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.
Kevin Stiroh is a former senior advisor at the Federal Reserve Board, where he co-chaired the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision's Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Risks. He is currently a senior fellow at Resources for the Future and an advisor at Ceres.
Gary Jain is the founder and CEO of Ledger Labs. He has more than 12 years experience providing outsourced accounting, tax compliance and fractional CFO advisory services for businesses in the United States and Canada.
Faryar Shirzad is the chief policy officer of Coinbase.
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.
