The Internal Revenue Service is postponing the date for filing gift tax and generation-skipping transfer tax returns and making payments until July 15, 2020, because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The IRS issued Notice 2020-20 on Friday, extending the relief it provided earlier this month on the tax-filing and payment dates for most other types of tax returns. The IRS also said the associated interest, additions to tax, and penalties for late filing or late payment will be suspended for the gift tax and generation-skipping transfer tax until July 15.
Matt Waters, CPA, MBA, CGMA, has more than 15 years of experience managing accounting and finance. He has worked with both small organizations and large public companies including The Home Depot and American Tower. His expertise includes process improvements and software evaluation for the FASB’s new lease accounting guidance issued in February 2016.
While at Home Depot, he led the project to consolidate data for real estate, equipment and other leased assets into a single department, which increased efficiency for the preparation of financial reports, 10K footnotes, budgets and forecasts. Organizing lease data allowed the business to see patterns, eliminate waste, and make more informed decisions. Ultimately, his project enabled company-wide quality control over leased assets that reduced over-payments and other costs, which added money back to the bottom line.
Waters became a Certified Public Accountant in February 2004 and a Chartered Global Management Accountant in July 2012. He received his MBA from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Matthew Attwell is Risk & Client Services Director at The ai Corporation.
Joe Sturonas is chief technology officer at PKWARE.
The relief is automatic and applies to any amounts due related to these types of returns. There’s no requirement to file for an extension and the three-month period between the original due date of April 15 and the new deadline of July 15 will be disregarded in terms of any interest, penalties or extra taxes for those who fail to file a Form 709 United States Gift and Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax Return by April 15.
Groups of tax and accounting professionals such as the American Institute of CPAs, the National Society of Accountants and the National Conference of CPA Practitioners have been pressing the IRS to provide additional forms of tax relief beyond the initial relief granted for tax payments from coronavirus victims.
