AICPA slams IRS rules on partnership transactions

The American Institute of CPAs is urging the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service to suspend and remove their recently issued final regulations labeling some partnership related-party transactions as "transactions of interest" that need to be reported.

The Treasury and the IRS issued the final regulations in January during the closing days of the Biden administration. 

The regulations identify certain partnership related-party "basis shifting" transactions as "transactions of interest" subject to the rules for reportable transactions. They apply to related partners and partnerships that participated in the transactions through distributions of partnership property or the transfer of an interest in the partnership by a related partner to a related transferee. Taxpayers and their material advisors would be subject to the disclosure requirements for reportable transactions. 

Last June, the Treasury and the IRS issued guidance to related parties and partnerships that were using such structured transactions to take advantage of the basis-adjustment provisions of subchapter K. Last October, the AICPA sent a comment letter urging them to refine the rules. Now that the final regulations have been issued, the AICPA is again warning they would result in an undue burden to taxpayers and their advisors.

In a new comment letter on Feb. 21, the AICPA asked the Treasury and the IRS for immediate suspension and removal of the final regulations due to the impractical provisions and administrative burdens it imposes. 

"These final regulations continue to be overly broad, troublesome, and costly, which places an excessive hardship on taxpayers and advisors without a meaningful corresponding compliance benefit or other benefit to the government," said Kristin Esposito, the AICPA's director of tax policy and advocacy, in a statement Monday. "These regulations exceed their intended scope, especially due to the retroactive nature."

The AICPA contends that the final regulations cover routine, non-abusive transactions, provide an unreasonably low threshold, and impose an unreasonably short 180-day deadline for taxpayers to file Form 8886, Reportable Transaction Disclosure Statement, for transactions related to previously filed tax returns due to the six-year lookback window. It pointed out that under the new rules, advisors would have only 90 additional days beyond the standard reporting deadline to file Forms 8918, Material Advisor Disclosure Statement.