regulations, the 
reasons for not treating amounts included in income under section 
512(b)(17) as an exempt organization's investment activities extend 
beyond the amount of control the exempt organization may have over the 
CFC. In particular, that preamble explained that insurance income 
included in UBTI under section 512(b)(17) should not be treated as 
gross income from an exempt organization's investment activities 
because the provision of insurance generally is an unrelated trade or 
business. See section 501(m) (providing that, in the case of an exempt 
organization described in section 501(c)(3) or (4) that does not 
provide commercial-type insurance as a substantial part of its 
activities, the activity of providing commercial-type insurance is 
treated as an unrelated trade or business (as defined in section 513)). 
Further, the percentage interest prongs of the qualifying partnership 
interest rules, discussed in parts 2.b.iii and 2.b.iv.A of this Summary 
of Comments and Explanation of Revisions, serve as a proxy for an 
exempt organization's ability to obtain the information necessary to 
identify the underlying trade or business of the partnership. For 
amounts included in income under section 512(b)(17), the underlying 
trade or business is known because the only amounts included are from 
the insurance activity of the CFC. Thus, the same treatment of income 
under section 512(b)(17) is not needed for administrative convenience.
    Accordingly, the final regulations adopt without change the 
proposed regulations regarding the treatment of amounts included in 
UBTI under section 512(b)(17) for purposes of section 512(a)(6).
b. Qualifying Partnership Interests
    In general, for exempt organizations, the activities of a 
partnership are considered the activities of the exempt organization 
partners.\3\ Specifically, section 512(c) states that if a trade or 
business regularly carried on by a partnership of which an exempt 
organization is a member is an unrelated trade or business with respect 
to such organization, such organization shall include its share of the 
gross income of the partnership in UBTI. However, commenters on both 
Notice 2018-67 and the proposed regulations explained the difficulty of 
obtaining information regarding the trade or business activities of 
lower-tier partnerships. Therefore, as a matter of administrative 
convenience for both the exempt organization and the IRS, the proposed 
regulations permitted, but did not require, an exempt organization to 
aggregate its UBTI from an interest in a partnership with more than one 
unrelated trade or business (including unrelated trades or businesses 
conducted by lower-tier partnerships) if it met certain requirements 
(qualifying partnership interest, or QPI). Additionally, the proposed 
regulations permitted the aggregation of any QPI with all other QPIs, 
resulting in the treatment of the aggregate group of QPIs (along with 
associated debt-financed income under section 514 and qualifying S 
corporation interests, both discussed in parts 2.d and 3.a, 
respectively, of this Summary of Comments and Explanation of Revisions) 
as a single ``investment activities'' trade or business for purposes of 
section 512(a)(6)(A).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \3\ See sections 512(c), 513(a); Sec.  1.513-1(d)(1) and (2); 
Plumstead Theatre Society, Inc. v. Commissioner, 74 T.C. 1324 
(1980); 675 F.2d 244 (9th Cir. 1995); Service Bolt & Nut Co. Profit 
Sharing Trust v. Commissioner, 724 F.2d 519 (6th Cir.1983), affg, 78 
T.C. 812 (1982); Rev. Rul. 98-15, 1998-1 C.B. 718.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The proposed regulations identified a partnership interest as a QPI 
if it met the requirements of either the de minimis test (discussed in 
part 2.b.iii of this Summary of Comments and Explanation of Revisions) 
or the control test (discussed in part 2.b.iv of this Summary of 
Comments and Explanation of Revisions). A few commenters recommended 
alternative or additional tests to identify a QPI. Three commenters 
suggested that the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) 
codified by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) should 
replace the de minimis and the control tests to identify partnership 
interests as QPIs. These commenters recommended that any interest that 
is reported as ``fair value'' under these standards should be 
considered a QPI and included as part of the exempt organization's 
investment activities. Two other commenters recommended that a 
partnership that uses an investment manager should be a QPI. For this 
purpose, one of these commenters recommended defining an investment 
manager as someone who is either (i) included in a listing of 
investment managers with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), 
(ii) in the business of providing investment advice for compensation 
and manages at least $150 million in client assets, or (iii) has filed 
a Form D notice with the SEC with respect to the partnership at issue 
indicating that interests in such partnership are offered under an 
exemption from SEC registration requirements. Finally, one commenter 
provided a general list of facts and circumstances that should be 
considered when determining whether a partnership interest is a QPI, 
such as whether the exempt organization is a limited partner, whether 
the exempt organization has the right to be involved in the day-to-day 
management or operations of the partnership, and whether the exempt 
organization formed the partnership.
    As noted in Notice 2018-67, the purpose of permitting the 
aggregation of QPIs is to reduce the administrative burden of obtaining 
information from the partnership regarding the trade or business 
activities of the partnership in which the exempt organization holds a 
modest interest, and particularly of lower-tier partnerships under such 
partnership. As stated in the preamble to the proposed regulations, the 
percentage interest level for QPIs was intended as a proxy to identify 
partnership interests in which the exempt organization does not 
significantly participate. 85 FR at 23180. Taking into account the 
comments received, the Treasury Department and the IRS have determined 
that, for purposes of section 512(a)(6), if the percentage interest 
level indicates that an exempt organization does not significantly 
participate in a partnership, the exempt organization is not likely to 
be able to easily obtain the information required to identify the 
trades or businesses conducted, directly or indirectly, by the 
partnership that are unrelated trades or businesses with respect to the 
exempt organization partner.
    The recommendations of the commenters regarding alternate or 
additional methods to determine whether a partnership interest is a QPI 
do not provide administrable methods for proximately measuring an 
exempt organization's ability to obtain information about the 
partnership's trades or businesses. Under GAAP, an exempt organization 
accounts for a partnership interest using ``fair value'' if it does not 
control a partnership or have ``significant influence'' in the 
partnership or if it holds an interest the value of which is ``readily 
determinable.'' FASB, 2020, ASC par. 958-810-15-4. As discussed in more 
detail in part 2.b.iv.B of this Summary

[[Page 77960]]

of Comments and Explanation of Revisions, determining ``significant 
influence'' under GAAP is substantially similar to determining 
significant participation under the participation test. By FASB's own 
admission, however, determining significant influence is not always 
clear. FASB, 2020, ASC par. 323-10-15-7. Further, whether a partnership 
interest has a readily determinable value does not indicate whether an 
exempt organization has access to the information needed to identify 
trades or businesses conducted by the partnership that are unrelated 
trades or businesses with respect to the exempt organization partner. 
The de minimis and control tests provide a substantially similar 
standard to that found in GAAP that is more objective and that does not 
include additional factors outside the scope of the QPI test. 
Additionally, unlike the adoption of NAICS 2-digit codes, adopting GAAP 
would mean using a set of rules that are maintained and amended 
frequently by a non-governmental third party. Furthermore, GAAP does 
not always align with tax standards.
    Similarly, the presence of an investment manager does not indicate 
whether an exempt organization can obtain information to identify 
separate unrelated trades or businesses conducted by a partnership. In 
addition, the requirements for being an investment manager, as outlined 
by the commenter, require reliance on an SEC system that is designed 
for purposes that do not align with the those of the QPI tests. As a 
result, the investment manager test does not satisfy the purpose of the 
QPI tests and the Treasury Department and the IRS do not adopt this 
suggestion. Finally, the facts and circumstances test suggested by 
commenters relies on factors that do not tend to relate to the exempt 
organization's ability to obtain the information from the partnership 
needed to identify separate unrelated trades or businesses and 
therefore do not advance the administrative convenience purpose of the 
QPI test. Accordingly, the Treasury Department and the IRS do not adopt 
these suggestions as a reliable method for identifying QPIs.
    Other commenters suggested the inclusion of all limited 
partnerships or limited liability companies (LLCs) in which the exempt 
organization is not a general partner or managing member (regardless of 
the exempt organization's percentage interest or other participation in 
the partnership) as QPIs. As discussed in the preamble to the proposed 
regulations, the Treasury Department and the IRS decline to adopt this 
standard because of the variation in state law for determining non-
managing member equivalent interests and the administrative burden that 
reliance on state law places on the IRS.
    Accordingly, the Treasury Department and the IRS do not adopt the 
recommended alternative or additional methods for identifying a QPI.
i. Designation of a QPI
    The proposed regulations provided that, once an organization 
designates a partnership interest as a QPI (in accordance with forms 
and instructions), it cannot thereafter identify the trades or 
businesses conducted by the partnership that are unrelated trades or 
businesses with respect to the exempt organization using NAICS 2-digit 
codes unless and until the partnership interest is no longer a QPI. For 
example, if an exempt organization has a partnership interest that is a 
QPI and the exempt organization designates that partnership interest as 
a QPI on its Form 990-T, the exempt organization cannot, in the next 
taxable year, identify the trades or businesses of the partnership that 
are unrelated trades or businesses with respect to the exempt 
organization using NAICS 2-digit codes. However, if, in a future 
taxable year, the exempt organization's partnership interest is no 
longer a QPI, then the exempt organization would be required to 
identify the trades or businesses of the partnership that are unrelated 
trades or businesses with respect to the exempt organization using 
NAICS 2-digit codes. No comments were received regarding this 
provision. Accordingly, the final regulations adopt the proposed 
regulations regarding the designation of QPIs without change.
ii. General Partner Prohibition
    The proposed regulations clarified that any partnership in which an 
exempt organization is a general partner is not a QPI, regardless of 
the exempt organization's percentage interest. One commenter noted 
that, while related parties are considered for determination of the 
percentage interest prong of the control test, these same related 
parties are not considered when determining the general partner status 
of the exempt organization under the de minimis test or for determining 
control under the second prong of the control test. Thus, a related 
entity may be a general partner in or may control the partnership in 
which an exempt organization has an interest and such control by the 
related party would not affect the outcome under the proposed 
regulations.
    The Treasury Department and the IRS agree with the commenter that 
the determination of whether an exempt organization is a general 
partner should include related organizations. Thus, the final 
regulations clarify that, if an organization the interest of which must 
be taken into account when determining the exempt organization's 
percentage interest for purposes of the first prong of the control test 
is a general partner in a partnership in which an exempt organization 
holds an interest, then such interest is not a QPI.
    One commenter recommended that the per se prohibition against 
general partner status for a partnership interest to be a QPI should be 
extended to status as a managing member of a limited liability company 
(LLC). The Treasury Department and the IRS agree that the term 
``partnership'' includes all entities, including LLCs, treated as 
partnerships for Federal tax purposes. Accordingly, an interest in an 
LLC treated as a partnership for Federal tax purposes can be a QPI. 
However, the rule in the proposed regulations precluding a general 
partner interest from being a QPI was intended to apply only to 
interests held by partners classified as general partners under 
applicable state law. The Treasury Department and the IRS do not 
believe it is appropriate to expand the per se prohibition to persons 
classified as managing members under applicable state law without the 
opportunity for further notice and comment, although managing members 
are unlikely to satisfy the participation test due to their significant 
participation in the LLC. Accordingly, the final regulations adopt the 
proposed regulation with the clarification that general partner status 
is determined under applicable state law.
iii. De Minimis Test
    The proposed regulations provided that a partnership interest is a 
QPI that meets the requirements of the de minimis test if the exempt 
organization holds directly or indirectly no more than 2 percent of the 
profits interest and no more than 2 percent of the capital interest.
    One commenter recommended removing the de minimis test. The 
Treasury Department and the IRS have concluded that the de minimis test 
reduces administrative burden by establishing a clear limit below which 
no other factors need to be considered for inclusion of such interest 
as a part of an exempt organization's investment activities. Therefore, 
the Treasury

[[Page 77961]]

Department and the IRS retain the de minimis test in the final 
regulations.
    One commenter recommended that the percentage interest threshold of 
the de minimis test should be increased to 5 percent consistent with 
other sections of the Code and regulations. The commenter notes that, 
not only have other parts of the Code determined that 5 percent is 
sufficiently de minimis, but also that increasing the amount from 2 
percent to 5 percent would reduce administrative burden by potentially 
increasing the number of partnership interests that would meet the 
requirements of the de minimis test.
    The Treasury Department and the IRS do not adopt this commenter's 
suggestion for the following reasons. For purposes of administrative 
convenience, the de minimis test allows certain partnership investments 
to be treated as an investment activity and aggregated with other 
investment activities. Otherwise, as previously discussed in this 
section of the preamble, section 512(c) mandates that any partnership 
interest, even a de minimis interest, must be analyzed to determine 
whether it is an unrelated trade or business with respect to the exempt 
organization partner and, by extension, how many unrelated trades or 
businesses for purposes of section 512(a)(6). Accordingly, any 
exception made in the interest of the administrative convenience of 
taxpayers must be narrowly tailored to achieving that purpose.
    Furthermore, under the control test, partnership interests that 
exceed 2 percent are QPIs if those interests meet the requirements of 
the control test (now renamed the participation test, as discussed in 
part 2.b.iv of this Summary of Comments and Explanation of Revisions). 
Many exempt organizations with partnership interests between 2 percent 
and 5 percent should be able to determine, without much additional 
burden, that they do not significantly participate in the partnership 
and thus the partnership interest is a QPI; thus, not much additional 
convenience would be gained for exempt organizations by increasing the 
de minimis percentage amount from 2 percent to 5 percent. On the other 
hand, increasing the percentage under which an exempt organization does 
not have to demonstrate a lack of significant participation to be able 
to treat the partnership interest as a QPI would extend the 
administrative convenience exception to identifying the separate 
unrelated trades or businesses of the partnership (in accord with 
section 513(c)) farther than necessary and undermine the statutory 
requirement of section 512(a)(6). Therefore, the final regulations 
follow the proposed regulations and provide that a partnership interest 
is a QPI that meets the requirements of the de minimis test if the 
exempt organization holds, directly or indirectly, no more than 2 
percent of the profits interest and no more than 2 percent of the 
capital interest. Additionally, the final regulations clarify that the 
exempt organization must meet the percentage interest requirement of 
the de minimis rule during the exempt organization's taxable year with 
which or in which the partnership's taxable year ends.
iv. Control Test Renamed the ``Participation Test''
    The proposed regulations provided that a partnership interest is a 
QPI that meets the requirements of the control test if the exempt 
organization (i) directly holds no more than 20 percent of the capital 
interest; and (ii) does not have control over the partnership. As 
previously discussed in this section, the QPI tests focus on 
determining whether an exempt organization significantly participates 
in a partnership, thereby indicating an ability to obtain the 
information needed from the partnership to determine whether a trade or 
business conducted by the partnership is an unrelated trade or business 
with respect to the exempt organization partner. To better reflect this 
intent, the control test has been renamed in these final regulations as 
the ``participation test.'' Accordingly, the final regulations modify 
the participation test so that a partnership interest is a QPI that 
meets the requirements of the participation test if the exempt 
organization (i) directly holds no more than 20 percent of the capital 
interest; and (ii) does not significantly participate in the 
partnership.
A. Percentage Interest
    Numerous commenters made recommendations regarding the first prong 
of the control test, most of which recommended increasing the 
percentage threshold to 50 percent to conform with the definition of 
control in section 512(b)(13). These commenters noted that the 50 
percent threshold for capital interest is more in line with other 
definitions of control found in the Code. Other commenters suggested 
that the percentage interest requirement be eliminated entirely because 
an exempt organization may control a partnership regardless of its 
percentage interest.
    The final regulations retain the 20 percent threshold used in the 
proposed regulations. As explained in the preamble to the proposed 
regulations, the percentage interest prong of the control test was 
intended to identify partnership interests in which the exempt 
organization does not have the ability to significantly participate in 
any partnership trade or business and therefore may be considered an 
investment activity for purposes of section 512(a)(6). Although an 
exempt organization may not significantly participate in a partnership 
in which it has more than a 20 percent interest, the Treasury 
Department and the IRS note that, as an exempt organization's 
percentage interest in a partnership increases, so too does the exempt 
organization's ability to obtain the information necessary to identify 
the trades or businesses conducted by the partnership that are separate 
unrelated trades or businesses with respect to the exempt organization 
partner. Thus, the Treasury Department and the IRS have determined 
that, for purposes of this aspect of the administrative exception for 
investment activities, a 20 percent capital interest is a threshold 
below which the exempt organization may not be able to obtain the 
needed information if it does not otherwise significantly participate.
    The preamble to the proposed regulations noted that the 20 percent 
threshold is consistent with the administrative exception found in the 
regulations under section 731 for certain investment activities. See 
section 731(c)(3)(C)(i) & Sec.  1.731-2(e). Some commenters noted that 
this was not a relevant standard because section 731(c)(3)(C)(i) does 
not define control. Section 731 defines investment partnerships, in 
part, as any partnership that has never been engaged in a trade or 
business.
    The regulations under section 731(c)(3)(C)(i) identify situations 
in which the trade or business activities of a lower tier partnership 
should not be attributed to an upper tier partnership for purposes of 
determining whether the upper tier partnership is engaged in a trade or 
business. Similarly, the QPI rules in the proposed regulations seek to 
determine when the trade or business of a partnership should not be 
attributed to the exempt organization such that the partnership may be 
counted as part of an investment activity rather than as the 
participation in any underlying trade or business. Thus, the purpose of 
the regulations under section 731 and the QPI rules in the proposed 
regulations is similar.
    The 20 percent capital interest threshold is further supported by 
the GAAP standard for ``significant influence'' that some commenters

[[Page 77962]]

recommended as an alternative to the de minimis and participation tests 
(see parts 2.b.iii and 2.b.iv of this Summary of Comments and 
Explanation of Revisions). Due to the difficulty of the significant 
influence determination, GAAP provides that holding 20 percent voting 
stock in an investee is presumed, without more, to constitute a 
significant influence. FASB, 2020, ASC par. 323-10-15-8. The 20 percent 
voting stock standard in GAAP was written for determining whether the 
investor has ``significant influence'' in a corporation. FASB, 2020, 
ASC par. 323-10-15-5. For tax purposes, it is common in the Code, when 
applying corporate standards to partnerships, to substitute ``capital 
interest'' for ``voting stock.'' See, e.g., sections 4943(c)(3), 
6166(b), & 6038(e)(3). Thus, the 20 percent capital interest threshold 
in the proposed regulations is consistent with FASB's determinations of 
the percentage interest that represents ``significant influence,'' 
which is similar to the significant participation standard found in 
these regulations.
    Accordingly, the final regulations retain the 20 percent capital 
interest threshold provided by the proposed regulations but clarify 
that the exempt organization must meet the percentage interest 
requirement for the exempt organization's taxable year with which or in 
which the partnership's taxable year ends.
    No comments were received regarding how an exempt organization 
determines its percentage interest in a partnership. Therefore, 
consistent with the proposed regulations and for purposes of both the 
de minimis test and the participation test, the final regulations 
continue to provide that an exempt organization determines its 
percentage interest by taking the average of the exempt organization's 
percentage interest at the beginning and the end of the partnership's 
taxable year, or, in the case of a partnership interest held for less 
than a year, the percentage interest held at the beginning and end of 
the period of ownership within the partnership's taxable year. However, 
the final regulations clarify that, for purposes of the de minimis 
test, an exempt organization's profits interest in a partnership is 
determined in the same manner as its distributive share of partnership 
taxable income (see section 704(b) relating to the determination of the 
distributive share by the income or loss ratio, and Sec. Sec.  1.704-1 
through 1.704-4). For purposes of both the de minimis test and the 
participation test the final regulations provide that, in the absence 
of a provision in the partnership agreement, an exempt organization's 
capital interest in a partnership is determined on the basis of its 
interest in the assets of the partnership which would be distributable 
to such organization upon its withdrawal from the partnership, or upon 
liquidation of the partnership, whichever is the greater.\4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \4\ These clarifying rules for determining an exempt 
organization's partnership interest are consistent with longstanding 
rules in Sec.  53.4943-3(c)(2) for purposes of a private 
foundation's determination of whether it has excess business 
holdings.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

B. Definition of ``Significant Participation''
    Under the proposed regulations, a partnership interest met the 
requirements of the control test if the exempt organization holds no 
more than a 20 percent of the capital interest and does not control the 
partnership. The proposed regulations provided that all the facts and 
circumstances are relevant for determining whether an exempt 
organization controls a partnership. The proposed regulations clarified 
that the partnership agreement is among the facts and circumstances 
that may be considered when determining control. The proposed 
regulations also listed four specific circumstances that evidence 
control. Two of the circumstances focused on the exempt organization's 
ability to perform certain actions on its own. Specifically, the 
proposed regulations provided that an exempt organization controls a 
partnership if the exempt organization, by itself, may require the 
partnership to perform, or may prevent the partnership from performing, 
any act that significantly affects the operations of the partnership or 
has the power to appoint or remove any of the partnership's officers or 
employees or a majority of directors. The remaining two circumstances 
focused on whether any of the exempt organization's officers, 
directors, trustees, or employees have rights to participate in the 
management of the partnership at any time or to conduct the 
partnership's business at any time.
    In essence, the proposed regulations provided a two-part test for 
determining control: (1) A general facts and circumstances test based 
on the well-defined concept in the Code of ``control,'' and (2) factors 
evidencing ``per se'' control. As discussed in the introduction to part 
2.b.iv of this Summary of Comments and Explanation of Revisions, the 
Treasury Department and the IRS have renamed the ``control test'' the 
``participation test'' to better capture the purpose of the test, which 
is to identify partnerships in which exempt organization partners 
significantly participate. However, unlike ``control,'' ``significant 
participation'' generally is not a defined term in the Code. A test 
considering all the facts and circumstances to determine whether an 
exempt organization partner significantly participates in a partnership 
could have a broader application than intended. Furthermore, a general 
facts and circumstances standard for a test that is not well-defined 
increases uncertainty and, as a result, the administrative burden on 
exempt organizations and the IRS. Therefore, the final regulations do 
not include a general facts and circumstances test as part of the 
significant participation prong of the participation test, but instead 
retain only the four factors, which, in the final regulations, evidence 
significant participation rather than control.
    Some commenters stated that the list of factors indicating control 
was too broad. One commenter contended that the factors focusing on 
whether an officer, director, or employee of an exempt organization has 
rights to manage the partnership or conduct the business of the 
partnership should be removed entirely as the presence of these factors 
does not indicate control by the exempt organization. While the factors 
identified by this commenter and the factors other commenters 
characterized as too broad may not always represent control, these 
factors do indicate when an exempt organization participates in the 
partnership to an extent that would allow the exempt organization to 
obtain sufficient information to identify the underlying separate 
trades or businesses.
    Another commenter suggested that the factors listed as indicating 
control may not always result in control, and thus, the factors listed 
should create a rebuttable presumption of control rather than being 
``per se'' indicators of control. The Treasury Department and the IRS 
retain the factors listed in the proposed regulations as ``per se'' 
indicators of significant participation because the QPI rules, 
including the participation test, are designed to provide 
administrative convenience for both the IRS and exempt organizations. 
In this way, firm standards that indicate significant participation 
allow both the IRS and exempt organizations to have more certainty in 
the decision whether to include such interests with an exempt 
organization's investment activities. A rebuttable presumption would 
introduce more uncertainly, rely more on facts and circumstances, and 
be

[[Page 77963]]

more difficult for both the IRS and exempt organizations to administer.
    The Treasury Department and the IRS note that the factors provided 
in the regulations are similar to the factors indicating ``control'' 
and ``significant influence'' under FASB's codification of GAAP, which 
several commenters proposed as an alternative test. For partnership 
interests, GAAP determines that enough control exists to require the 
consolidation of partnership interests with the investor if the 
investor has substantive kick-out or participating rights. A kick-out 
right is the ability of limited partners to dissolve (liquidate) the 
limited partnership or otherwise remove the general partners without 
cause. FASB, 2020, ASC section 958-810-20. These rights are included, 
in the proposed regulations, in an exempt organization's ability to 
require, by itself, the partnership to perform, or prevent the 
partnership from performing, any act that significantly affects the 
operations of the partnership.
    Further, under GAAP, certain participating rights are considered 
per se substantive rights and overcome the presumption of control by a 
general partner. These include:
     Selecting, terminating, and setting the compensation of 
management responsible for implementing the limited partnership 
policies and procedures; and
     Establishing operating and capital decisions of the 
limited partnership, including budgets, in the ordinary course of 
business. ASC paragraph 958-810-25-22.
    These substantive participating rights are similar to an exempt 
organization's ability to appoint or remove, by itself, any of the 
partnership's officers or employees or a majority of directors; or its 
officers, directors, trustees, or employees' rights to conduct the 
partnership's business at any time, respectively. As such, these 
substantive participating rights found in GAAP are covered by the four 
factors listed in the proposed regulations as indicating control (here 
renamed significant participation).
    Additionally, some of the factors relevant to ``significant 
influence'' included in GAAP are representation on the board, the 
ability to participate in the policy-making process, and the 
interchange of managerial personnel. FASB, 2020, ASC par. 323-10-15-6. 
These factors are also similar to the factors in the proposed 
regulations, which focus on whether an exempt organization's officers, 
directors, trustees, or employees have rights to participate on the 
partnership's board or participate in management of the business. 
Moreover, the ability to participate in the policy-making process could 
stem from the investor's ability to require the partnership to perform, 
or prevent the partnership from performing, any act that significantly 
affects the operations of the partnership. Consequently, the factors 
for determining ``significant influence'' under GAAP are also covered 
by the factors listed in the proposed regulations.
    Accordingly, the Treasury Department and the IRS have concluded 
that the list of factors indicating significant participation (renamed 
from ``control'' as used in the proposed regulations) is consistent 
with other standards recommended by commenters for making similar 
determinations. Therefore, the Treasury Department and the IRS continue 
to believe that, for purposes of the administrative exception for 
investment activities, the factors listed in the proposed regulations 
appropriately identify partnerships in which the exempt organization 
significantly participates such that it can obtain the information 
needed to identify the trades or businesses conducted by the 
partnership that are separate unrelated trades or businesses with 
respect to the exempt organization.
    Commenters pointed out that the exercise of certain rights common 
to all partners in a partnership may be construed to come within the 
ambit of the list of factors indicating significant participation. 
Specifically, these commenters explained that an exempt organization 
with voting rights equal to those of a large number of other limited 
partners might be considered to be able to prevent the actions of a 
partnership if the vote requires a unanimous vote. The Treasury 
Department and the IRS agree with these commenters that the ability to 
prevent an action of the partnership due to a unanimous vote 
requirement or through minority consent rights was not intended to be 
covered by the proposed regulations. Accordingly, the final regulations 
modify the proposed regulations' treatment of the ability of an exempt 
organization, by itself, to prevent a partnership from performing an 
act as a factor that indicates significant participation. As modified, 
the final regulations provide that an exempt organization significantly 
participates in a partnership if--
     The exempt organization, by itself, may require the 
partnership to perform, or prevent the partnership from performing 
(other than through a unanimous voting requirement or through minority 
consent rights), any act that significantly affects the operations of 
the partnership;
     Any of the exempt organization's officers, directors, 
trustees, or employees have rights to participate in the management of 
the partnership at any time;
     Any of the organization's officers, directors, trustees, 
or employees have rights to conduct the partnership's business at any 
time; or
     The organization, by itself, has the power to appoint or 
remove any of the partnership's officers or employees or a majority of 
directors.
    Some commenters recommended that instead of, or in addition to, a 
list of factors that indicate significant participation, the 
regulations should provide a list of powers that do not indicate 
significant participation, such as the ability to remove or replace a 
fund manager who manages partnership investments, to approve the 
selection or removal of a general partner, to appoint a member of an 
advisory board of the partnership, to withdraw from a partnership, or 
to dissolve or terminate the partnership.
    The Treasury Department and the IRS expect that, because the 
participation test no longer includes a general facts and circumstances 
test, the need to define actions that do not evidence significant 
participation is significantly reduced or eliminated. An exempt 
organization need not consider rights or powers other than the four 
specifically listed in the participation test when determining whether 
a partnership interest is a QPI. Accordingly, the Treasury Department 
and the IRS decline to adopt the suggestion to include a list of powers 
that do not indicate significant participation.
C. Combining Related Interests
    The proposed regulations provided a rule to address situations in 
which an exempt organization may control a partnership through the 
aggregation of interests (aggregation rule). The aggregation rule in 
the proposed regulations applied only for purposes of the control test 
and not for purposes of the de minimis test. The aggregation rule in 
the proposed regulations required an exempt organization to consider 
the interests of supporting organizations (as defined in section 
509(a)(3)) and controlled entities (as defined in section 512(b)(13)) 
in the same partnership. The preamble to the proposed regulations 
stated that the Treasury Department and the IRS would continue to 
consider whether the aggregation of the interests of supporting 
organizations is appropriate in the circumstance in which the

[[Page 77964]]

exempt organization is a supported organization that has little to no 
control over its supporting organizations.
    A supporting organization is characterized as a Type I, Type II, or 
Type III supporting organization depending on its relationship with its 
supported organization. The supporting organization may be (i) 
operated, supervised, or controlled by (Type I), (ii) supervised or 
controlled in connection with (Type II), or (iii) operated in 
connection with (Type III), its supported organization.
    For a Type I relationship to exist, a supported organization must 
have a substantial degree of direction over the policies, programs, and 
activities of its supporting organization. The relationship of the 
supported organization to the Type I supporting organization is 
comparable to that of a parent and subsidiary, where the subsidiary is 
under the direction of, and accountable or responsible to, the parent 
organization.
    For a Type II relationship to exist, there must be common 
supervision or control by the persons supervising or controlling both 
the supporting organization and the publicly supported organizations to 
ensure that the supporting organization will be responsive to the needs 
and requirements of the publicly supported organizations. The 
relationship of the supported organization to the Type II supporting 
organization is comparable to that of a brother and sister, where the 
supporting organization and the supported organization are subject to 
common control. Polm Family Foundation, Inc. v. United States, 655 F. 
Supp. 2d 125, 128 (D.C. Cir. 2009) (quoting Cockerline Memorial Fund v. 
Commissioner, 86 T.C. 53, 59 (1986)).
    For a Type III relationship to exist, a supporting organization 
must, among other things, maintain significant involvement in the 
operations of a supported organization or provide support on which the 
supported organization is dependent. A Type III supporting organization 
can either be functionally integrated or non-functionally integrated. A 
functionally integrated Type III supporting organization can support 
its supported organization through engaging in activities substantially 
all of which directly further the exempt purposes of the supported 
organization, being the parent of the supported organization, or by 
supporting certain types of governmental supported organizations. A 
functionally integrated Type III supporting organization is a parent of 
the supported organization if the supporting organization exercises a 
substantial degree of direction over the policies, programs, and 
activities of the supported organization and a majority of the 
officers, directors, or trustees of the supported organization is 
appointed or elected, directly or indirectly, by the governing body, 
members of the governing body, or officers (acting in their official 
capacity) of the supporting organization. A non-functionally integrated 
Type III supporting organization provides financial support to the 
supported organization that meets the distribution requirements found 
in Sec.  1.509(a)-4(i)(5)(ii).
    Two commenters addressed whether partnership interests of related 
supporting organizations should be considered in determining the 
supported organization's percentage interest for purposes of 
determining whether the supported organization meets the control test. 
One commenter recommended that none of the partnership interests of a 
supporting organization should be considered when determining the 
supported organization's percentage interest. Another made the same 
recommendation but only with respect to Type III supporting 
organizations.
    An exempt organization with more than one unrelated trade or 
business may be a supporting organization or a supported organization. 
If the exempt organization is a supported organization, the exempt 
organization, or individuals that control the exempt organization, may 
control the investment activities (including any partnership interests) 
of its Type I or Type II supporting organizations due to the parent/
subsidiary relationship required for a Type I relationship to exist or 
the brother/sister relationship required for a Type II relationship to 
exist. In any event, these close relationships increase the likelihood 
that the exempt organization can obtain the information about its Type 
I or Type II supporting organization's partnership investments and that 
the exempt organization significantly participates in the partnership, 
even if indirectly. Accordingly, the final regulations continue to 
require an exempt organization that is a supported organization to 
include the partnership interests of its Type I or II supporting 
organizations when determining whether its partnership interests of the 
supported organization meet the percentage interest threshold of the 
participation test.
    On the other hand, in the case of a Type III supporting 
organization, the exempt organization that is a supported organization 
is required to have a ``significant voice'' in the investment policies 
of its Type III supporting organization; nevertheless, depending on the 
basis for this Type III relationship, this relationship may not permit 
the supported organization to obtain detailed information regarding its 
Type III supporting organization's partnership interests or to 
significantly participate in the partnership. In the case of a Type III 
supporting organization that is the parent of its supported 
organizations, the relationship between the supported and supporting 
organizations is similar to that of a Type I supporting organization, 
except the supporting organization controls the supported organizations 
instead of the opposite. Due to this close relationship, the final 
regulations continue to require the aggregation of partnership 
interests held by a Type III supporting organization that is the parent 
of its supported organizations for the purposes of determining whether 
the supported organization's partnership interest meets the percentage 
interest threshold of the participation test. However, the interests 
held by nonparent Type III supporting organizations are not so 
aggregated.
    One commenter recommended adding additional interests to the list 
of related interests that must be considered when determining 
percentage interest for purposes of the control test. This commenter 
recommended including related persons within the definition of section 
267(b)(9) and ``controlled taxpayers'' within the principles of section 
482 to the list of organizations with which partnership interests must 
be aggregated. The same commenter also recommended adding indirect 
interests owned by an exempt organization for the purposes of 
determining the organization's percentage interest.
    As mentioned previously, the QPI rules were created to reduce the 
administrative burden of obtaining the information needed to determine 
whether trades or businesses conducted--directly or indirectly--by the 
partnership are separate unrelated trades or businesses with respect to 
the exempt organization partner. The addition of the interests 
recommended to be included by this commenter would significantly 
increase the administrative burden of the rule but would not 
necessarily capture interests that demonstrate an increased ability for 
the exempt organization to obtain the information needed to identify 
separate underlying trades or businesses. Accordingly, the Treasury 
Department and the IRS do not adopt these recommended additions to the 
aggregation rule. Accordingly, the final regulations provide that, when

[[Page 77965]]

determining an organization's percentage interest for purposes of the 
participation test (formerly the control test), the interests of a 
supporting organization (other than a Type III supporting organization 
that is not a parent of its supported organizations) or a controlled 
entity in the same partnership are taken into account.
v. Look-Through Rule
    The proposed regulations provided that, if an exempt organization 
does not control a partnership in which the exempt organization holds a 
direct interest (directly-held partnership interest) but the directly-
held partnership interest is not a QPI because the exempt organization 
holds more than 20 percent of the capital interest, any partnership in 
which the exempt organization holds an indirect interest through the 
directly-held partnership interest (indirectly-held partnership 
interest) may be a QPI if the indirectly-held partnership interest 
meets the requirements of the de minimis test (look-through rule). 
Accordingly, the proposed regulations permitted (but did not require) 
an exempt organization to aggregate the UBTI from de minimis 
indirectly-held QPIs with its directly-held QPIs. However, the proposed 
look-through rule did not apply to indirectly-held QPIs that do not 
meet the requirements of the de minimis test but might meet the 
requirements of the control test (now renamed participation test).
    Several commenters recommended expanding the look-through rule to 
permit use of the control test for indirectly-held partnership 
interests and to permit use of the look-through rule even if the exempt 
organization controls the directly-held partnership. These commenters 
stated that, even if an exempt organization controls a directly-held 
partnership, if the lower-tier partnerships meet the de minimis test or 
the control test, an exempt organization would be prevented from 
controlling the lower-tier partnerships. Further, the commenters noted 
that, preventing the use of such look-through rules would treat 
organizations holding the same level and type of partnership interests 
differently depending on whether they owned them directly or 
indirectly. Another commenter, however, stated that the look-through 
rule is unhelpful and that it is extremely difficult, if not 
impossible, to determine ownership percentages in lower-tier 
partnerships, especially multiple tiers down.
    Based on these comments, the final regulations do not prevent 
application of the look-through rule if the exempt organization 
significantly participates in the directly-held partnership. The final 
regulations otherwise retain the look-through rule for indirectly-held 
partnership interests that meet the requirements of the de minimis test 
with regard to the exempt organization. Additionally, the final 
regulations expand application of the look-through rule to indirectly-
held partnership interests that meet the requirements of the 
participation test with regards to the immediately higher-tier 
partnership that owns interest in that partnership. Thus, for purposes 
of the look-through rule, the participation test will apply tier-by-
tier to the exempt organization's indirectly-held partnership 
interests. The regulations explain how the second prong of the 
participation test--the significant participation prong--applies within 
this context and provides an example of the application of this test.
vi. Grace Period
    The preamble to the proposed regulations stated that the Treasury 
Department and the IRS recognize that an exempt organization may not be 
aware of changes in its partnership interest until it receives a 
Schedule K-1 (Form 1065) from the partnership at the end of the 
partnership's taxable year. In such a circumstance, it may be 
appropriate to permit a higher percentage interest in taxable years in 
which the increase in an exempt organization's percentage interest 
during a taxable year is the result of the actions of other partners. 
The Treasury Department and the IRS requested comments regarding 
whether a higher percentage interest should be permitted in taxable 
years in which the increase occurs as the result of the actions of 
other partners.
    One commenter stated that private investment funds often admit 
limited partners in waves (``closings'') over the course of several 
months at the beginning of the fund's term. Therefore, the commenter 
recommended a phase-in period that would provide that the percentage 
interest in a newly formed partnership not be considered for purposes 
of the control test until the end of the partnership's initial closing 
period (as long as that period is no later than 18 months following the 
exempt organization becoming a partner). The final regulations do not 
adopt an initial phase-in period because the aggregation of an exempt 
organization's investment activities, including QPIs, is a rule of 
administrative convenience and a phase-in rule would increase the 
complexity of the rule. Additionally, as discussed in part 2.b.iv.A of 
this Summary of Comments and Explanation of Revisions, the final 
regulations adopt, without change, the rule that an exempt 
organization's percentage partnership interest is determined by 
averaging the exempt organization's percentage partnership interest at 
the beginning of the partnership's taxable year with its partnership 
percentage interest at the end of that same taxable year. Thus, an 
exempt organization's percentage interest may vary during a period but 
still meet the requirements of the participation test.
    The commenter also recommended that an exempt organization be 
granted 90 days to reduce its interest in a partnership to the 
appropriate amount should its interest exceed that amount at the end of 
the year through the actions of other partners. Two other commenters 
recommended that an exempt organization should be permitted to count a 
partnership interest that exceeds the percentage interest threshold of 
the participation test due to the actions of other partners as a QPI 
for a period of time following that change in interest amount. One of 
the commenters recommended that such interests should be permitted to 
be QPIs through the end of the tax year in which it learns that the 
percentage interest exceeds the permitted threshold. The other 
commenter recommended that such interest should continue to be QPI 
through the later of (1) the end of the tax year immediately following 
the year an increase occurs through no fault of the E.O.; or (2) 120 
days after the date on which the partnership issues the Schedule K-1.
    The Treasury Department and the IRS agree that a change in an 
exempt organization's percentage interest in a partnership that is due 
entirely to the actions of other partners may present significant 
difficulties for the exempt organization. Further, requiring such an 
interest to be removed from the exempt organization's investment 
activities in one year but potentially included as a QPI in the next 
would create further administrative difficulty. Accordingly, the final 
regulations adopt a grace period that permits a partnership interest to 
be treated as meeting the requirements of the de minimis test or the 
participation test, respectively, in the exempt organization's prior 
taxable year if certain requirements are met.
    The final regulations provide that a partnership interest that 
fails to meet the requirements of either the de minimis test or the 
participation test because of an increase in percentage interest in the 
organization's current taxable year may be treated as meeting the 
requirements of the test it met in the prior taxable year for the 
taxable year of the change if: (1) The partnership

