(a) The Department issues program rulings in two forms as follows:

1. (1) Private rulings. Upon request, the Department issues private rulings to program applicants or participants based upon specific factual information provided in writing by the applicant or participant. Private rulings are not formally published, but copies with identifying and confidential material deleted may be obtained upon request from the Department of Community and Economic Development, Office of Chief Counsel, Commonwealth Keystone Building, 400 North Street, 4th Floor, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17120, (717) 783-8452. The purpose of a private ruling is to advise a program applicant or participant of the Department’s application of the law and regulations to a specific factual situation unique to the applicant or participant. Private rulings may be relied upon only by the particular program applicant or participant concerned, based upon the facts supplied, absent statutory or regulatory change or rescission by the Department.
2. (2) Program rulings. At its sole discretion, the Department issues program rulings to provide guidance and interpretation of law and regulations to a general factual situation. Program rulings are not formally published but a list of program rulings currently in force and effect will be published annually as a notice in the Pennsylvania Bulletin. Copies of program rulings may be obtained upon request from the Department of Community and Economic Development, Office of Chief Counsel, Commonwealth Keystone Building, 400 North Street, 4th Floor, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17120, (717) 783-8452. The purpose of a program ruling is to advise Department personnel and interested persons of the Department’s application of law and regulations to a general factual situation. Program rulings may be relied upon by a program applicant or participant only to the extent of the facts relied upon and the assumptions made in the ruling itself, absent statutory or regulatory change or rescission by the Department. Periodically, the Department may revise prospectively a program ruling, and program applicants and participants are cautioned to determine whether a program ruling relied upon is current.

(b) The Department has discretionary authority to issue private rulings. This discretion is exercised in light of relevant circumstances. Examples of areas where private rulings normally will not be issued include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. (1) Issues under extensive study or review, or subject to imminent legislative action.
2. (2) Alternative plans of proposed transactions or hypothetical situations.
3. (3) Matters upon which a lower court decision adverse to the Department has been handed down and the appeal period thereon is still open and the question of following the decision or litigating the matter further has not been resolved.