IRS postpones deadline for gift and GST taxes due to coronavirus

The Internal Revenue Service is postponing the date for filing gift tax and generation-skipping transfer tax returns and making payments until July 15 because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

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.

CORONAVIRUS IMPACT: ADDITIONAL COVERAGE

Ben Zatlin serves as Vice President and General Manager of Agero's Accident Management business, a role he began in September 2021. Prior to leading the Accident Management line of business, Ben spent the previous two and a half years leading Agero's digital transformation to Swoop, its next-generation dispatching platform. He is passionate about leveraging technology to drive claims innovation and deliver consistent, high-quality service. Prior to Agero, Ben was a management consultant at professional services firm Deloitte and an operations engineer at life sciences company Abbott Laboratories. He holds a BA in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Southern California and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Justin Berman is a Technical Director at Skybox Security. Berman is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and Certified Cloud Security Professional with a Certified Specialty in AWS Security with over 20 years of experience.
Justin has a passion for IT security beyond the realm of his assigned roles and responsibilities. He is knowledgeable across a great number of security disciplines.

As the General Manager of Dayforce Wallet & Consumer Services at Ceridian, Seth Ross brings nearly 20 years' of experience to oversee the development, launch, and implementation of Dayforce Wallet, Ceridian's market-leading pay solution that enables employees to access their earned wages at any time.

Prior to joining Ceridian, Ross led Green Dot Corporation's Banking-as-a-Service business, where he helped build new, embedded financial services businesses with partners like Apple, Uber, Intuit, Stash and others. Before that, he led the global airline partnerships strategy for American Express and helped launch Amex Advance, a division focused on data commercialization. 

Ross holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Ivey Business School at Western University in London, Ontario, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

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.

IRS-Building-light
The IRS headquarters building in Washington, D.C.
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg