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.
Kathy Davis, CPA, is a manager in the Tax Advisory Services Department of Anglin Reichmann Armstrong.
She has more than a decade of experience in public accounting, and her focus is retirement planning, estate and gift planning and preparation of complex tax returns. Contact her at kdavis@anglincpa.com.
Vara Kumar is the co-founder and head of R&D at Whatfix. Vara co-founded Whatfix with Khadim Batti in 2014 with the vision of empowering individuals and organizations to work symbiotically with technology to maximize their potential. Based in the US, Vara leads the company's strategy and vision for product development and adoptions, technology development, and innovation – helping accelerate successful integrations for partners and customers. He is passionate about building technology that users love.
Thomas Horan is an associate at Seyfarth Shaw LLP where he advises and defends employers in numerous industries on a range of employment and labor law matters in class actions and individual-plaintiff actions.
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.
