AICPA Wants Extension on Filing of Estate Tax Forms

The American Institute of CPAs has written a letter to the Internal Revenue Service asking the IRS to extend the due dates for filing the estate tax form for last year and this year and for a new form for allocating the increase in basis for property acquired from a decedent.

For all decedents who died last year, when the estate tax was not in effect, the AICPA believes the due dates for Forms 706 and 8939 should be 90 days after the last of them is issued in final form along with instructions. The due date for paying the estate tax should also be the same as the date for filing Form 706, the AICPA recommended.

“We request that the Treasury and the IRS announce that for all decedents who died in 2010, the due date for Form 706 or Form 8939 will be 90 days after the issuance, in final form, of whichever of the two forms, together with its set of instructions, is issued last and that the due date for the payment of any estate tax is the same as the due date of Form 706,” wrote AICPA Tax Executive Committee chair Patricia Thompson in a comment letter on August 8. “This will allow a reasonable period of time for the preparation and filing of either 2010 Form 706 or 2010 Form 8939, as promised by the Treasury Department and the IRS in IR-2011-33 with respect to the Form 8939. We request that there be some procedure by which an estate can obtain an extension of time to file Form 8939 for a period of six months after its due date. In addition, we request that the due date of the 2011 Form 706 be no earlier than 90 days after the final form and its instructions are issued.”

The IRS recently issued guidance to help taxpayers cope with the carryover basis rules for the estates of people who died last year, when the estate tax was not in effect (see IRS Offers Guidance on Estate Tax Carryover Basis for People Who Died in 2010). Along with the guidance, the IRS also linked to a draft version of Form 8939, but it has not yet been finalized.