[[Page 77966]]

interest met the requirements of the de minimis test or participation 
test, respectively, in the organization's prior taxable year without 
application of the grace period; (2) the increase in percentage 
interest is due to the actions of one or more partners other than the 
exempt organization; and (3) in the case of a partnership interest that 
met the requirements of the participation test in the prior taxable 
year, the interest of the partner or partners that caused the increase 
in percentage interest described in (2) was not combined for the prior 
taxable year and is not combined for the taxable year of the change 
with the exempt organization's partnership interest under the rules 
discussed in part 2.b.iv.C of this Summary of Comments and Explanation 
of Revisions. An exempt organization can treat such interest as a QPI 
in the taxable year that such change occurs, but the exempt 
organization would need to reduce its percentage interest prior to the 
end of the following taxable year to meet the requirements of either 
the de minimis test or the participation test in that succeeding 
taxable year for the partnership interest to remain a QPI.
vii. Reliance on Schedule K-1 (Form 1065)
    The proposed regulations provided that, when determining an exempt 
organization's percentage interest for purposes of the de minimis test 
or the control test (now renamed the participation test), the exempt 
organization may rely on the Schedule K-1 (Form 1065) it receives from 
the partnership if the form lists the exempt organization's percentage 
profits interest or its percentage capital interest, or both, at the 
beginning and end of the year. However, the proposed regulations 
clarified that the organization may not rely on the form to the extent 
that any information about the organization's percentage interest is 
not specifically provided. For example, if the Schedule K-1 (Form 1065) 
an exempt organization receives from a partnership lists the 
organization's profits interest as ``variable'' but lists its 
percentage capital interest at the beginning and end of the year, the 
organization may rely on the form only with respect to its percentage 
capital interest. Generally, this information can be found in Part II, 
line J (partner's share of profit, loss, and capital), of Schedule K-1 
(Form 1065). No comments were received with respect to reliance on the 
Schedule K-1 (Form 1065). Accordingly, the final regulations adopt 
these proposed regulations without change, other than minor edits for 
clarity.
    Nonetheless, commenters made recommendations with respect to other 
aspects of the Schedule K-1 (Form 1065) and other partnership or S 
corporation forms. A few commenters recommended that updates be made to 
the regulations under section 6031 or on the forms and instructions of 
the Form 1065, ``U.S. Return of Partnership Income,'' or Form 1120-S, 
``U.S. Income Tax Return for an S Corporation,'' including the 
respective Schedules K-1 provided to partners or S corporation 
shareholders. These commenters requested updates that would require 
partnerships to provide information to exempt organization partners (1) 
on the NAICS 2-digit codes of the underlying activity, (2) separately 
reporting debt-financed income, and (3) requiring a specific capital 
interest amount rather than stating ``various.'' Alternatively, another 
commenter specifically recommended that partnerships not be required to 
provide the NAICS 2-digit code of the underlying activity.
    Section 6031(d) provides that partnerships must provide exempt 
organization partners with such information as is necessary to enable 
each partner to compute its distributive share of partnership income or 
loss from such trade or business in accordance with section 512(a)(1). 
Following the passage of section 512(a)(6), exempt organization 
partners will need additional information to compute their UBTI from 
partnerships under section 512(a)(1). The Treasury Department and the 
IRS have concluded that the requirement found in section 6031(d) is 
sufficient for requiring partnerships to provide this information. 
Accordingly, the Treasury Department and the IRS do not adopt any 
regulatory changes under section 6031 at this time. The IRS may amend 
the forms and instructions in the future, however.
viii. Additional Recommended Changes
A. Capital Account Threshold
    One commenter recommended that a capital accounts threshold be 
added to the control test. The commenter recommended that the threshold 
be based on the average capital account amount throughout the year and 
that the threshold be $500,000. A capital account threshold does not 
further the purposes of the QPI tests. A capital accounts threshold 
added to the control test provided by the proposed regulations (now 
renamed the participation test) is not an effective proxy for an exempt 
organization's ability to obtain information from a partnership because 
the size of a capital account has no correlation to a partner's ability 
to participate in a partnership. Further, capital accounts can be 
calculated under various standards, which would result in an 
inconsistent application of such a rule. Additionally, if the 
commenter's level of $500,000 capital accounts were accepted, IRS data 
for the 2018 taxable year indicates that it would encompass over 75 
percent of all partnerships held by exempt organizations. Such a 
threshold therefore likely would not serve as an additional limitation 
on the ability to use the participation test. Accordingly, the Treasury 
Department and the IRS do not adopt a capital accounts threshold as 
part of the participation test.
B. ERISA-Covered Trusts
    One commenter recommended that QPI treatment be extended to all 
partnership interests held by trusts that are subject to the Employee 
Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, Public Law 93-406, 88 Stat. 829 
(1974) (ERISA). The commenter stated that because the fiduciary duty 
and prohibited transaction rules under ERISA would make it difficult to 
operate a trade or business through the trust itself, or through an 
entity that is treated under ERISA as holding ``plan assets'' subject 
to ERISA, the primary source of UBTI for these plans is investment 
vehicles that are taxed as partnerships. In addition, the fiduciary and 
prohibited transaction rules (and related penalties) create an 
incentive for the investment vehicles to limit the participation of 
ERISA plans. If 25 percent or more of the value of any class of equity 
interests in a private investment fund is held by benefit plan 
investors, the plan assets of a benefit plan investor will generally 
include not only the plan's investment, but also an undivided interest 
in each of the underlying assets of the investment fund. Anyone who 
exercises authority or control with respect to the disposition of plan 
assets or who provides investment advice with respect to those assets 
will be a fiduciary of the investing plan. See 29 CFR 2510.3-101. Many 
investment funds seek to avoid this status by limiting ERISA plan 
investment or qualifying for an exemption. The commenter posited that 
under the proposed regulations, significant administration would be 
required to separate investments between QPIs and other partnerships 
that may be subject to the look-through rule or NAICS codes, and in 
which the ultimate, bottom-tier investments are almost certainly under 
the 2 percent ownership threshold for the de minimis test.

[[Page 77967]]

    To the extent that ERISA-covered trusts' interests in partnerships 
meet either the de minimis or the participation tests, then those 
interests will be treated as investment activities. To the extent that 
the partnership interests of ERISA-covered trusts do not meet the de 
minimis or the participation test, nothing about ERISA-covered trusts 
suggests that they are in greater need of the administrative 
convenience provided by such tests. Consequently, the Treasury 
Department and the IRS do not adopt this recommendation.
C. Anti-Abuse Rule
    One commenter noted that an exempt organization with a directly-
held partnership interest in a partnership that is not a QPI (non-QPI 
partnership) could also have one or more indirectly-held partnership 
interests in that same partnership through interests that are QPIs (QPI 
partnerships), which would effectively permit the exempt organization 
to significantly participate in a partnership but structure its 
partnership interest such that most of the distributable share of the 
partnership's income, losses, etc. would be aggregated with its other 
investment activities. The commenter recommended requiring an exempt 
organization receiving income through a QPI partnership that derives 
income from a non-QPI interest in the same partnership to segregate 
that income from the ``investment activities'' trade or business and 
report it separately for each underlying trade or business.
    Under the situation described by the commenter, an exempt 
organization's indirectly-held partnership interest (through a QPI 
partnership) in the non-QPI partnership would necessarily be limited by 
the fact that the exempt organization may own no more than 20 percent 
of the QPI partnership and the exempt organization cannot control the 
QPI partnership; therefore it would be difficult, and perhaps unlikely, 
for an exempt organization to actively arrange such a scenario for the 
purposes of avoiding the application of section 512(a)(6). Further, the 
application of such rule would reduce the administrative convenience 
that these rules seek to achieve. Accordingly, the Treasury Department 
and the IRS do not adopt the recommendation.
    The same commenter, noting that such a rule would reduce the 
administrative burden of the QPI rules, recommended the creation of an 
anti-abuse rule in the alternative. The Treasury Department and the IRS 
recognize that some situations, similar to the situation posited by the 
commenter or otherwise, may exist whereby an exempt organization may 
arrange partnership structures to avoid application of section 
512(a)(6). It is always the case that, upon examination, the IRS may 
determine whether partnership interests are QPIs under the application 
of the law to the facts and characterize such interests accordingly. 
Accordingly, the Treasury Department and the IRS do not consider a 
specific anti-abuse rule necessary for purposes of the QPI rules and 
the final regulations do not incorporate this comment.
c. Transition Rule
    Both Notice 2018-67 and the proposed regulations permitted an 
exempt organization to treat each partnership interest acquired prior 
to August 21, 2018, that met the requirements of neither the de minimis 
test nor the control test, as one trade or business for purposes of 
section 512(a)(6), regardless of whether there was more than one trade 
or business directly or indirectly conducted by the partnership or 
lower-tier partnerships (transition rule). This transition rule was 
proposed to apply until the first day of the organization's first 
taxable year beginning after the date the proposed regulations are 
published as final regulations (transition period). The proposed 
regulations clarified that a partnership interest acquired prior to 
August 21, 2018, will continue to meet the requirement of the 
transition rule even if the exempt organization's percentage interest 
changes on or after August 21, 2018. Further, the proposed regulations 
provided that an exempt organization may apply either the transition 
rule or the look-through rule, but not both, to a partnership interest 
that meets the requirements for both rules.
    Three commenters recommended that the transition rule become a 
grandfather rule such that any partnership interest meeting the 
requirements of the transition rule would be a single unrelated trade 
or business in perpetuity for purposes of section 512(a)(6). One 
commenter stated that the rationale for the transition rule outlined in 
Notice 2018-67 that ``[a] previously acquired partnership interest may 
be difficult to modify to the de minimis test or control test and the 
exempt organization may have to incur significant transaction costs to 
do so'' will continue to be an accurate reflection of the difficulty of 
transitioning such previously owned partnership interests even after 
the final regulations are published.
    Changing the transition rule to a grandfather rule is contrary to 
the congressional intent of section 512(a)(6) to prevent losses of one 
unrelated trade or business from offsetting gains of another unrelated 
trade or business. Exempt organizations have been on notice since the 
announcement of the transition rule in Notice 2018-67 that the 
transition rule would sunset after publication of final regulations and 
have had over two years since the release of Notice 2018-67 to 
anticipate the requirement to account for the income from such 
partnership interests differently. The Treasury Department and the IRS 
disagree that the rationale for the transition rule justifies 
perpetually excluding previously held partnership interests from the 
application of section 512(a)(6) to the unrelated trade or business 
activities of the partnership. Accordingly, the Treasury Department and 
the IRS do not adopt the transition rule as a grandfather rule.
d. Unrelated Debt-Financed Income
    The proposed regulations included unrelated debt-financed property 
or properties described in sections 512(b)(4) and 514 in the list of 
``investment activities'' treated as a separate unrelated trade or 
business for purposes of section 512(a)(6). One commenter recommended 
that the reference to the definition of debt-financed property ``within 
the meaning of section 514'' exclude section 514(b)(1)(B) because that 
paragraph removes from the definition of debt-financed property any 
property that is used in the production of income from an unrelated 
trade or business and proposed Sec.  1.512(a)-6(c)(1)(iii) includes 
income from debt-financed property in the ``investment activities trade 
or business.'' The commenter further recommended that ``debt-financed 
property'' exclude debt-financed property used in the production of 
income from an unrelated trade or business that is reported under a 
NAICS two-digit code by the exempt organization. Two other commenters 
recommended allowing exempt organizations to opt out of inclusion of 
debt-financed property as part of an exempt organization's investment 
activities and to instead include that income as part of a separate 
unrelated trade or business identified by the relevant NAICS 2-digit 
code.
    Section 512(b)(4) includes as UBTI any unrelated debt-financed 
income as defined in section 514. As part of the definition of debt-
financed property, section 514(b)(1)(B) provides that ``any property 
[is not debt-financed property] to the extent that the income from such 
property is taken into account in computing the gross income of any

[[Page 77968]]

unrelated trade or business'' without application of section 512(b)(4). 
For example, if an exempt organization runs a hotel, but it has taken 
out a loan to acquire the hotel, then the income from the hotel is UBTI 
regardless of section 512(b)(4) and the hotel is not ``debt-financed 
property.'' Sections 1.512(b)-1(c)(5) and 1.514(b)-1(b)(2)(ii). Thus, 
the income from the hotel is not ``debt-financed income.'' As a result, 
any income included in UBTI as ``debt-financed income'' necessarily 
derives from an activity that has otherwise been excluded from the 
definition of UBTI in section 512(a)(1), for reasons other than the 
exempt nature of the activity. Section 514 taxes otherwise nontaxable 
income, derived from leveraged income-producing assets, that are not 
related to an organization's exempt purposes. Debt-financed income is, 
therefore, of a different nature than income that is otherwise 
described in section 512(a)(1) and is more appropriately classified as 
investment rather than being tied to an underlying trade or business or 
NAICS 2-digit code.
    Furthermore, allowing an exempt organization to elect to treat the 
debt-financed income as part of a 2-digit NAICS code, instead of 
including such income as part of an organization's investment 
activities, would not reduce the burden upon the exempt organization or 
the burden on the IRS. Such income would still need to be identified as 
debt-financed income and an additional determination of the underlying 
activity would also need to be made to determine a 2-digit NAICS code. 
Furthermore, the inconsistent treatment of debt-financed income by 
different exempt organizations would increase the administrative burden 
for the IRS.
    Accordingly, the Treasury Department and the IRS adopt the proposed 
regulation regarding the treatment of debt-financed income without 
change.

3. S Corporation Interest Treated as an Interest in an Unrelated Trade 
or Business

    For purposes of the unrelated business income tax, section 512(e) 
provides special rules applicable to S corporations. Section 
512(e)(1)(A) provides that if an exempt organization permitted to be an 
S corporation shareholder (as described in section 1361(c)(2)(A)(vi) or 
(6)) holds stock in an S corporation, such interest will be treated as 
an interest in an unrelated trade or business. Thus, notwithstanding 
any other provision in sections 511 through 514, section 512(e)(1)(B) 
requires an exempt organization permitted to hold S corporation stock 
to take the following amounts into account in computing the UBTI of 
such exempt organization: (i) All items of income, loss, or deduction 
taken into account under section 1366(a) (regarding the determination 
of an S corporation shareholder's tax liability); and (ii) any gain or 
loss on the disposition of the stock in the S corporation.
a. Qualifying S Corporation Interests
    As discussed in part 2.a.i of this Summary of Comments and 
Explanation of Revisions, the proposed and final regulations include 
qualifying S corporation interests (QSI) in an exempt organization's 
investment activities. The proposed regulations explained that an S 
corporation interest is a QSI if the exempt organization's ownership 
interest (by percentage of stock ownership) in the S corporation meets 
the requirements for a QPI--that is, the requirements of either the de 
minimis test or the control test (now renamed the participation test).
    The final regulations provide greater clarity regarding how the QPI 
rules apply to S corporation interests. First, the final regulations 
provide a number of term substitutions. Specifically, the final 
regulations provide that, when applying the QPI rules to an S 
corporation interest, ``S corporation'' is substituted for 
``partnership'' and ``shareholder'' or ``shareholders'' is substituted 
for ``partner'' or ``partners.'' When applying the de minimis test, 
``no more than 2 percent of stock ownership'' is substituted for ``no 
more than 2 percent of the profits interest and no more than 2 percent 
of the capital interest'' and, when applying the participation test, 
``no more than 20 percent of stock ownership'' is substituted for ``no 
more than 20 percent of the capital interest.'' When applying the 
reliance rule, ``Schedule K-1 (Form 1120-S)'' is substituted for 
``Schedule K-1 (Form 1065).''
    Second, the final regulations clarify that the rules regarding the 
determination of an exempt organization's capital interest and profits 
interest in a partnership do not apply for purposes of determining 
whether an S corporation interest is a QSI. Rather, the average 
percentage stock ownership is determinative.
    Third, because of differences in the Schedule K-1 (Form 1065) and 
the Schedule K-1 (Form 1120-S), the final regulations clarify that an 
exempt organization can rely on the Schedule K-1 (Form 1120S) received 
from the S corporation if the form lists information sufficient to 
determine the exempt organization's percentage of stock ownership for 
the year. A Schedule K-1 (Form 1120-S) that reports ``zero'' as the 
organization's number of shares of stock in either the beginning or end 
of the S corporation's taxable year does not list information 
sufficient to determine the organization's percentage of stock 
ownership for the year. The Treasury Department and the IRS are 
considering whether revision of Schedule K-1 (Form 1120S) is needed to 
provide the information needed to determine whether an S corporation 
interest is a QSI.
    Finally, the final regulations also clarify that a grace period may 
apply for changes in an exempt organization's percentage of stock 
ownership in an S corporation.
b. Nonqualifying S Corporation Interests
    With the exception of QSIs, the proposed regulations applied the 
language of section 512(e)(1)(A) to provide that if an exempt 
organization owns stock in an S corporation, such S corporation 
interest will be treated as an interest in a separate unrelated trade 
or business for purposes of the proposed regulations. Similarly, the 
proposed regulations clarified that if an exempt organization owns two 
S corporation interests, neither of which is a QSI, the exempt 
organization will report two separate unrelated trades or businesses, 
one for each S corporation interest. The proposed regulations also 
provided that the UBTI from an S corporation interest is the amount 
described in section 512(e)(1)(B), which includes both the items of 
income, loss, or deduction taken into account under section 1366(a) and 
the gain or loss on the disposition of S corporation stock.
    Two commenters recommended that an exempt organization with an S 
corporation interest should be permitted to look through that S 
corporation to the underlying trades or businesses and to classify 
those S corporation trades or business using NAICS 2-digit codes. One 
of these commenters suggested that this should be the general rule for 
all non-qualifying S corporation interests. The other commenter 
provided that such a rule should be an alternative to the rule 
requiring each S corporation interest to be treated as an interest in a 
separate unrelated trade or business. One of these commenters further 
recommended that income that would ordinarily be excluded under section 
512(b)(1), (2), (3) or (5), but that is taxable because it is earned 
through an S corporation, should be included as part of the exempt 
organization's investment activities.
    The final regulations adopt the proposed regulations regarding non-

[[Page 77969]]

qualifying S corporation interests without change. As discussed in the 
preamble to the proposed regulations, this treatment is consistent with 
the language of section 512(e)(1)(A), which treats an interest in an S 
corporation as an unrelated trade or business. Although the Treasury 
Department and the IRS considered whether to permit exempt 
organizations to look through the S-corporation and identify the 
separate unrelated trades or businesses conducted by the S-corporation 
using NAICS 2-digit codes as a matter of administrative convenience, 
the commenters to Notice 2018-67 noted that obtaining that information 
from the S corporation would be difficult. Accordingly, the Treasury 
Department and the IRS decline to adopt a rule that modifies the 
straightforward application of the language of section 512(e)(1)(A) and 
is not otherwise justified as a matter of administrative convenience to 
taxpayers or the IRS.

4. Social Clubs, Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Associations, and 
Supplemental Unemployment Benefits Trusts

    As discussed in the preamble to the proposed regulations, section 
512(a)(3) provides a special definition of UBTI for social clubs, 
VEBAs, and SUBs.\5\ Unlike an exempt organization subject to section 
512(a)(1) which is taxed only on income derived from an unrelated trade 
or business, a social club, VEBA, or SUB is taxed on ``gross income 
(excluding exempt function income),'' which includes amounts excluded 
from the calculation of UBTI under section 512(a)(1), such as interest, 
annuities, dividends, royalties, rents, and capital gains. The preamble 
to the proposed regulations provided that, despite the differences 
between section 512(a)(1) and (3), a social club, VEBA, or SUB would 
determine whether it has more than one unrelated trade or business in 
the same manner as an exempt organization subject to section 512(a)(1). 
The final regulations adopt the same approach, as discussed in parts 
4.a and b of this Summary of Comments and Explanation of Revisions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \5\ See Sec.  1.512(a)-5, 84 FR 67370 (Dec. 10, 2019), for a 
discussion of the UBTI rules as they specifically apply to VEBAs and 
SUBs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

a. Investment Activities
    As discussed in part 2 of this Summary of Comments and Explanation 
of Revisions, the proposed regulations treated certain investment 
activities (that is, QPIs, QSIs, and debt-financed property or 
properties) as a separate unrelated trade or business for purposes of 
section 512(a)(6). Thus, because a social club, VEBA, or SUB determines 
whether it has more than one unrelated trade or business in the same 
manner as an exempt organization subject to section 512(a)(1), such an 
exempt organization would include the investment activities 
specifically listed in the proposed regulations as a separate unrelated 
trade or business for purposes of section 512(a)(6). However, because 
UBTI is defined differently for social clubs, VEBAs, and SUBs, the 
proposed regulations clarified that, in addition to other investment 
activities treated as a separate unrelated trade or business for 
purposes of section 512(a)(6), gross income from the investment 
activities of a social club, VEBA, or SUB also includes any amount that 
(i) would be excluded from the calculation of UBTI under section 
512(b)(1), (2), (3), or (5) (that is, interest, annuities, dividends, 
royalties, rents, and capital gains) if the organization were subject 
to section 512(a)(1); (ii) is attributable to income set aside (and not 
in excess of the set aside limit described in section 512(a)(3)(E)), 
but not used, for a purpose described in section 512(a)(3)(B)(i) or 
(ii); or (iii) is in excess of the set aside limit described in section 
512(a)(3)(E). The final regulations adopt the proposed investment 
activity rules specific to social clubs, VEBAs, and SUBs, without 
change as discussed in part 4.a.i and ii of this Summary of Comments 
and Explanation of Revisions.
    In the preamble to the proposed regulations, the Treasury 
Department and the IRS requested comments on any unintended 
consequences, in areas other than UBIT, resulting from the treatment of 
investment activity of VEBAs and SUBs as an unrelated trade or business 
for purposes of section 512(a)(6). One commenter expressed a concern 
that these proposed rules could encourage VEBAs and SUBs to create more 
complicated investment structures (for example, increased use of 
blocker corporations) or that these rules could encourage VEBAs and 
SUBs to consider more conservative investment strategies than otherwise 
merited based on their asset values.
    The commenter did not include any further elaboration on these 
general nontax concerns regarding the investment behavior of VEBAs and 
SUBs. Furthermore, the commenter did not offer a specific 
recommendation to address these general concerns other than its overall 
recommendation to not treat investment activities as an unrelated trade 
or business for purposes of section 512(a)(6). As discussed earlier in 
part 2 of this Summary of Comments and Explanation of Revisions, the 
Treasury Department and the IRS have concluded that the structure and 
purposes of sections 511 through 514 treat an exempt organization's 
investment activities as unrelated trade or business activities for 
purposes of section 512(a)(6). Accordingly, the final regulations adopt 
these provisions of the proposed regulations without change.
i. Amounts Described in Section 512(b)(1), (2), (3), and (5)
    Social clubs, VEBAs, and SUBs generally must include interest, 
dividends, royalties, rents, and capital gains in UBTI under section 
512(a)(3)(A) because the modifications in section 512(b)(1), (2), (3), 
and (5) are not available under section 512(a)(3). Nonetheless, such 
amounts may be excluded from UBTI if set aside (and not in excess of 
the set aside limit described in section 512(a)(3)(E)) for a purpose 
described in section 512(a)(3)(B)(i) or (ii).\6\ Interest, dividends, 
royalties, rents, and capital gains generally are considered income 
from investment activities and, as stated in part 4 of this Summary of 
Comments and Explanation of Revisions, treated as one unrelated trade 
or business for purposes of section 512(a)(6). Accordingly, the 
proposed regulations provided that, for purposes of section 512(a)(6), 
UBTI from the investment activities of a social club, VEBA, or SUB 
includes any amount that would be excluded from the calculation of UBTI 
under section 512(b)(1), (2), (3), or (5) if the social club, VEBA, or 
SUB were subject to section 512(a)(1).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \6\ As explained in the introduction to part 4 of this Summary 
of Comments and Explanation of Revisions, treating the investment 
activities of a social club, VEBA, or SUB as an unrelated trade or 
business for purposes of section 512(a)(6) does not affect the 
amounts that may be set aside under section 512(a)(3)(B)(i) or (ii).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Commenters generally were in favor of this approach. Accordingly, 
the final regulations adopt this portion of the proposed regulations 
without change.
ii. Amounts Set Aside But Used for Another Purpose and Amounts in 
Excess of Account Limits
    Section 512(a)(3)(B) provides that, if an amount which is 
attributable to income set aside for a purpose described in section 
512(a)(3)(B)(i) or (ii) is used for a purpose other than one described 
therein, then such amount shall be included in UBTI under section 
512(a)(3)(A). Furthermore, with respect to a VEBA or SUB, the amount 
set aside may not exceed the set aside limit under section 512(a)(3)(E) 
and any amount that exceeds this limit is UBTI under section 
512(a)(3)(A).

[[Page 77970]]

    As discussed in part 4.a.i of this Summary of Comments and 
Explanation of Revisions, the amounts that may be set aside under 
section 512(a)(3)(B)(i) or (ii) are income from the social club, VEBA, 
or SUB's investment activities. Therefore, the proposed regulations 
also provided that UBTI from the investment activities of a social 
club, VEBA, or SUB includes any amount that is attributable to income 
set aside (and not in excess of the set aside limit described in 
section 512(a)(3)(E)), but not used, for a purpose described in section 
512(a)(3)(B)(i) or (ii) and also includes any amount in excess of the 
set aside limit described in section 512(a)(3)(E).
    No comments were received on this section of the proposed 
regulations and it is therefore adopted as final.
b. Social Club Activities
i. Limitation on Investment Activities
    Section 501(c)(7) requires that ``substantially all of the 
activities'' of an organization described therein be ``for pleasure, 
recreation, and other nonprofitable purposes.'' Accordingly, a social 
club has specific limits on the amount of nonexempt function income 
that may be earned without endangering its tax-exempt status. While the 
Code does not provide more detail, intended limits are described in 
legislative history. See S. Rep. No. 94-1318 (1976), at 4-5. 
Additionally, Congress did not intend social clubs to receive, within 
these limits, non-traditional unrelated business income. Id. at 4 (``It 
is not intended that these organizations should be permitted to receive 
. . . income from the active conduct of businesses not traditionally 
carried on by these organizations.''). Accordingly, consistent with 
Notice 2018-67, the proposed regulations provided that the QPI rule and 
the transition rule do not apply to social clubs because social clubs 
should not be invested in partnerships that would generally be 
conducting non-traditional, unrelated trades or businesses that 
generate more than a de minimis amount of UBTI. In this regard, a 
partnership interest meeting the requirements of the de minimis rule in 
these proposed regulations is not the same as a partnership interest 
generating only de minimis amounts of UBTI from non-traditional, 
unrelated trades or businesses.
    One commenter recommended that social clubs should have access to 
the de minimis test for investments in partnerships. The commenter 
states that partnership holdings may include exclusively items that are 
described in section 512(b)(1), (2), (3), and (5) and that social clubs 
would have equal difficulty determining the underlying trade or 
business as other exempt organization investors.
    The Treasury Department and the IRS do not adopt the commenter's 
recommendation for the following reasons. To the extent that a social 
club is invested in a partnership all of the holdings of which would be 
excluded under section 512(b)(1), (2), (3), and (5) if the social club 
were subject to section 512(a)(1), then all such income is part of the 
social club's investment activities trade or business without 
application of the de minimis test. To the extent that a social club 
holds, directly or indirectly, an interest in a partnership that is 
performing a non-traditional, unrelated trade or business, then under 
section 512(c) the social club itself is engaged in a non-traditional, 
unrelated trade or business. Because a social club's nontraditional 
activities could jeopardize a social club's exemption, it is incumbent 
upon the social club to know the type and amount of such activities 
without regard to section 512(a)(6). Thus, the Treasury Department and 
the IRS do not consider the administrative convenience rationale 
supporting the QPI rule as relevant for social clubs and do not adopt 
the commenter's recommendation.
ii. Nonmember Activities
    Under the proposed regulations, a social club with nonmember income 
is subject to the same rules for identifying its unrelated trades or 
businesses as an organization subject to the rules of section 
512(a)(1). Further, as discussed in the preamble to the proposed 
regulations, a social club cannot use the NAICS 2-digit code generally 
describing golf courses and country clubs (71) to describe all its 
nonmember income because the NAICS code used must describe its separate 
unrelated trade or business and not the purpose for which it is exempt. 
While this code may describe some of a social club's nonmember income, 
such as greens fees, other NAICS codes may be more appropriate to 
describe other nonmember income, such as merchandise sales (45) and 
food and beverage services (72). Accordingly, a social club must 
identify its separate unrelated trades or businesses in accordance with 
the rule described in part 1 of this Summary of Comments and 
Explanation of Revisions, like an exempt organization subject to 
section 512(a)(1). See part 1.c of this Summary of Comments and 
Explanation of Revisions for a discussion of how to identify the 
appropriate NAICS 2-digit code.
    Commenters again requested that a social club be permitted to treat 
all nonmember activities as one unrelated trade or business for 
purposes of section 512(a)(6). The commenters stated that separating a 
social club's nonmember activities into more than one unrelated trade 
or business would result in substantial administrative burden. The 
commenters describe the variety of activities in which social clubs 
engage, including food and beverage sales in club dining facilities and 
on club grounds (such as at pools or on golf courses and tennis 
courts); retail sales; greens fees; and space rental fees, whether or 
not they include substantial services. One commenter also stated that, 
because the treatment of UBTI for social clubs under section 512(a)(3) 
is different from that of other exempt organizations' treatment of UBTI 
under section 512(a)(1), using different rules to identify the separate 
unrelated trades or businesses for social clubs was reasonable. 
Finally, a commenter provided that, because social clubs are already 
capped at 15 percent of their revenue from nonmember activities, 
aggregating all nonmember income under that cap has a de minimis effect 
on taxable income while greatly decreasing the administrative burden of 
such organizations.
    Section 512(a)(3) taxes all income, other than exempt function 
income, of the exempt organizations subject to that section, while 
section 512(a)(1) taxes only the income from the unrelated trades or 
businesses of all other exempt organizations. As a result, section 
512(a)(3) captures a broader group of sources of income than under 
section 512(a)(1). Further, Congress has previously expressed a desire 
to limit the nonmember income of a social club to 15 percent of all 
income and to constrain further the non-traditional trades or 
businesses of a social club. See S. Rep. No. 94-1318, at 4. Social 
clubs would be in a more favorable tax position if social clubs were 
permitted to aggregate income that organizations subject to section 
512(a)(1) would not be able to aggregate if they performed the same 
activities. The Treasury Department and the IRS are not persuaded that 
social clubs should have a more favorable position under section 
512(a)(6) than other exempt organizations. Additionally, section 
512(a)(6) does not specifically except social clubs, nor does it except 
a social club's nonmember income. Accordingly, the Treasury Department 
and the IRS do not adopt the recommendation to treat

[[Page 77971]]

all of a social club's nonmember income as a single unrelated trade or 
business.
    One commenter recommended that social clubs be permitted to use the 
Uniform System of Financial Reporting for Clubs that is produced 
jointly by Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals and Club 
Managers Association of America. This commenter stated that this system 
would better represent separate unrelated trades or businesses 
historically identified by social clubs.
    The accounting system recommended by the commenter is a proprietary 
system that is not available for public use. Adopting this system as 
the required method of identifying a separate unrelated trade or 
business for social clubs would require all such clubs to purchase the 
materials of a third-party provider. Accordingly, the Treasury 
Department and the IRS do not adopt the Uniform System of Financial 
Reporting for Clubs as a method of identifying a separate unrelated 
trade or business for social clubs.
    The final regulations adopt the proposed regulations' treatment of 
a social club's nonmember activities without change.
iii. Nonrecurring Events
    The Treasury Department and the IRS recognize that UBTI within the 
meaning of section 512(a)(3) includes gross income without regard to a 
specific determination regarding the associated activities' 
qualification as an unrelated trade or business (within the meaning of 
section 513) because UBTI under section 512(a)(3) includes ``all gross 
income (excluding exempt function income).''
    These final regulations generally require an exempt organization to 
identify its separate unrelated trades or businesses using the NAICS 2-
digit code that most accurately describes each trade or business. 
Whether an infrequent or possibly nonrecurring event constitutes a 
separate unrelated trade or business or whether such event is part of 
another trade or business (including, in some cases, part of the social 
club's investment activities) depends on the facts and circumstances of 
each social club and the event at issue, including the scope of 
activities as part of the event. While such determination is not 
necessary for including such income in UBTI under section 512(a)(3), 
identification of separate unrelated trades or businesses is necessary 
for applying section 512(a)(6). In the preamble to the proposed 
regulations, the Treasury Department and the IRS requested comments 
regarding the particular facts and circumstances that should be 
considered by a social club when determining whether a non-recurring 
event should be treated as a separate unrelated trade or business, part 
of a larger trade or business, or as part of a social club's investment 
activities for purposes of section 512(a)(6).
    Multiple commenters provided several facts and circumstances that 
might assist a social club in identifying the separate unrelated trade 
or business associated with the non-recurring activity. However, the 
Treasury Department and the IRS have determined that, due to the 
limited nature of these activities and the great variety of such 
circumstances, the inclusion of such a list of factors within the final 
regulations is not warranted at this time. Accordingly, the Treasury 
Department and the IRS do not adopt any additional factors for social 
clubs to consider when identifying the separate trade or business of 
the non-recurring activity. Social clubs can rely on the general rules 
in the final regulations for identifying a separate trade or business 
to identify the separate trade or business associated with non-
recurring events.
iv. Activities Without a Profit Motive
    As discussed in part 1 of this Summary of Comments and Explanation 
of Revisions, Sec.  1.513-1(b) provides that ``for purposes of section 
513 the term trade or business has the same meaning it has in section 
162, and generally includes any activity carried on for the production 
of income.'' The requirement for a trade or business to have an intent 
to profit is further supported by case law. See, e.g., Commissioner v. 
Groetzinger, 480 U.S. 23, 35 (1987) (stating that, ``to be engaged in a 
trade or business, . . . the taxpayer's primary purpose for engaging in 
the activity must be for income or profit''). This profit motive 
requirement was applied to the unrelated trades or businesses of a 
social club in Portland Golf Club v. Commissioner, 497 U.S. 154 (1990) 
(finding that, under section 512(a)(3) prior to the enactment of 
section 512(a)(6), the golf club could use nonmember sales losses for 
food and drink to offset investment income only if the sales were 
motivated by an intent to profit, and in demonstrating the requisite 
profit motive, the golf club had to employ the same method of 
allocating fixed expenses as it used in calculating its actual loss).
    One commenter on the proposed regulations requested that the 
Treasury Department and the IRS clarify that nonmember activities 
conducted without intent to profit are not unrelated trades or 
businesses. In the preamble to the proposed regulations, the Treasury 
Department and the IRS declined to address this comment in the proposed 
regulations because it is adequately addressed by existing precedent 
and cited to Portland Golf.
    In response to the preamble of the proposed regulations, one 
commenter stated that a specific trade or business activity must be 
identified prior to determining whether it creates losses on a 
consistent basis. Given that the trade or business activity must first 
be identified, and that the proposed regulations prescribed the use of 
NAICS 2-digit codes for identifying a separate unrelated trade or 
business, the commenter noted that a social club must first identify 
the appropriate NAICS 2-digit code for a trade or business activity and 
determine whether the trade or business activity represented by that 
NAICS 2-digit code generates losses on a consistent basis (and thus may 
lack the requisite profit motive to be a trade or business at all for 
UBIT purposes). Under this analysis, the commenter recommended allowing 
exempt organizations to include, or exclude, certain activities from a 
trade or business based on the social club's internal determination 
that the activity lacks a profit motive.
    The Treasury Department and the IRS agree that profit motive is 
relevant to determining whether an activity is a trade or business and 
that an exempt organization has a separate unrelated trade or business 
for purposes of section 512(a)(6) only if the activity being analyzed 
as separate is a trade or business. The Treasury Department and the IRS 
also agree that, for UBIT purposes, the appropriate level for 
determining whether a profit motive exists (based on the generation of 
consistent losses) with regard to an activity as a trade or business is 
the NAICS 2-digit level since the Treasury Department and the IRS have 
determined that the NAICS 2-digit codes appropriately identify separate 
unrelated trades or businesses.
    However, the Treasury Department and the IRS do not adopt the 
commenter's recommendation to allow exempt organizations to exclude 
certain activities from the UBTI calculation based on the 
organization's assertion of a lack of intention to make a profit. In 
determining the lack of a profit motive, greater weight is given to 
objective facts than to a taxpayer's intent. See, e.g., Sec.  1.183-
2(a). Thus, an exempt organization would need to demonstrate a factual 
lack of profit motive rather than claiming a lack of intent without any 
demonstrated losses. Furthermore, in light of the purpose and effect of

[[Page 77972]]

section 512(a)(6) to not permit losses from one trade or business to 
offset income from another trade or business, the commenter's 
recommendation would only benefit exempt organizations if the exempt 
organization could exclude income from a trade or business activity 
(first separated on the basis of the NAICS 2-digit code levels) from 
UBTI on an assertion that the exempt organization has no profit motive 
with regard to such activity notwithstanding the income from that 
activity. The Treasury Department and the IRS do not see any basis for 
providing such a rule.

5. Total UBTI and the Charitable Contribution Deduction

    Consistent with section 512(a)(6), the proposed regulations 
provided that the total UBTI of an exempt organization with more than 
one unrelated trade or business is the sum of the UBTI with respect to 
each separate unrelated trade or business, less the specific deduction 
under section 512(b)(12), and that the UBTI with respect to any 
separate unrelated trade or business cannot be less than zero.
    Section 512(b)(10) and (11) permit exempt organizations to take a 
charitable contribution deduction. The amount of this deduction, in the 
case of section 512(b)(10), which applies to most exempt organizations, 
is limited to 10 percent of UBTI computed without application of the 
charitable contribution deduction and, in the case of section 
512(b)(11), which applies to certain trusts, is limited to the amounts 
described in section 170(b)(1)(A) and (B) determined with reference to 
UBTI, again, computed without application of the charitable 
contribution deduction. The proposed regulations clarified that the 
term ``unrelated business taxable income'' as used in section 
512(b)(10) and (11) refers to UBTI after application of section 
512(a)(6). As a result, the limitations on the charitable contribution 
deduction would be computed using total UBTI under section 
512(a)(6)(B).
    Although the proposed regulations clarified how to calculate the 
limitation on the charitable contribution deduction (that is, using 
total UBTI), the proposed regulations did not explicitly state, other 
than in the preamble, that the charitable contribution deduction was to 
be taken against total UBTI. Accordingly, the final regulations have 
been revised to clarify that the total UBTI of an exempt organization 
with more than one unrelated trade or business is the sum of the UBTI 
with respect to each separate unrelated trade or business, less a 
charitable contribution deduction, an NOL deduction for losses arising 
in taxable years beginning before January 1, 2018 (discussed in part 6 
of this Summary of Comments and Explanation of Revisions), and a 
specific deduction under section 512(b)(12), as applicable.
    One commenter asserted that certain expenses, such as tax return 
preparation fees and state taxes, are difficult to allocate between two 
or more unrelated trades or businesses and recommended that exempt 
organizations be permitted to deduct such expenses against total UBTI. 
Similarly, this commenter recommended that investment management fees 
be deducted against total investment related UBTI (instead of total 
UBTI). In support of this suggestion, this commenter noted that the 
proposed regulations permitted the charitable contribution deduction in 
section 512(b)(10) and (11) to be taken against total UBTI.
    The final regulations do not adopt this commenter's 
recommendations. First, the charitable contribution deduction in 
section 512(b)(10) and (11) is distinguishable from other deductions 
under section 512(a)(1) or (3) or section 512(b) because the Code 
specifically provides that this deduction is permitted ``whether or not 
directly connected with the carrying on of an unrelated trade or 
business.'' Accordingly, the Treasury Department and the IRS determined 
that the charitable contribution deduction could be taken against total 
UBTI calculated under section 512(a)(6)(B).
    Second, the structure of section 512(a)(6) itself confirms that 
Congress did not intend for any deductions to be taken against total 
UBTI calculated under section 512(a)(6)(B) other than the ones 
specifically permitted. Section 512(a)(6)(A) provides that, when 
calculating the UBTI of a separate unrelated trade or business, such 
calculation is made ``without regard to'' the specific deduction in 
section 512(b)(12). Section 512(a)(6)(B) clarifies that total UBTI is 
the sum of UBTI computed with respect to each separate unrelated trade 
or business ``less a specific deduction under [section] 512(b)(12).'' 
Thus, the only deductions permitted against total UBTI are a charitable 
contribution deduction under section 512(b)(10) and (11), an NOL 
deduction for losses arising in taxable years beginning before January 
1, 2018 (permitted by section 13702(b)(2) of the TCJA), and a specific 
deduction under section 512(b)(12). All other deductions are taken 
against the UBTI of each separate unrelated trade or business, provided 
that each such deduction meets the requirements of section 512(a)(1) or 
(3), as applicable. Any deduction attributable to more than one 
unrelated trade or business must be allocated in accordance with Sec.  
1.512(a)-1(c) of the current regulations.

6. NOLs and UBTI

a. NOL Deduction Calculated Separately With Respect to Each Trade or 
Business
    Consistent with the statute and the proposed regulations, the final 
regulations provide that, for taxable years beginning after December 
31, 2017, an exempt organization with more than one unrelated trade or 
business determines the NOL deduction allowed by sections 172(a) and 
512(b)(6) separately with respect to each of its unrelated trades or 
businesses. Also consistent with the proposed regulations, the final 
regulations provide that Sec.  1.512(b)-1(e), which addresses the 
application of section 172 in the context of UBIT, applies separately 
with respect to each such unrelated trade or business.
b. Coordination of NOLs
    The proposed regulations provided that an organization with losses 
arising in a taxable year beginning before January 1, 2018 (pre-2018 
NOLs), and losses arising in a taxable year beginning after December 
31, 2017 (post-2017 NOLs), deducts its pre-2018 NOLs from total UBTI 
before deducting any post-2017 NOLs with regard to a separate unrelated 
trade or business against the UBTI from such trade or business. One 
commenter recommended that an exempt organization be permitted to 
choose the order in which it uses pre-2018 and post-2017 NOLs based on 
its own facts and circumstances.
    The Treasury Department and the IRS do not accept this 
recommendation. Section 1.172-4(a)(3) of the current regulations 
provides that the amount which is carried back or carried over to any 
taxable year is an NOL ``to the extent it was not absorbed in the 
computation of the taxable (or net) income for other taxable years, 
preceding such taxable year, to which it may be carried back or carried 
over.'' This section further provides that, for the purpose of 
determining the taxable (or net) income for any such preceding taxable 
year, the various NOL carryovers and carrybacks to such taxable year 
are considered to be applied in reduction of the taxable (or net) 
income in the order of the taxable years from which such losses are 
carried over or carried back, beginning with the loss for the earliest 
taxable year. Furthermore, in Notice 2018-67, the Treasury Department 
and

[[Page 77973]]

the IRS noted that section 512(a)(6) may have changed the order in 
which NOLs are taken and requested comments regarding how the NOL 
deduction should be taken under section 512(a)(6) by exempt 
organizations with more than one unrelated trade or business and, in 
particular, by such organizations with both pre-2018 and post-2017 
NOLs. Comments received in response to Notice 2018-67 noted that 
section 512(a)(6) does not alter the ordering rules under section 172 
and that pre-2018 NOLs should be allowed prior to post-2017 NOLs, 
especially because pre-2018 NOLs remain subject to a carry-forward 
limitation. The commenter on the proposed regulations provided no new 
information that would support changing the NOL ordering rule for 
purposes of section 512(a)(6). Accordingly, the final regulations adopt 
the proposed regulations without change.
    The proposed regulations further provided that pre-2018 NOLs are 
taken against total UBTI in the manner that results in maximum 
utilization of the pre-2018 NOLs in a taxable year. One commenter 
requested that the final regulations clarify the methodology or 
principle that should be used to allocate pre-2018 NOLs among separate 
unrelated trades or businesses. The methods suggested by this commenter 
would result in the pro-rata distribution of pre-2018 NOLs based on 
various factors, such as the ratio of UBTI of a separate unrelated 
trade or business to total UBTI. In the alternative, two commenters 
proposed that an exempt organization be permitted to use any reasonable 
method to allocate its pre-2018 NOLs.
    Although pre-2018 NOLs are taken against total UBTI, pre-2018 NOLs 
must be allocated in some manner between separate unrelated trades or 
businesses to determine the amount of pre-2018 NOLs actually taken in a 
taxable year because the UBTI with respect to each separate unrelated 
trade or business is calculated before total UBTI and post-2017 NOLs 
are taken against the UBTI of the separate unrelated trade or business 
in which they arose. Pre-2018 NOLs could be allocated any number of 
ways, including ratably between separate unrelated trades or businesses 
or only to those separate unrelated trades or businesses with no post-
2017 NOLs. In permitting the ``maximum utilization of the pre-2018 NOLs 
in a taxable year'' in the proposed regulations, the Treasury 
Department and the IRS intended to provide exempt organizations with 
the flexibility to choose how to allocate pre-2018 NOLs among separate 
unrelated trades or businesses. However, the actual effect of this rule 
is to permit an exempt organization to maximize post-2017 NOLs taken 
against the UBTI from the separate unrelated trades or businesses after 
taking the pre-2018 NOLs. Accordingly, the final regulations clarify 
that pre-2018 NOLs are taken against the total UBTI in a manner that 
allows for maximum utilization of post-2017 NOLs, rather than pre-2018 
NOLs, in a taxable year. For example, the final regulations further 
clarify that an exempt organization may allocate all of its pre-2018 
NOLs to one of its separate unrelated trades or businesses or it may 
allocate its pre-2018 NOLs ratably among its separate unrelated trades 
or businesses, whichever results in the greater utilization of the 
post-2017 NOLs in that taxable year.
    Additionally, several commenters requested guidance regarding how 
changes made to section 172 by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and 
Economic Security Act, Public Law 116-136, 134 Stat. 281 (2020) (CARES 
Act) would affect section 512(a)(6). The Treasury Department and the 
IRS are considering how these changes affect the calculation of UBTI 
under section 512(a)(6) and expect to publish additional guidance on 
the issue. It is anticipated that this additional guidance will include 
examples that illustrate both how the changes to the CARES Act affect 
the calculation of UBTI as well as how an exempt organization 
calculates UBTI when it has pre-2018 NOLs, either with or without post-
2017 NOLs.
c. Treatment of NOLs Upon Sale, Transfer, Termination, or Other 
Disposition of a Separate Unrelated Trade or Business
    Several commenters requested guidance on the treatment of 
accumulated NOLs upon the sale, transfer, termination, or other 
disposition of a separate unrelated trade or business. At least one 
commenter recommended that, in such an event, the use of all such prior 
losses be applied first to any gain realized on the disposition of the 
trade or business and that any remaining losses be permitted to offset 
UBTI from other, separate unrelated trades or businesses. Another 
commenter recommended that any accumulated NOLs be suspended and taken 
if the exempt organization later resumes the separate unrelated trade 
or business.
    Section 512(a)(6) permits only pre-2018 NOLs to be taken against 
total UBTI. Consistent with the legislative intent of section 
512(a)(6), losses attributable to a separate unrelated trade or 
business may be taken only against income from that separate unrelated 
trade or business. However, the Treasury Department and the IRS 
recognize that an exempt organization later may recommence that 
separate unrelated trade or business or acquire a separate unrelated 
trade or business identified in the same manner. Accordingly, the final 
regulations provide that, after offsetting any gain from the 
termination, sale, exchange, or other disposition of a separate 
unrelated trade or business, any NOL remaining is suspended. However, 
the suspended NOLs may be used if that previous separate unrelated 
trade or business is later resumed or if a new unrelated trade or 
business that is accurately identified using the same NAICS 2-digit 
code as the previous separate unrelated trade or business is commenced 
or acquired in a future taxable year.
d. Treatment of NOLs Upon Changing Identification of a Separate 
Unrelated Trade or Business
    Six commenters requested that the final regulations clarify what 
happens to NOLs when a partnership interest moves in and out of QPI 
status. The Treasury Department and the IRS expect that the grace 
period described in part 2.b.vi of this Summary of Comments and 
Explanation of Revisions will reduce the incidence of partnership 
interests moving in and out of QPI status. Nonetheless, instances will 
exist where a partnership interest that was a QPI becomes a non-QPI. 
Additionally, as discussed in part 1.d of this Summary of Comments and 
Explanation of Revisions, an exempt organization may change the NAICS 
2-digit code identifying a separate unrelated trade or business. Thus, 
the same question exists regarding what happens to NOLs when the NAICS 
2-digit code identifying a separate unrelated trade or business 
changes.
    In response to the commenters, the final regulations generally 
provide that, for purposes of section 512(a)(6), a separate unrelated 
trade or business that changes identification is treated as if the 
originally identified separate unrelated trade or business is 
terminated and a new separate unrelated trade or business is commenced. 
As a result, none of the NOLs from the previously identified separate 
unrelated trade or business will be carried over to the newly 
identified separate unrelated trade or business. For example, if the 
nature of a separate unrelated trade or business changes such that it 
is more accurately described by another NAICS 2-digit code, the 
separate unrelated trade or business is treated as a new

[[Page 77974]]

separate unrelated trade or business with no NOLs.
    The final regulations further clarify that the change in 
identification may apply to all or a part of the originally identified 
separate unrelated trade or business. If the change in identification 
applies to the originally identified separate trade or business in its 
entirety, any NOLs attributable to that separate unrelated trade or 
business are suspended. If the change in identification applies to the 
originally identified separate unrelated trade or business in part, to 
aid in tax administration and to avoid a need for allocation of NOLs 
within an originally identified separate trade or business, the 
originally identified separate unrelated trade or business that is not 
changing retains the full NOLs attributable to it, including the 
portion for which the identification is changing. Additionally, the 
final regulations provide that this general rule also applies to the 
separate unrelated trades or businesses that are identified when a QPI 
becomes a non-QPI. In this case, any NOLs attributable to the QPI that 
became a non-QPI are retained with the organization's investment 
activities.
    Under the final regulations, a change in identification is 
effective as of the first day of the taxable year in which the change 
is made. Accordingly, the final regulations treat the newly identified 
separate unrelated trade or business as commencing on this date.
    Nonetheless, the final regulations provide an exception for when an 
organization has determined that an unrelated trade or business is more 
accurately identified by another NAICS 2-digit code, provided that 
there has been no material change in the unrelated trade or business. 
In these cases, the final regulations provide that the NOLs 
attributable to the previously identified separate unrelated trade or 
business are NOLs of the newly identified separate unrelated trade or 
business. This approach is consistent with the legislative intent that 
losses from one unrelated trade or business not be used to offset the 
gains from another unrelated trade or business but recognizes that 
mistakes may be made and that NOLs should not be suspended (as 
discussed in part 6.c of this Summary of Comments and Explanation of 
Revisions) in such a case. The final regulations provide examples 
illustrating the application of these rules regarding NOLs.
e. Coordination of NOL and Excess Charitable Contribution Carryovers
    The proposed regulations requested comments on the coordination of 
NOL and excess contribution carryovers. The proposed regulations noted 
that an ordering rule may be necessary. Although a few comments were 
received, these final regulations do not address this issue. The 
Treasury Department and the IRS continue to consider this issue and 
will issue additional guidance, if needed.

7. Form 990-T

    At least one commenter requested clarification regarding the 
reporting of separate unrelated trades or businesses that do not have 
corresponding NAICS codes, such as investment activities, income from 
certain controlled entities, and non-qualifying S corporation 
interests. The IRS is in the process of revising the 2020 Form 990-T 
and related instructions. It is anticipated that separate unrelated 
trades or businesses that are not identified using NAICS 2-digit 
codes--that is, separate unrelated trades or businesses identified 
under Sec.  1.512(a)-6(c) (investment activities), (d)(1) (specified 
payments from controlled entities), (d)(2) (certain amounts derived 
from controlled foreign corporations), and (e) (non-qualifying S 
corporation interests)--will be identified using numeric codes 
distinguishable from NAICS codes. The instructions to the Form 990-T 
will explain how an exempt organization determines the appropriate code 
to use, as well as how to report code changes.

8. Waiver of Penalties Not Provided

    One commenter requested that the Treasury Department and the IRS 
waive any penalties arising from the underpayment of tax for tax years 
prior to the applicability date of the final regulations. As discussed 
in the Applicability Dates section of this preamble, an exempt 
organization may rely on a reasonable, good-faith interpretation of 
section 512(a)(6) prior to the applicability date of the final 
regulations. Accordingly, the Treasury Department and the IRS decline 
to waive any underpayment penalties with respect to the calculation of 
UBTI under section 512(a)(6).

9. Individual Retirement Accounts

    The proposed regulations added a new paragraph to Sec.  1.513-1 
clarifying that the section 513(b) definition of ``unrelated trade or 
business'' applies to individual retirement accounts (IRAs) described 
in section 408. No comments were received with respect to this 
provision. Accordingly, the final regulations adopt these proposed 
regulations without change.

10. Inclusions of Subpart F Income and Global Intangible Low-Taxed 
Income

    The proposed regulations revised Sec.  1.512(b)-1(a) to clarify 
that an inclusion of subpart F income under section 951(a)(1)(A) is 
treated in the same manner as a dividend for purposes of section 
512(b)(1) and that an inclusion of global intangible low-taxed income 
(GILTI) under section 951A(a) is treated in the same manner as an 
inclusion of subpart F income under section 951(a)(1)(A) for purposes 
of section 512(b)(1). At least one commenter explicitly supported this 
treatment of an inclusion of subpart F income or GILTI and no other 
comments were received. Therefore, the final regulations adopt these 
proposed regulations without change.

11. Public Support

    The preamble to the proposed regulations confirmed that section 
512(a)(6) potentially impacted the calculation of public support under 
sections 509(a)(1) and 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) and under section 509(a)(2) 
(the public support tests) because of the inability of an exempt 
organization with more than one unrelated trade or business to use 
losses from one unrelated trade or business to offset gains from 
another unrelated trade or business. Furthermore, the preamble to the 
proposed regulations noted that the Treasury Department and the IRS 
were not aware of any congressional intent to change the public support 
tests in enacting section 512(a)(6). Accordingly, the proposed 
regulations revised Sec. Sec.  1.170A-9(f) and 1.509(a)-3 to permit an 
organization with more than one unrelated trade or business to 
aggregate its net income and net losses from all of its unrelated 
business activities, including unrelated trades or businesses within 
the meaning of section 512, for purposes of determining whether an 
organization is publicly supported.
    Commenters agreed that Congress likely did not intend to change the 
public support tests when enacting section 512(a)(6) and generally 
supported the proposed clarifications to the public support test. 
However, two commenters noted that an exempt organization that 
satisfies the public support tests using its UBTI calculated for 
purposes of section 512(a)(6) also will satisfy the public support 
tests if it calculates its UBTI in the aggregate. These commenters 
therefore recommended that an exempt organization be permitted to use 
either its UBTI calculated under section 512(a)(6) or its UBTI 
calculated in the aggregate to determine public support.

[[Page 77975]]

These commenters noted that this approach would reduce the 
administrative burden on exempt organizations because organizations 
that satisfy the requirements of the public support test using their 
UBTI calculated under section 512(a)(6) would not be required to 
recalculate UBTI in the aggregate. At the same time, this approach 
would also address any unintended consequence of the enactment of 
section 512(a)(6) for exempt organizations that have historically 
satisfied the requirements of the public support test but would no 
longer because of the effect of section 512(a)(6). The final 
regulations adopt these commenters' suggestions and permit an exempt 
organization with more than one unrelated trade or business to 
determine public support using either its UBTI calculated under section 
512(a)(6) or its UBTI calculated in the aggregate.

12. Technical Correction of Inadvertently Omitted Regulatory Language

    The proposed regulations made a technical correction to Sec.  
1.512(a)-1(b) by including language that was omitted from the Federal 
Register when the final regulation was published in 1975. No comments 
were received with respect to this technical correction. Accordingly, 
the final regulations adopt the technical correction in the proposed 
regulations without change.

