The Department of Revenue Board of Tax Appeals in ruling against the Institute remarked that Go is fundamentally a recreational board game like chess.

FORBES: Go Is More Than A Game Despite What State of Washington Thinks

As such, they did not feel comfortable supplanting the functions of the Internal Revenue Service or the tax court in rendering a ruling on what they believed to be an unsettled area of the law.

CNN: AllPolitics - Ethics Transcript

On July 6 it released a "revenue ruling" that clears up long standing gift and estate tax issues relating to an estate-planning tool--irrevocable grantor trusts--widely used by wealthy families.

FORBES: The IRS Grants A Wish