Once again, the Treasury and the IRS have delayed the filing deadline for Form 8971 now required under 26 USC 6035 (along with 26 USC 1014(f)), new provisions enacted under the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015.
Those new provisions require “basis consistency” between what is reported on a decedent’s federal estate tax return and what the beneficiaries of the estate can use as their cost basis for assets inherited from the decedent.
The problem has been that the IRS and Treasury were caught flat-footed by the statute’s enactment, and they had to scramble to issue regulations and forms to use. The statute said the deadline was 30 days after enactment of the statute, but that was July 31, 2015. So the reports should have started flowing back then. But without forms and specifics on what was needed, no one knew what to do. So the IRS extended the filing deadline to February 29, 2016. But then they could not get their forms and regulations ready by that time, so they extended the deadline to March 31.
The final regulations just came out March 4. And they have caused people to ask hundreds of questions. The ACTEC listserv seems to talk about nothing else.
So once again, the deadline has been extended, and this time to June 30, 2016. The Notice, for some reason, cannot be found on the IRS website. I have a copy if you want it.