Applicability Dates

    The proposed regulations were proposed to apply to taxable years 
beginning on or after the date the regulations were published in the 
Federal Register as final regulations. Two commenters recommended that 
the applicability date of the final regulations be delayed. Another 
commenter suggested that the applicability date be extended such that 
all exempt organizations be provided with at least one year before the 
final regulations are applicable. This commenter explained that time 
will be required to implement the final regulations, including making 
changes to accounting systems. Accordingly, this commenter proposed 
that the applicability date of the final regulations be extended to the 
first day of the second taxable year beginning after the date the final 
regulations are published in the Federal Register.
    The Treasury Department and the IRS recognize that implementation 
of the requirements of section 512(a)(6) by some exempt organizations 
requires changes to the way these organizations track income and 
expenses. However, the Treasury Department and the IRS have provided 
guidance regarding how exempt organizations would be expected to comply 
with section 512(a)(6) starting with Notice 2018-67 in September of 
2018 and continuing with the proposed regulations in April of 2020. The 
final regulations adopt the proposed regulations with minor changes 
requested by commenters. Accordingly, consistent with the proposed 
regulations, the final regulations are applicable to taxable years 
beginning on or after December 2, 2020. In addition, an exempt 
organization may choose to apply the final regulations under section 
512(a)(6), as well as the final regulations relating to the calculation 
of public support, to taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 
2018, and before December 2, 2020. Alternatively, an exempt 
organization may rely on a reasonable, good-faith interpretation of 
section 512(a)(6) for such taxable years. For this purpose, a 
reasonable good faith interpretation includes the methods of 
aggregating or identifying separate trades or businesses provided in 
Notice 2018-67 or the proposed regulations.
    With respect to the inclusions of subpart F income or GILTI 
discussed in part 10 of the Summary of Comments and Explanation of 
Revisions, a taxpayer may choose to apply the final regulations under 
Sec.  1.512(b)-1(a) to taxable years beginning before December 2, 2020 
consistent with the longstanding position of the Treasury Department 
and the IRS on the inclusion of subpart F income under section 
951(a)(1)(A).

Statement of Availability of IRS Documents

    For copies of recently issued Revenue Procedures, Revenue Rulings, 
Notices, and other guidance published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin, 
please visit the IRS website at http://www.irs.gov or the 
Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, 
Washington, DC 20402.

Special Analyses

I. Regulatory Planning and Review--Economic Analysis

    Executive Orders 12866, 13563, and 13771 direct agencies to assess 
costs and benefits of available regulatory alternatives and, if 
regulation is necessary, to select regulatory approaches that maximize 
net benefits (including potential economic, environmental, public 
health, and safety effects; distributive impacts; and equity). 
Executive Order 13563 emphasizes the importance of quantifying both 
costs and benefits, of reducing costs, of harmonizing rules, and of 
promoting flexibility.
    These final regulations have been designated as significant and 
subject to review under Executive Order 12866 and section 1(b) of the 
Memorandum of Agreement (April 11, 2018) between the Treasury 
Department and the Office of Management and Budget regarding review of 
tax regulations. For purposes of Executive Order 13771, the final 
regulations are regulatory. The Administrator of the Office of 
Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), Office of Management and 
Budget, has waived review of this rule in accordance with section 
6(a)(3)(A) of Executive Order 12866.

1. Background

    Certain corporations, trusts, and other entities are exempt from 
Federal income taxation because of the specific functions they perform 
(exempt organizations). Examples include religious and charitable 
organizations. However, exempt organizations that engage in business 
activities that are not substantially related to their exempt purposes 
may have taxable income under section 511(a)(1) of the Internal Revenue 
Code (Code). For example, the income that a tax-exempt organization 
generates from the sale of advertising in its quarterly magazine is 
unrelated business taxable income (UBTI).
    Prior to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), UBTI was calculated by 
aggregating the net incomes from all the unrelated business activities 
conducted by an exempt organization. As a result, losses from one 
unrelated trade or business activity could be used to offset profits 
from another unrelated trade or business activity. New section 
512(a)(6), enacted in the TCJA, provides that organizations with more 
than one unrelated trade or business calculate the taxable amounts 
separately for each trade or business so that losses only offset income 
from the same unrelated trade or business. The statutory language, 
however, does not specify standards for determining what activities 
would be considered the same or a different trade or business.
    On April 21, 2020, the Department of the Treasury (Treasury 
Department) and the IRS published a notice of proposed rulemaking (REG-
106864-18) in the Federal Register (85 FR 23172) containing proposed 
regulations under section 512 (proposed regulations). The final 
regulations retain the basic approach and structure of the proposed 
regulations with certain minor modifications. As part of these 
modifications, the final regulations

[[Page 77976]]

modify the participation test (called the ``control test'' in the 
proposed regulations) to permit indirectly held partnerships interests 
to be eligible for inclusion in an exempt organization's single 
``investment activities'' trade or business. The final regulations 
address the need for guidance by providing rules for determining when 
an exempt organization has more than one unrelated trade or business 
and how such an exempt organization computes UBTI under new section 
512(a)(6). Specifically discussed below, the final regulations 
establish guidelines for (1) identifying separate unrelated trades or 
businesses; and (2) in certain cases, permitting an exempt organization 
to treat investment activities as one unrelated trade or business for 
purposes of computing UBTI.

2. Baseline

    In this analysis, the Treasury Department and the IRS assess the 
benefits and costs of these proposed regulations relative to a no-
action baseline reflecting anticipated Federal income tax-related 
behavior in the absence of these proposed regulations.

3. Affected Entities

    Prior tax law did not require tax-exempt organizations to report 
unrelated business income by separate activity, so it is not possible 
to obtain accurate counts of the number of exempt organizations 
potentially affected by the final regulations. However, the IRS 
estimates that less than 2 percent of exempt organizations would be 
affected, as calculated below.
    Approximately 1.4 million exempt organizations filed some type of 
information or tax return with the IRS for fiscal year 2018.\7\ Only 
188,000 exempt organizations filed Form 990-T, which is used to report 
UBTI. While not all Form 990-T filers also file an information return 
with the IRS, as an upper bound estimate, 14 percent of exempt 
organizations could be affected by the regulations. Within Form 990-T 
filers, only a smaller subset, primarily the largest organizations in 
certain categories, are expected to have more than one unrelated trade 
or business. Among the types of organizations expected to have more 
than one unrelated trade or business are colleges and universities, 
certain cultural organizations such as museums, and some tax-exempt 
hospitals.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \7\ See Internal Revenue Service Research, Applied Analytics, 
and Statistics, Statistics of Income Division Fiscal Year Return 
Projections for the United States Publication 6292 (Rev. 9-2019), 
Projected Returns 2019-2026. Exempt organizations generally must 
file an annual information return with IRS. See generally section 
6033. However, churches and small organizations are exempt from this 
filing requirement. See section 6033(a)(3). Organizations that have 
more than $1,000 in gross UBTI must also file Form 990-T to 
calculate their UBTI and tax. See section 512(b)(12) (providing a 
$1,000 specific deduction).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Additional information on organizations that may be affected is 
provided by a 2018 Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy (CNP) survey 
of 723 primarily large exempt organizations.\8\ Three-hundred and 
thirty of these organizations reported that they had filed a Form 990-
T. Of these, 70 percent had revenues over $10 million and most were 
educational or arts and cultural organizations. Only 46 organizations 
(14 percent of the surveyed organizations filing Form 990-T) reported 
having more than one source of UBTI and almost half of these had only 
two sources. Thus, the Treasury Department and the IRS project that if 
the CNP survey results applied to the population of Form 990-T filers, 
then less than 2 percent of exempt organizations or approximately 4,000 
filers would be affected by the final regulations and that these would 
tend to be large educational or arts and cultural organizations.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \8\ See Elizabeth Boris and Joseph Cordes, ``How the TCJA's New 
UBIT Provisions Will Affect Nonprofits,'' Urban Institute Research 
Report, January 2019.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. Economic Analysis of Final Regulations

    The final regulations provide greater certainty to exempt 
organizations regarding how to compute UBTI and tax in response to the 
changes made by TCJA. They also improve economic efficiency by helping 
to ensure that similar exempt organizations are taxed similarly. In the 
absence of this guidance taxpayers might make different assumptions 
regarding how to calculate UBTI and tax.
    This section describes the two major provisions of the final rule 
and provides a qualitative economic analysis of each one.
a. Identifying Separate Trades or Businesses
    Section 512(a)(6) requires exempt organizations with more than one 
unrelated trade or business to calculate UBTI separately for each trade 
or business so that losses are used to offset only income from the same 
unrelated trade or business. The final regulations generally require 
the use of NAICS codes to identify separate unrelated trades or 
businesses. NAICS is an industry classification system for purposes of 
collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the 
United States business economy. Each digit of the NAICS 6-digit codes 
describes an industry with increasing specificity. The final 
regulations allow the use of NAICS 2-digit codes, which encompass 
broader categories of trades or businesses than NAICS 6-digit codes, to 
reduce the compliance burdens for exempt organizations with multiple 
similar types of business activity. For example, different types of 
food services would be included in the same NAICS 2-digit code as 
opposed to separate NAICS 6-digit codes. Similarly, different types of 
recreational activities, such as fitness centers and golf courses, 
would be in the same NAICS 2-digit code as opposed to separate NAICS 6-
digit codes. A single facility might have elements fitting several of 
these categories, which could change over time when NAICS codes are 
revised. The use of NAICS 6-digit codes could potentially require an 
exempt organization to split what has traditionally been considered one 
unrelated trade or business into multiple unrelated trades or 
businesses. In addition, exempt organizations may need to incur the 
costs of changing their accounting systems so as to collect the 
information needed for separate NAICS 6-digit codes.
    Some commenters to the proposed regulations advocated using the 
NAICS 2-digit codes as a safe-harbor when identifying separate 
unrelated trades or businesses and that a facts and circumstances test 
be applied as the primary method of identifying separate unrelated 
businesses. Adoption of a facts and circumstances test would increase 
the administrative burden of tax-exempt organizations in complying with 
section 512(a)(6) because fact-intensive analysis would be required to 
determine each unrelated trade or business. Additionally, adoption of a 
facts and circumstances test would offer exempt organizations less 
certainty and increase the IRS administrative burden.
    The guidance provided in the final regulations ensures that the tax 
liability is calculated similarly across taxpayers, avoiding situations 
where one taxpayer receives differential treatment compared to another 
taxpayer for fundamentally similar economic activity based on their 
differing reasonable, good-faith interpretations of the statute. In the 
absence of these final regulations, an exempt organization might be 
uncertain about whether an activity is one or more than one trade or 
business. As a result, in the absence of the final regulations, similar 
institutions might take different positions and pay different amounts 
of tax, introducing economic inefficiency and inequity. These 
regulations provide

[[Page 77977]]

greater certainty and flexibility such that compliance costs may be 
slightly lower for affected organizations relative to a no-action 
baseline.
b. Aggregation of Investment Activities
    The final regulation's treatment of investment activities will also 
provide clarity and reduce burdens for exempt organizations. By 
providing explicit rules for the treatment of investment activities, 
the final regulations reduce the uncertainty about what would be 
acceptable under a reasonable, good-faith interpretation. Although 
investment income, such as interest and dividend income, is not 
generally statutorily taxed as UBTI, exempt organizations may engage in 
certain activities that the organization considers ``investments'' but 
that generate UBTI, such as debt-financed investments or investments 
through partnerships. The final regulations allow certain of this 
investment income to be aggregated and treated as a single trade or 
business. The final regulations provide rules for the treatment of 
partnership income and explicitly list the other types of UBTI that can 
be aggregated as ``investment'' income in response to comments 
requesting additional clarification. The allowance of this type of 
aggregation is responsive to situations where exempt organizations are 
invested in partnerships in which they do not significantly 
participate. The allowance of aggregation in the final regulations 
recognizes that in these situations the exempt organizations are 
unlikely to be able to access information from such partnerships for 
purposes of separating the partnerships' investments according to NAICS 
codes. As a result, the final regulations reduce the compliance burdens 
of exempt organizations of obtaining information from partnerships and 
simplify the calculation of UBTI when the income is generated from 
``investment'' activities relative to the no-action baseline.
c. Summary
    The final regulations provide rules for determining when an exempt 
organization has more than one unrelated trade or business and how such 
an exempt organization computes UBTI. In addition, the final 
regulations provide guidelines for when an exempt organization treats 
its investment activities as one unrelated trade or business for 
purposes of computing UBTI. In the absence of guidance, affected 
taxpayers may face more uncertainty when calculating their tax 
liability, a situation generally that could lead to greater conflicts 
with tax administrators. The Treasury Department and the IRS project 
that the final regulations will reduce taxpayer compliance burden 
relative to the no-action baseline. In addition, the Treasury 
Department and the IRS project that these regulations will affect a 
small number of exempt organizations. Based on this analysis, the 
Treasury Department and the IRS anticipate any economic effects of the 
final regulations will be modest relative to the no-action baseline.

II. Paperwork Reduction Act

    The collections of information contained in the final regulations 
will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget for review in 
accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of (1995) (44 U.S.C. 
3507(d)). An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not 
required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays 
a valid control number assigned by the Office of Management and Budget.
    Books or records relating to a collection of information must be 
retained as long as their contents may become material in the 
administration of any internal revenue law. Generally, tax returns and 
return information are confidential, as required by 26 U.S.C. 6103.

1. Collections of Information Imposed by the Regulations

    The collection of information in these final regulations is in 
Sec.  1.512(b)-6(a). This information is required to determine whether 
an exempt organization has more than one unrelated trade or business 
and therefore must report those unrelated trades or businesses on Form 
990-T and related schedules. In 2018, the IRS released and invited 
comments on drafts of an earlier version of the Form 990-T and related 
schedules to give members of the public opportunity to comment on 
changes made to the Form 990-T, and the addition of a new schedule to 
report additional unrelated trades or businesses, as required by the 
enactment of section 512(a)(6). The IRS received no comments on the 
Form 990-T and related schedules during that comment period. 
Consequently, the IRS made Form 990-T available on January 8, 2019, and 
the new schedule for reporting additional unrelated trades or 
businesses available on January 25, 2019, for use by the public. The 
IRS intends that the burden of collections of information will be 
reflected in the burden associated with the Form 990 series under OMB 
approval number 1545-0047.

2. Burden Estimates

    The burden associated with Form 990-T is included in the aggregated 
burden estimates for OMB control number 1545-0047. The burden estimates 
in 1545-0047 relate to all filers associated with the Forms 990, and 
will in the future include, but not isolate, the estimated burden of 
the information collections associated with these final regulations.
    No burden estimates specific to the final regulations are currently 
available. The Treasury Department has not estimated the burden, 
including that of any new information collections, related to the 
requirements under the final regulations. Those estimates would capture 
both changes made by the Act and those that arise out of discretionary 
authority exercised in the final regulations. The current status of the 
Paperwork Reduction Act submissions related to these final regulations 
is provided in the following table.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                   OMB  control
              Form                      No.               Status
------------------------------------------------------------------------
990 and related forms...........       1545-0047  Sixty-day notice
                                                   published on 9/24/
                                                   2019. Thirty-day
                                                   notice published on
                                                   12/31/2019. Approved
                                                   by OIRA on 2/12/2020.
                                 ---------------------------------------
                                  Link: https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-990.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    In the proposed regulations, the Treasury Department and the IRS 
requested comments on all aspects of information collection burdens 
related to the regulations, including estimates for how much time it 
would take to comply with the paperwork burdens described above for 
each relevant form and ways for the IRS to minimize the paperwork 
burden. The Treasury Department and the IRS did not receive any 
comments on these issues. Proposed

[[Page 77978]]

revisions (if any) to the forms that reflect the information 
collections contained in these final regulations will be made available 
for public comment at https://apps.irs.gov/app/picklist/list/draftTaxForms.html and will not be finalized until after these forms 
have been approved by OMB under the PRA. Comments on these forms can be 
submitted at https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/comment-on-tax-forms-and-publications.

III. Regulatory Flexibility Act

    Pursuant to the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. chapter 6), it 
is hereby certified that these final regulations will not have a 
significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. 
In the proposed regulations, the Treasury Department and the IRS 
invited comments on the impact this rule may have on small entities. 
The Treasury Department and the IRS did not receive any comments on 
this issue. As discussed elsewhere in this section, these final 
regulations apply to all exempt organizations with UBTI, but only to 
the extent required to determine if an exempt organization has more 
than one unrelated trade or business. If an exempt organization only 
has one unrelated trade or business, these regulations do not apply and 
the exempt organization determines UBTI under section 512(a)(1) or 
section 512(a)(3), as appropriate. If an exempt organization has more 
than one unrelated trade or business, these proposed regulations 
provide instructions for computing UBTI separately with respect to each 
such unrelated trade or business.
    These final regulations are not likely to affect a substantial 
number of small entities. According to the IRS Data Book, 1,835,534 
exempt organizations existed in 2018. Internal Revenue Service, 
Publication 55B, Internal Revenue Service Data Book 2018, 57 (May 
2019). However, only 188,334 Form 990-Ts were filed in 2018. Internal 
Revenue Service, Publication 6292, Fiscal Year Return Projects for the 
United States: 2019-2026, Fall 2019 4 (September 2019). Accordingly, 
approximately 10 percent of the exempt organization population file 
Form 990-T. This population includes large hospital systems and 
universities not included in the SBA definition of ``small entities.'' 
Therefore, these final regulations are not likely to affect a 
substantial number of small entities.
    Even if the regulations affected a substantial number of small 
entities, the economic impact of these final rules are not likely to be 
significant. An organization affected by this rule, with more than one 
unrelated trade or business, completes Part I and Part II on page 1 of 
Form 990-T and completes and attaches a separate schedule for each 
additional unrelated trade or business. Affected taxpayers have been 
reporting UBTI on form 990-T for separate unrelated trades or 
businesses for the previous two tax years. As discussed elsewhere in 
this section, these regulations provide certainty and guidance for 
these organizations. In the absence of this guidance, affected 
taxpayers may face more uncertainty when calculating their tax 
liability, a situation generally that could lead to greater conflicts 
with tax administrators. Although affected taxpayers will have to spend 
time reading these final regulations, the Treasury Department and the 
IRS project that the final regulations provide certainty and guidance 
that will reduce taxpayer compliance burden for large and small entity 
taxpayers. Accordingly, the Secretary of the Treasury's delegate 
certifies that these regulations will not have a significant economic 
impact on a substantial number of small entities.
    Pursuant to section 7805(f), the notice of proposed rulemaking was 
submitted to the Chief Counsel for the Office of Advocacy of the Small 
Business Administration for comment on its impact on small business (84 
FR 31795). No comments on the notice were received from the Chief 
Counsel for the Office of Advocacy of the Small Business 
Administration.

IV. Congressional Review Act

    The Office of Management and Budget has determined that the final 
rule is not a ``major rule'' within the meaning of the Congressional 
Review Act (5 U.S.C. 801, et seq.).

V. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act

    Section 202 of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 requires 
that agencies assess anticipated costs and benefits and take certain 
other actions before issuing a final rule that includes any Federal 
mandate that may result in expenditures in any one year by a state, 
local, or tribal government, in the aggregate, or by the private 
sector, of $100 million in 1995 dollars, updated annually for 
inflation. The final regulations do not include any Federal mandate 
that may result in expenditures by state, local, or tribal governments, 
or by the private sector in excess of that threshold.

VII. Executive Order 13132: Federalism

    Executive Order 13132 (entitled ``Federalism'') prohibits an agency 
from publishing any rule that has federalism implications if the rule 
either imposes substantial, direct compliance costs on state and local 
governments, and is not required by statute, or preempts state law, 
unless the agency meets the consultation and funding requirements of 
section 6 of the Executive order. The final regulations do not have 
federalism implications and do not impose substantial direct compliance 
costs on state and local governments or preempt state law within the 
meaning of the Executive order.

Drafting Information

    The principal authors of these regulations are Stephanie N. Robbins 
and Jonathan A. Carter, Office of the Chief Counsel (Employee Benefits, 
Exempt Organizations, and Employment Taxes). However, other personnel 
from the Treasury Department and the IRS participated in their 
development.

