26 U.S.C. § 269A (2024)

This is the official text of 26 U.S.C. § 269A (2024), part of Federal (US Code)’s United States Code — the codified general and permanent federal statutes of the United States, organized into more than 50 numbered titles by subject.

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Personal service corporations formed or availed of to avoid or evade income tax

Official statutory text

(a) General rule

If—

(1) substantially all of the services of a personal service corporation are performed for (or on behalf of) 1 other corporation, partnership, or other entity, and

(2) the principal purpose for forming, or availing of, such personal service corporation is the avoidance or evasion of Federal income tax by reducing the income of, or securing the benefit of any expense, deduction, credit, exclusion, or other allowance for, any employee-owner which would not otherwise be available,

then the Secretary may allocate all income, deductions, credits, exclusions, and other allowances between such personal service corporation and its employee-owners, if such allocation is necessary to prevent avoidance or evasion of Federal income tax or clearly to reflect the income of the personal service corporation or any of its employee-owners.

(b) Definitions

For purposes of this section—

(1) Personal service corporation

The term "personal service corporation" means a corporation the principal activity of which is the performance of personal services and such services are substantially performed by employee-owners.

(2) Employee-owner

The term "employee-owner" means any employee who owns, on any day during the taxable year, more than 10 percent of the outstanding stock of the personal service corporation. For purposes of the preceding sentence, section 318 shall apply, except that "5 percent" shall be substituted for "50 percent" in section 318(a)(2)(C).
vices are substantially performed by employee-owners.

(2) Employee-owner

The term "employee-owner" means any employee who owns, on any day during the taxable year, more than 10 percent of the outstanding stock of the personal service corporation. For purposes of the preceding sentence, section 318 shall apply, except that "5 percent" shall be substituted for "50 percent" in section 318(a)(2)(C).

(3) Related persons

All related persons (within the meaning of section 144(a)(3)) shall be treated as 1 entity.

(Added Pub. L. 97–248, title II, §250(a), Sept. 3, 1982, 96 Stat. 528; amended Pub. L. 99–514, title XIII, §1301(j)(4), Oct. 22, 1986, 100 Stat. 2657.)

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1986—Subsec. (b)(3). Pub. L. 99–514 substituted "section 144(a)(3)" for "section 103(b)(6)(C)".

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date of 1986 Amendment

Amendment by Pub. L. 99–514 applicable to bonds issued after Aug. 15, 1986, except as otherwise provided, see sections 1311 to 1318 of Pub. L. 99–514, set out as an Effective Date; Transitional Rules note under section 141 of this title.

Effective Date

Pub. L. 97–248, title II, §250(c), Sept. 3, 1982, 96 Stat. 529, provided that: "The amendments made by this section [enacting this section] shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 1982."

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.