Taxable Talk

Congress passed and President Obama signed the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015 in late July. That law’s primary function has nothing to do with tax; however, it will have a major impact on entity tax returns for 2016 and for the 2016 FBARs:

• Partnership tax returns will be due on March 15th, not April 15th (for calendar year partnerships);
• C Corporation tax returns will be due on April 15th, not March 15th (for calendar year C Corporations);
• S Corporation tax returns remain due on March 15th (unchanged); and
• FBARs (FINCEN Form 114) will be due on April 15th, not June 30th.  An extension for six months will be available (until October 15th).

The most important change for my practice is the FBAR. Here’s the exact change in the law:

The due date of FinCEN Report 114 (relating to Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts) shall be April 15 with a maximum extension for a 6-month period ending on October 15 and with provision for an extension under rules similar to the rules in Treas. Reg. section 1.6081–5. For any taxpayer required to file such Form for the first time, any penalty for failure to timely request for, or file, an extension, may be waived by the Secretary.

It is unclear whether a separate extension for the FBAR will need to be filed. The reference to Treasury Regulation 1.6081-5 is for the automatic two-month extension of time to file for those residing outside the United States, so it appears those who do so reside will have a June 15th deadline for filing the FBAR (with a four-month extension available until October 15th).

There are several other deadline changes in the law, but they all are for 2015 returns due in 2016 (not 2014 returns due in 2015). Also, because Friday, April 15, 2016 is Emancipation Day in the District of Columbia the deadline for tax returns will be extended to Monday, April 18, 2016. However, it is likely the deadline for FBARs will not be extended from April 15, 2016. The deadline for FBARs is a receipt deadline, not a postmark deadline, as is not extended if the deadline falls on a weekend or holiday. My strong suspicion is that this change in deadline could be a huge FUBAR given the three day extension for tax returns in 2016. We will have to see if common sense exists within FINCEN or if bureaucratic regulatory procedures take precedence (which is what I suspect will happen).

Tags: FBAR

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 2nd, 2015 at 8:17 pm and is filed under International, IRS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.