List of Subjects in 26 CFR Part 1

    Income taxes, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements.

Adoption of Amendments to the Regulations

    Accordingly, 26 CFR part 1 are amended as follows:

PART 1--INCOME TAXES

0
Paragraph 1. The authority citation for part 1 continues to read in 
part as follows:

    Authority: 26 U.S.C. 7805 * * *


0
Par. 2. Section 1.170A-9 is amended by:
0
1. Adding paragraph (f)(7)(v).
0
2. Adding paragraph (k)(3).
    The additions read as follows:


Sec.  1.170A-9  Definition of section 170(b)(1)(A) organization.

* * * * *
    (f) * * *
    (7) * * *
    (v) Unrelated business activities. The term net income from 
unrelated business activities in section 509(d)(3) includes (but is not 
limited to) an organization's unrelated business taxable income (UBTI) 
within the meaning of section 512. However, when calculating UBTI for 
purposes of determining support (within the meaning of this paragraph 
(f)(7)), section 512(a)(6) does not apply. Accordingly, in the case of 
an organization that derives gross income from the regular conduct of 
two or more unrelated business activities, support includes the 
aggregate of gross income from all such unrelated business activities 
less the aggregate of the deductions allowed with respect to all such 
unrelated business activities. Nonetheless, when

[[Page 77979]]

determining support, such organization can use either its UBTI 
calculated under section 512(a)(6) or its UBTI calculated in the 
aggregate.
* * * * *
    (k) * * *
    (3) Applicability date. Paragraph (f)(7)(v) of this section applies 
to taxable years beginning on or after December 2, 2020. Taxpayers may 
choose to apply this section to taxable years beginning on or after 
January 1, 2018, and before December 2, 2020.

0
Par. 3. Section 1.509(a)-3 is amended by:
0
1. Revising the first sentence of paragraph (a)(3)(i).
0
2. Redesignating paragraph (a)(4) as paragraph (a)(5).
0
3. Adding new paragraph (a)(4).
0
4. Revising paragraph (o).
    The revisions and additions read as follows:


Sec.  1.509(a)-3  Broadly, publicly supported organizations.

    (a) * * *
    (3) * * *
    (i) * * * An organization will meet the not-more-than-one-third 
support test under section 509(a)(2)(B) if it normally (within the 
meaning of paragraph (c) or (d) of this section) receives not more than 
one-third of its support in each taxable year from the sum of its gross 
investment income (as defined in section 509(e)) and the excess (if 
any) of the amount of its unrelated business taxable income (as defined 
in section 512, without regard to section 512(a)(6), or with regard to 
section 512(a)(6), if the organization so chooses) derived from trades 
or businesses that were acquired by the organization after June 30, 
1975, over the amount of tax imposed on such income by section 511.
* * * * *
    (4) Unrelated business activities. The denominator of the one-third 
support fraction and the denominator of the not-more-than-one-third 
support fraction both include net income from unrelated business 
activities, whether or not such activities are carried on regularly as 
a trade or business. The term net income from unrelated business 
activities includes (but is not limited to) an organization's unrelated 
business taxable income (UBTI) within the meaning of section 512. 
However, when calculating UBTI for purposes of determining the 
denominator of both support fractions, section 512(a)(6) does not 
apply. Accordingly, in the case of an organization that derives gross 
income from the regular conduct of two or more unrelated business 
activities, support includes the aggregate of gross income from all 
such unrelated business activities less the aggregate of the deductions 
allowed with respect to all such unrelated business activities. 
Nonetheless, when determining support, such organization can use either 
its UBTI calculated under section 512(a)(6) or its UBTI calculated in 
the aggregate.
* * * * *
    (o) Applicability date. This section generally applies to taxable 
years beginning after December 31, 1969, except paragraphs (a)(3)(i) 
and (a)(4) of this section apply to taxable years beginning on or after 
December 2, 2020. Taxpayers may choose to apply this section to taxable 
years beginning on or after January 1, 2018, and before December 2, 
2020. Otherwise, for taxable years beginning before December 2, 2020, 
see these paragraphs as in effect and contained in 26 CFR part 1 
revised as of April 1, 2020.

0
Par. 4. Section 1.512(a)-1 is amended by:
0
1. Revising the first and fourth sentence of paragraph (a).
0
2. Revising the first and second sentence of paragraph (b).
0
3. Adding two sentences to the end of paragraph (c).
0
4. Revising paragraph (h).
    The revisions and additions read as follows:


Sec.  1.512(a)-1  Definition.

    (a) * * * Except as otherwise provided in Sec.  1.512(a)-3, Sec.  
1.512(a)-4, or paragraph (f) of this section, section 512(a)(1) defines 
unrelated business taxable income as the gross income derived from any 
unrelated trade or business regularly carried on, less those deductions 
allowed by chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) which are 
directly connected with the carrying on of such trade or business, 
subject to certain modifications referred to in Sec.  1.512(b)-1. * * * 
In the case of an organization with more than one unrelated trade or 
business, unrelated business taxable income is calculated separately 
with respect to each such trade or business. See Sec.  1.512(a)-6. * * 
*
    (b) * * * Expenses, depreciation, and similar items attributable 
solely to the conduct of unrelated business activities are proximately 
and primarily related to that business activity, and therefore qualify 
for deduction to the extent that they meet the requirements of section 
162, section 167, or other relevant provisions of the Code. Thus, for 
example, salaries of personnel employed full-time in carrying on 
unrelated business activities are directly connected with the conduct 
of that activity and are deductible in computing unrelated business 
taxable income if they otherwise qualify for deduction under the 
requirements of section 162. * * *
    (c) * * * However, allocation of expenses, depreciation, and 
similar items is not reasonable if the cost of providing a good or 
service in a related and an unrelated activity is substantially the 
same, but the price charged for that good or service in the unrelated 
activity is greater than the price charged in the related activity and 
no adjustment is made to equalize the price difference for purposes of 
allocating expenses, depreciation, and similar items based on revenue 
between related and unrelated activities. For example, if a social club 
described in section 501(c)(7) charges nonmembers a higher price than 
it charges members for the same good or service but does not adjust the 
price of the good or service provided to members for purposes of 
allocating expenses, depreciation, and similar items attributable to 
the provision of that good or service, the allocation method is not 
reasonable.
* * * * *
    (h) Applicability date. This section generally applies to taxable 
years beginning after December 12, 1967, except as provided in 
paragraph (g)(2) of this section, and except that paragraphs (a) 
through (c) of this section apply to taxable years beginning on or 
after December 2, 2020. For taxable years beginning before December 2, 
2020, see these paragraphs as in effect and contained in 26 CFR part 1 
revised as of April 1, 2020.

0
Par. 5. Section 1.512(a)-6 is added to read as follows:


Sec.  1.512(a)-6  Special rule for organizations with more than one 
unrelated trade or business.

    (a) More than one unrelated trade or business--(1) In general. An 
organization with more than one unrelated trade or business must 
compute unrelated business taxable income (UBTI) separately with 
respect to each such trade or business, without regard to the specific 
deduction in section 512(b)(12), including for purposes of determining 
any net operating loss (NOL) deduction. An organization with more than 
one unrelated trade or business computes its total UBTI under paragraph 
(g) of this section.
    (2) Separate trades or businesses. An organization determines 
whether it regularly carries on unrelated trades or businesses by 
applying sections 511 through 514. For purposes of section

[[Page 77980]]

512(a)(6)(A) and paragraph (a)(1) of this section, an organization 
identifies its separate unrelated trades or businesses using the 
methods described in paragraphs (b) through (e) of this section.
    (3) Reporting changes in identification. An organization that 
changes the identification of a separate unrelated trade or business 
under paragraph (a)(2) of this section must report the change in the 
taxable year of that change in accordance with forms and instructions. 
For this purpose, a change in identification of a separate unrelated 
trade or business includes the changed identification of the separate 
unrelated trade or business with respect to a partnership interest that 
was incorrectly designated as a qualifying partnership interest (QPI). 
In the case of an incorrect designation of a QPI, paragraph (c)(2)(iii) 
of this section (regarding designation of qualifying partnership 
interests) does not apply. In all cases, to report the change in 
identification, an organization must provide the following information 
with respect to each separate change in identification--
    (i) The identification of the separate unrelated trade or business 
in the previous taxable year
    (ii) The identification of the separate unrelated trade or business 
in the current taxable year; and
    (iii) The reason for the change.
    (b) North American Industry Classification System--(1) In general. 
Except as provided in paragraphs (c) through (e) of this section, an 
organization identifies each of its separate unrelated trades or 
businesses using the first two digits of the North American Industry 
Classification System code (NAICS 2-digit code) that most accurately 
describes the unrelated trade or business based on the more specific 
NAICS code, such as at the 6-digit level, that describes the activity 
it conducts and subject to the requirements of paragraph (b)(2) and (3) 
of this section. The descriptions in the current NAICS manual 
(available at www.census.gov) of trades or businesses using more than 
two digits of the NAICS codes are relevant in this determination. In 
the case of the sale of goods, both online and in stores, the separate 
unrelated trade or business is identified by the goods sold in stores 
if the same goods generally are sold both online and in stores.
    (2) Codes must identify the unrelated trade or business. The NAICS 
2-digit code must identify the unrelated trade or business in which the 
organization engages (directly or indirectly) and not activities the 
conduct of which are substantially related to the exercise or 
performance by such organization of its charitable, educational, or 
other purpose or function constituting the basis for its exemption 
under section 501 (or, in the case of an organization described in 
section 511(a)(2)(B), to the exercise or performance of any purpose or 
function described in section 501(c)(3)). For example, a college or 
university described in section 501(c)(3) cannot use the NAICS 2-digit 
code for educational services to identify all its separate unrelated 
trades or businesses, and a qualified retirement plan described in 
section 401(a) cannot use the NAICS 2-digit code for finance and 
insurance to identify all of its unrelated trades or businesses.
    (3) Codes only reported once. An organization will report each 
NAICS 2-digit code only once. For example, a hospital organization that 
operates several hospital facilities in a geographic area (or multiple 
geographic areas), all of which include pharmacies that sell goods to 
the general public, would include all the pharmacies under the NAICS 2-
digit code for retail trade, regardless of whether the hospital 
organization keeps separate books and records for each pharmacy.
    (c) Activities in the nature of investments--(1) In general. An 
organization's activities in the nature of investments (investment 
activities) are treated collectively as a separate unrelated trade or 
business for purposes of section 512(a)(6) and paragraph (a) of this 
section. Except as provided in paragraphs (c)(7) and (c)(8) of this 
section, an organization's investment activities are limited to its--
    (i) Qualifying partnership interests (described in paragraph (c)(2) 
of this section);
    (ii) Qualifying S corporation interests (described in paragraph 
(e)(2)(i) of this section); and
    (iii) Debt-financed property or properties (within the meaning of 
section 514).
    (2) Qualifying partnership interests--(i) Directly-held partnership 
interests. An interest in a partnership is a qualifying partnership 
interest (QPI) if the exempt organization holds a direct interest in 
the partnership (directly-held partnership interest) that meets the 
requirements of either the de minimis test (described in paragraph 
(c)(3) of this section) or the participation test (described in 
paragraph (c)(4) of this section).
    (ii) Indirectly-held partnership interests--(A) Look through rule. 
If an organization holds a direct interest in a partnership but that 
directly-held partnership interest is not a QPI because it does not 
meet the requirements of the de minimis test (described in paragraph 
(c)(3) of this section) or the participation test (described in 
paragraph (c)(4) of this section), any partnership in which the 
organization holds an indirect interest through the directly-held 
partnership interest (indirectly-held partnership interest) may be a 
QPI if the indirectly-held partnership interest meets the requirements 
of paragraph (c)(2)(ii)(B) or (c)(2)(ii)(C) of this section.
    (B) Indirectly-held partnership interests that meet the 
requirements of the de minimis test. An indirectly-held partnership 
interest meets the requirements of this paragraph (c)(2)(ii)(B) if the 
indirectly-held partnership interest meets the requirements of the de 
minimis test described in paragraph (c)(3) of this section with regard 
to the organization. For example, if an organization directly holds 50 
percent of the capital interests of a partnership and the directly-held 
partnership holds 4 percent of the capital and profits interest of 
lower-tier partnership A, the organization may aggregate its interest 
in lower-tier partnership A with its other QPIs because the 
organization indirectly holds 2 percent of the capital and profits 
interests of lower-tier partnership A (4 percent x 50 percent).
    (C) Indirectly-held partnership interests that meet the 
requirements of the participation test. An indirectly-held partnership 
interest meets the requirements of this paragraph (c)(2)(ii)(C) if the 
indirectly-held partnership interest meets the requirements of the 
participation test (described in paragraph (c)(4) of this section) with 
respect to the partnership that directly owns the interest in the 
indirectly-held partnership. For purposes of applying the participation 
test to a partnership, the term organization in paragraph (c)(4) of 
this section refers to the partnership that directly holds the 
indirectly-held partnership interest being tested for QPI status. 
Additionally, the list of officers, directors, trustees, or employees 
of an organization found in paragraphs (c)(4)(iii)(B) and (C) includes 
a general partner that directly owns an interest in the lower-tier 
partnership.
    (D) Example--(1) Organization D is described in section 501(c) and 
is exempt from Federal income tax under section 501(a). Organization D 
owns 50 percent of the capital interest in Partnership A. Partnership A 
owns 30 percent of the capital interest in Partnership B, but 
Partnership A does not significantly participate in Partnership B 
within the meaning of paragraph (c)(4)(iii) of this section.

[[Page 77981]]

Further, Partnership B owns 15 percent of the capital interest in 
Partnership C, in which Partnership B does not significantly 
participate within the meaning of paragraph (c)(4)(iii) of this 
section. No other organizations related (within the meaning of 
paragraph (c)(4)(ii) of this section) to either Organization D or the 
partnerships owns an interest in any of the lower-tier partnerships.
    (2) Neither the interest in Partnership A nor B is a QPI. 
Organization D's interest in Partnership A does not meet the 
requirements of either the de minimis test or the participation test 
because it owns 50 percent of the interest in the partnership. 
Organization D's indirect interest in Partnership B (50 percent of 30 
percent, or 15 percent) does not meet the de minimis test. 
Additionally, because Partnership A owns greater than 20 percent 
interest in Partnership B, Partnership A's interest in Partnership B 
does not meet the participation test. However, Organization D's 
interest in Partnership C is a QPI because Partnership C meets the 
participation test. That is, Partnership B holds a 15 percent interest 
in Partnership C and does not significantly participate in Partnership 
C.
    (iii) Designation. An organization that has a partnership interest 
meeting the requirements of paragraph (c)(2)(i) or (ii) of this section 
in a taxable year may designate that partnership interest as a QPI by 
including its share of partnership gross income (and directly connected 
deductions) with the gross income (and directly connected deductions) 
from its other investment activities (see paragraph (c)(1) of this 
section) in accordance with forms and instructions. Any partnership 
interest that is designated as a QPI remains a QPI unless and until it 
no longer meets the requirements of paragraph (c)(2)(i) or (ii) of this 
section. For example, if an organization designates a directly-held 
partnership interest that meets the requirements of the de minimis rule 
as a QPI in one taxable year, the organization cannot, in the next 
taxable year, use NAICS 2-digit codes to describe the partnership 
trades or businesses that are unrelated trades or businesses with 
respect to the organization unless the directly-held partnership 
interest fails to meet the requirements of both the de minimis test and 
the participation test (after application of the grace period described 
in paragraph (c)(6) of this section, if appropriate).
    (3) De minimis test. A partnership interest is a QPI that meets the 
requirements of the de minimis test if the organization holds directly 
(within the meaning of paragraph (c)(2)(i) of this section) or 
indirectly (within the meaning of paragraph (c)(2)(ii) of this section) 
no more than 2 percent of the profits interest and no more than 2 
percent of the capital interest during the organization's taxable year 
with which or in which the partnership's taxable year ends.
    (4) Participation test--(i) In general. A partnership interest is a 
QPI that meets the requirements of the participation test if the 
organization holds directly (within the meaning of paragraph (c)(2)(i) 
of this section) or indirectly (within the meaning of paragraph 
(c)(2)(ii) of this section) no more than 20 percent of the capital 
interest during the organization's taxable year with which or in which 
the partnership's taxable year ends and the organization does not 
significantly participate in the partnership within the meaning of 
paragraph (c)(4)(iii) of this section.
    (ii) Combining related interests. When determining an 
organization's percentage interest in a partnership for purposes of 
paragraph (c)(4)(i) of this section, the interests of a supporting 
organization (as defined in section 509(a)(3) and Sec.  1.509(a)-4), 
other than a Type III supporting organization (as defined in Sec.  
1.509(a)-4(i)) that is not a parent of its supported organization, or 
of a controlled entity (as defined in section 512(b)(13)(D) and Sec.  
1.512(b)-1(l)) in the same partnership will be taken into account. For 
example, if an organization owns 10 percent of the capital interests in 
a partnership, and its Type I supporting organization owns an 
additional 15 percent capital interest in that partnership, the 
organization would not meet the requirements of the participation test 
because its aggregate percentage interest exceeds 20 percent (10 
percent + 15 percent = 25 percent).
    (iii) Significant Participation. An organization significantly 
participates in a partnership if--
    (A) The organization, by itself, may require the partnership to 
perform, or may prevent the partnership from performing (other than 
through a unanimous voting requirement or through minority consent 
rights), any act that significantly affects the operations of the 
partnership;
    (B) Any of the organization's officers, directors, trustees, or 
employees have rights to participate in the management of the 
partnership at any time;
    (C) Any of the organization's officers, directors, trustees, or 
employees have rights to conduct the partnership's business at any 
time; or
    (D) The organization, by itself, has the power to appoint or remove 
any of the partnership's officers or employees or a majority of 
directors.
    (5) Determining percentage interest--(i) Profits interest. For 
purposes of the de minimis test described in paragraph (c)(3) of this 
section, an organization's profits interest in a partnership is 
determined in the same manner as its distributive share of partnership 
taxable income. See section 704(b) (relating to the determination of 
the distributive share by the income or loss ratio) and Sec. Sec.  
1.704-1 through 1.704-4.
    (ii) Capital interest. For purposes of the de minimis test 
(described in paragraph (c)(3) of this section) and the participation 
test (described in paragraph (c)(4)(i) of this section), in the absence 
of a provision in the partnership agreement, an organization's capital 
interest in a partnership is determined on the basis of its interest in 
the assets of the partnership which would be distributable to such 
organization upon its withdrawal from the partnership, or upon 
liquidation of the partnership, whichever is the greater.
    (iii) Average percentage interest. For purposes of the de minimis 
test (described in paragraph (c)(3) of this section) and the 
participation test (described in paragraph (c)(4)(i) of this section), 
an organization determines its percentage interest by taking the 
average of the organization's percentage interest at the beginning and 
the end of the partnership's taxable year, or, in the case of a 
partnership interest held for less than a year, the percentage interest 
held at the beginning and end of the period of ownership within the 
partnership's taxable year. For example, if an organization acquires an 
interest in a partnership that files on a calendar year basis in May 
and the partnership reports on Schedule K-1 (Form 1065) that the 
partner held a 3 percent profits interest at the date of acquisition 
but held a 1 percent profits interest at the end of the calendar year, 
the organization will be considered to have held 2 percent of the 
profits interest in that partnership for that year ((3 percent + 1 
percent)/2).
    (iv) Reliance on Schedule K-1 (Form 1065). When determining the 
organization's average percentage interest (described in paragraph 
(c)(5)(iii) of this section) in a partnership for purposes of the de 
minimis test (described in paragraph (c)(3) of this section) and the 
participation test (described in paragraph (c)(4) of this section), an 
organization may rely on the Schedule K-1 (Form 1065) (or its 
successor) it receives from the partnership if the form lists the 
organization's percentage

[[Page 77982]]

profits interest or its percentage capital interest, or both, at the 
beginning and end of the year. However, the organization may not rely 
on the form to the extent that any information about the organization's 
percentage interest is not specifically provided. For example, if the 
Schedule K-1 (Form 1065) an organization receives from a partnership 
lists the organization's profits interest as ``variable'' but lists its 
percentage capital interest at the beginning and end of the year, the 
organization may rely on the form only with respect to its percentage 
capital interest.
    (6) Changes in percentage interest. A partnership interest that 
fails to meet the requirements of the de minimis test (described in 
paragraph (c)(3) of this section) or the participation test (described 
in paragraph (c)(4) of this section) because of an increase in 
percentage interest in the organization's current taxable year may be 
treated for the taxable year of the change as meeting the requirements 
of the test it met in the prior taxable year if--
    (i) The partnership interest met the requirements of the de minimis 
test or participation test, respectively, in the organization's prior 
taxable year without application of this paragraph (c)(6);
    (ii) The increase in percentage interest is solely due to the 
actions of one or more partners other than the organization; and
    (iii) In the case of a partnership interest that met the 
requirements of the participation test in the prior taxable year, the 
interest of the partner or partners that caused the increase in 
paragraph (c)(6)(ii) of this section was not combined for the prior 
taxable year and is not combined for the taxable year of the change 
with the organization's partnership interest for purposes of paragraph 
(c)(4)(ii) of this section.
    (7) UBTI from the investment activities of organizations subject to 
section 512(a)(3). For purposes of paragraph (c)(1) of this section, 
UBTI from the investment activities of an organization subject to 
section 512(a)(3) includes any amount that--
    (i) Would be excluded from the calculation of UBTI under section 
512(b)(1), (2), (3), or (5) if the organization were subject to section 
512(a)(1);
    (ii) Is attributable to income set aside (and not in excess of the 
set aside limit described in section 512(a)(3)(E)), but not used, for a 
purpose described in section 512(a)(3)(B)(i) or (ii); or
    (iii) Is in excess of the set aside limit described in section 
512(a)(3)(E).
    (8) Limitations--(i) Social clubs. Paragraphs (c)(2) (regarding 
QPIs) and (c)(9) (transition rule for certain partnership interests) of 
this section do not apply to social clubs described in section 
501(c)(7).
    (ii) General partnership interests. Any partnership in which an 
organization, or an organization whose interest is combined with that 
organization's interest for purposes of paragraph (c)(4)(ii) of this 
section, is a general partner under applicable state law is not a QPI 
within the meaning of paragraph (c)(2) of this section, regardless of 
the organization's percentage interest. Such partnership interest 
cannot be a QPI for any organization or for any of the organizations 
whose interest is combined with that organization's interest for 
purposes of paragraph (c)(4)(ii) of this section.
    (iii) Application of other sections. This paragraph (c) does not 
otherwise impact application of section 512(c) and the fragmentation 
rule under section 513(c).
    (9) Transition rule for certain partnership interests--(i) In 
general. If a directly-held partnership interest acquired prior to 
August 21, 2018, is not a QPI, an organization may treat such 
partnership interest as a separate unrelated trade or business for 
purposes of section 512(a)(6) regardless of the number of unrelated 
trades or businesses directly or indirectly conducted by the 
partnership. For example, if an organization has a 35 percent capital 
interest in a partnership acquired prior to August 21, 2018, it can 
treat the partnership as a single trade or business even if the 
partnership's investments generated UBTI from lower-tier partnerships 
that were engaged in multiple trades or businesses. A partnership 
interest acquired prior to August 21, 2018, will continue to meet the 
requirement of this rule even if the organization's percentage interest 
in such partnership changes before the end of the transition period 
(see paragraph (c)(9)(iii) of this section).
    (ii) Exclusivity. An organization may apply either the transition 
rule in paragraph (c)(9)(i) of this section or the look-through rule in 
paragraph (c)(2)(ii) of this section, but not both, to a partnership 
interest described in paragraph (c)(9)(i) of this section that also 
qualifies for application of the look-through rule described in 
paragraph (c)(2)(ii).
    (iii) Transition period. An organization may rely on this 
transition rule until the first day of the organization's first taxable 
year beginning after December 2, 2020.
    (d) Income from certain controlled entities--(1) Specified payments 
from controlled entities. If an organization (controlling organization) 
controls another entity (within the meaning of section 512(b)(13)(D)) 
(controlled entity), all specified payments (as defined in section 
512(b)(13)(C)) received by a controlling organization from that 
controlled entity are treated as gross income from a separate unrelated 
trade or business for purposes of paragraph (a) of this section. If a 
controlling organization receives specified payments from two different 
controlled entities, the payments from each controlled entity are 
treated as a separate unrelated trade or business. For example, a 
controlling organization that receives rental payments from two 
controlled entities has two separate unrelated trades or businesses, 
one for each controlled entity. The specified payments from a 
controlled entity are treated as gross income from one trade or 
business regardless of whether the controlled entity engages in more 
than one unrelated trade or business or whether the controlling 
organization receives more than one type of specified payment from that 
controlled entity.
    (2) Certain amounts derived from controlled foreign corporations. 
All amounts included in UBTI under section 512(b)(17) are treated as 
income derived from a separate unrelated trade or business for purposes 
of paragraph (a) of this section.
    (e) S corporation interests--(1) In general. Except as provided in 
paragraph (e)(2) of this section, if an organization owns stock in an S 
corporation (S corporation interest), such S corporation interest is 
treated as an interest in a separate unrelated trade or business for 
purposes of paragraph (a) of this section. Thus, if an organization 
owns two S corporation interests, neither of which is described in 
paragraph (e)(2) of this section, the exempt organization reports two 
separate unrelated trades or businesses, one for each S corporation 
interest. The UBTI from an S corporation interest is the amount 
described in section 512(e)(1)(B).
    (2) Exception for a qualifying S corporation interest. 
Notwithstanding paragraph (e)(1) of this section, an organization may 
aggregate its UBTI from an S corporation interest with its UBTI from 
other investment activities (described in paragraph (c)(1) of this 
section) if the organization's ownership interest in the S corporation 
meets the criteria for a QPI as described in paragraph (c)(2)(i) of 
this section (substituting ``S corporation'' for ``partnership'' and 
``shareholder'' or ``shareholders'' for ``partner'' or ``partners,'' as 
applicable, throughout paragraphs (c)(2)(i), (c)(3), (c)(4), 
(c)(5)(iii), (c)(5)(iv), and (c)(6) of this

[[Page 77983]]

section; ``no more than 2 percent of stock ownership'' for ``no more 
than 2 percent of the profits interest and no more than 2 percent of 
the capital interest'' in paragraph (c)(3) of this section; ``no more 
than 20 percent of stock ownership'' in place of ``no more than 20 
percent of the capital interest'' in paragraph (c)(4)(i) of this 
section; and ``Schedule K-1 (Form 1120-S)'' for ``Schedule K-1 (Form 
1065)'' for purposes of paragraph (c)(5)(iv) of this section). 
Paragraphs (c)(5)(i) and (c)(5)(ii) do not apply for purposes of 
determining an organization's ownership interest in an S corporation; 
rather, the average percentage stock ownership determined under 
paragraph (c)(5)(iii) of this section applies for purposes of this 
paragraph (e)(2). For purposes of paragraph (c)(5)(iv) of this section, 
an organization can rely on the Schedule K-1 (Form 1120-S) (or its 
successor) it receives from the S corporation only if the form lists 
information sufficient to determine the organization's percentage of 
stock ownership for the year. A Schedule K-1 (Form 1120-S) that reports 
``zero'' as the organization's number of shares of stock in either the 
beginning or end of the S corporation's taxable year does not list 
information sufficient to determine the organization's percentage of 
stock ownership for the year. The grace period described in paragraph 
(c)(6) of this section applies to changes in an exempt organization's 
percentage of stock ownership in an S corporation.
    (f) Allocation of deductions. An organization must allocate 
deductions between separate unrelated trades or businesses using the 
method described in Sec.  1.512(a)-1(c).
    (g) Total UBTI--(1) In general. The total UBTI of an organization 
with more than one unrelated trade or business is the sum of the UBTI 
computed with respect to each separate unrelated trade or business (as 
identified under paragraph (a)(2) of this section and subject to the 
limitation described in paragraph (g)(2) of this section), less a 
charitable contribution deduction, an NOL deduction for losses arising 
in taxable years beginning before January 1, 2018 (pre-2018 NOLs), and 
a specific deduction under section 512(b)(12), as applicable.
    (2) UBTI not less than zero. For purposes of paragraph (g)(1) of 
this section, the UBTI with respect to any separate unrelated trade or 
business identified under paragraph (a)(2) of this section cannot be 
less than zero.
    (h) Net operating losses--(1) In general. For taxable years 
beginning after December 31, 2017, an exempt organization with more 
than one unrelated trade or business determines the NOL deduction 
allowed by sections 172(a) and 512(b)(6) separately with respect to 
each of its unrelated trades or businesses. Accordingly, if an exempt 
organization has more than one unrelated trade or business, Sec.  
1.512(b)-1(e) applies separately with respect to each such unrelated 
trade or business.
    (2) Coordination of pre-2018 and post-2017 NOLs. An organization 
with pre-2018 NOLs, and with losses arising in a taxable year beginning 
after December 31, 2017 (post-2017 NOLs), deducts its pre-2018 NOLs 
from total UBTI before deducting any post-2017 NOLs with regard to a 
separate unrelated trade or business against the UBTI from such trade 
or business. Pre-2018 NOLs are taken against the total UBTI as 
determined under paragraph (g) of this section in a manner that allows 
for maximum utilization of post-2017 NOLs in a taxable year. For 
example, an organization could choose to allocate all of its pre-2018 
NOLs to one of its separate unrelated trade or business or it could 
allocate its pre-2018 NOLs ratably among its separate unrelated trades 
or businesses, whichever results in the greatest utilization of the 
post-2017 NOLs in that taxable year.
    (3) Treatment of NOLs upon the termination, sale, exchange, or 
other disposition of a separate unrelated trade or business. After 
offsetting any gain resulting from the termination, sale, exchange, or 
disposition of a separate unrelated trade or business, any NOL 
remaining is suspended. However, the suspended NOLs may be used if that 
previous separate unrelated trade or business is later resumed or if a 
new unrelated trade or business that is accurately identified using the 
same NAICS 2-digit code as the previous separate unrelated trade or 
business is commenced or acquired in a future taxable year.
    (4) Treatment of NOLs when the identification of a separate 
unrelated trade or business changes--(i) In general. For purposes of 
section 512(a)(6) and this section, a separate unrelated trade or 
business for which the appropriate identification (within the meaning 
of paragraph (a) of this section) changes is treated as if the 
originally identified separate unrelated trade or business is 
terminated and a new separate unrelated trade or business is commenced. 
None of the NOLs from the previously identified separate unrelated 
trade or business will be carried over to the newly identified separate 
unrelated trade or business. For example, if the nature of a separate 
unrelated trade or business changes such that it is more accurately 
described by another NAICS 2-digit code, the separate unrelated trade 
or business is treated as a new separate unrelated trade or business 
with no NOLs. The change in identification may apply to all or a part 
of the originally identified separate unrelated trade or business. If 
the change in identification applies to the originally identified 
separate trade or business in its entirety, any NOLs attributable to 
that separate unrelated trade or business are suspended in accordance 
with paragraph (h)(3) of this section. If the change in identification 
applies to the originally identified separate unrelated trade or 
business in part, the originally identified separate unrelated trade or 
business that is not changing retains the full NOLs attributable to the 
originally identified separate unrelated trade or business, without 
allocation to the portion that became a newly identified separate 
unrelated trade or business. This paragraph (h)(4) also applies to each 
QPI that becomes a non-QPI. In this case, any NOLs attributable to the 
QPI that became a non-QPI are retained with the organization's 
investment activities described in paragraph (c) of this section.
    (ii) Exception for non-material changes. In the case of a separate 
unrelated trade or business that is accidentally identified using the 
wrong NAICS 2-digit code or if an organization has determined that a 
separate unrelated trade or business that has not materially changed is 
more accurately identified by another NAICS 2-digit code, any NOL 
attributable to the originally identified separate unrelated trade or 
business becomes an NOL of the newly identified separate unrelated 
trade or business.
    (iii) Effective date of change in identification. A change in 
identification described in this paragraph (h)(4) is effective on the 
first day of the taxable year in which the change in identification is 
made. Accordingly, the newly identified separate unrelated trade or 
business is treated as commencing on this date.
    (iv) Examples--(A) In general. The following examples illustrate 
the rules described in this paragraph (h)(4).
    (B) Example 1. Erroneous code--(1) Organization G is described in 
section 501(c) and is exempt from Federal income tax under section 
501(a). In addition to its investment activities, Organization G has 
two separate unrelated trades or businesses--Q and R--that are 
identified with different NAICS 2-digit codes. Both Q and R have NOLs 
carried over from post-2017 taxable years.
    (2) In Year 2 (a post-2017 taxable year), Organization G realizes 
that it

[[Page 77984]]

accidentally used the wrong NAICS 2-digit code to identify R. The NOLs 
attributable to R under the old NAICS 2-digit code become the NOLs of R 
under the new NAICS 2-digit code as of the first day of Year 2.
    (C) Example 2. Material change--(1) Same facts as Example 1, except 
assume that, in addition to its investment activities, Organization G 
has three separate unrelated trades or businesses--Q, R, and S--that 
are identified with different NAICS 2-digit codes. Q, R, and S all have 
NOLs carried over from post-2017 taxable years.
    (2) Organization G changes the NAICS 2-digit code identifying R to 
the same NAICS 2-digit code identifying S because the nature of the 
unrelated trade or business materially changed. Any post-2017 NOLs 
attributable to R are suspended (see paragraph (h)(4)(i) of this 
section). Organization G now has two separate unrelated trades or 
businesses--Q and S--as of the first day of Year 2.
    (D) Example 3. Partial material change. Same facts as Example 1, 
except assume that Organization G determines that a part of R has 
materially changed such that R should be identified as two separate 
unrelated trades or businesses--R1 and R2. R1 retains the NAICS 2-digit 
code originally identifying R, and R2 is identified with a new NAICS 2-
digit code that is not the same NAICS 2-digit code identifying Q. R2 is 
treated as a new separate unrelated trade or business with no NOLs as 
of the first day of Year 2. Any post-2017 NOLs attributable to R remain 
with R1.
    (E) Example 4. QPI to non-QPI--(1) Same facts as Example 1, but 
assume that Organization G has a partnership interest in T that was, 
for prior taxable years, a QPI included with Organization G's 
investment activities. In Year 3 (a post-2017 taxable year), 
Organization G acquires more than 20 percent of the capital interests 
in T. The grace period described in paragraph (c)(6) of this section 
does not apply because the increase in percentage interest was not due 
to the actions of other partners.
    (2) T conducts two trade or business activities that are unrelated 
trade or business activities with respect to Organization G--T1 and T2. 
Both T1 and T2 will be treated as new separate unrelated trades or 
business as of the first day of Year 2. Organization G identifies T1 
with the same NAICS 2-digit code used to identify Q and T2 with a NAICS 
2-digit code that is different than the NAICS 2-digit codes used to 
identify Q and R. In addition to its investment activities, 
Organization G has three separate unrelated trades or businesses--Q, R, 
and T2. Any post-2017 NOLs attributable to the QPI remain with 
Organization G's other investment activities separate unrelated trade 
or business.
    (i) Applicability dates. This section is applicable to taxable 
years beginning on or after December 2, 2020. Taxpayers may choose to 
apply this section to taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 
2018, and before December 2, 2020.

0
Par. 6. Section 1.512(b)-1 is amended by:
0
1. Revising paragraph (a)(1).
0
2. Adding a sentence to the end of paragraph (a)(3).
0
3. Adding paragraph (e)(5).
0
4. Adding paragraphs (g)(4) and (5).
    The revisions and additions read as follows:


Sec.  1.512(b)-1  Modifications.

    (a) * * *
    (1) * * * Dividends (including an inclusion of subpart F income 
under section 951(a)(1)(A) or an inclusion of global intangible low-
taxed income (GILTI) under section 951A(a), both of which are treated 
in the same manner as a dividend for purposes of section 512(b)(1)), 
interest, payments with respect to securities loans (as defined in 
section 512(a)(5)), annuities, income from notional principal contracts 
(as defined in Sec.  1.837-7 or regulations issued under section 446), 
other substantially similar income from ordinary and routine 
investments to the extent determined by the Commissioner, and all 
deductions directly connected with any of the foregoing items of income 
must be excluded in computing unrelated business taxable income.
* * * * *
    (3) * * * The exclusion under paragraph (a)(1) of this section of 
an inclusion of subpart F income under section 951(a)(1)(A) or an 
inclusion of GILTI under section 951A(a) from income (both inclusions 
being treated in the same manner as dividends) is applicable to taxable 
years beginning on or after December 2, 2020. However, an organization 
may choose to apply this exclusion to taxable years beginning before 
December 2, 2020.
* * * * *
    (e) * * *
    (5) See Sec.  1.512(a)-6(h) regarding the computation of the net 
operating loss deduction when an organization has more than one 
unrelated trade or business.
* * * * *
    (g) * * *
    (4) The term unrelated business taxable income as used in section 
512(b)(10) and (11) refers to unrelated business taxable income after 
application of section 512(a)(6).
    (5) Paragraph (g)(4) of this section is applicable to taxable years 
beginning on or after December 2, 2020. Taxpayers may choose to apply 
this section to taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2018, 
and before December 2, 2020.
* * * * *

0
Par. 7. Section 1.513-1 is amended by:
0
1. Revising the third and fourth sentence in paragraph (a).
0
2. Redesignating paragraphs (f) and (g) as paragraphs (g) and (h).
0
3. Adding new paragraph (f).
0
4. Adding a sentence to the end of newly redesignated paragraph (h).
    The revisions and additions read as follows:


Sec.  1.513-1  Definition of unrelated trade or business.

    (a) * * * For certain exceptions from this definition, see 
paragraph (e) of this section. For a special definition of unrelated 
trade or business applicable to certain trusts, see paragraph (f) of 
this section. * * *
* * * * *
    (f) Special definition of ``unrelated trade or business'' for 
trusts. In the case of a trust computing its unrelated business taxable 
income under section 512 for purposes of section 681, or a trust 
described in section 401(a) or section 501(c)(17), which is exempt from 
tax under section 501(a), section 513(b) provides that the term 
unrelated trade or business means any trade or business regularly 
carried on by such trust or by a partnership of which it is a member. 
This definition also applies to an individual retirement account 
described in section 408 that, under section 408(e), is subject to the 
tax imposed by section 511.
* * * * *
    (h) * * * Paragraph (f) of this section applies to taxable years 
beginning on or after December 2, 2020.

Sunita Lough,
Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement.
    Approved: November 13, 2020.
David J. Kautter,
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury (Tax Policy).
[FR Doc. 2020-25954 Filed 11-30-20; 4:15 pm]
 BILLING CODE 4830-01-P