Next filing season will be better: due dates have a new logical order.

• Author: Sherr, Eileen Reichenberg

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PREVIEW

* Legislation passed in 2015 provides new due dates for many types of returns for years after Dec. 31, 2015.

* The new due dates, which the AICPA advocated for, should improve the overall tax filing process for many tax professionals.

* Changes permitting taxpayers to disregard de minimis errors on various information returns will also simplify tax compliance and reduce costs.

As practitioners get ready for the 2017 filing season, there is hope that next year will be better. That is because the 2017 filing season will involve new due dates, a result of years of advocacy by the profession. In one of the most significant pieces of tax legislation enacted in 2015, Congress included the AICPA-supported tax return due dates legislation as a revenue provision in the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015, (1) which extended the Highway Trust Fund for three months in the summer and fall of 2015. On July 31, 2015, President Barack Obama signed that legislation into law, making the new tax return due dates generally effective for tax years beginning after Dec. 31,2015 (applicable to 2016 tax returns and the 2017 filing season).

The New Due Dates: Effective for 2017 Filing Season

First, as a result of preliminary feedback from government officials that the individual tax return due date of April 15 and extension until Oct. 15 were "cut in stone," tax practitioners did not propose that individual tax return due dates change, and they did not change.

Second, the new federal due dates apply to 2016 tax returns and the 2017 filing season and beyond. However, it should be noted that the new rules apply to tax years beginning after Dec. 31,2015, so they will apply to short-year returns beginning in 2016, before the general 2017 filing season. For example, if during its tax year beginning in 2016, a partnership has a technical termination, or a corporation goes out of existence or changes its tax year sometime in 2016, the new due dates would apply to the entity's short-period return.

Below is a list of the new federal due dates generally applicable for 2016 tax returns (2017 filing season) and beyond. (2)

March 15 (Extensions Until Sept. 15)

* Form 1065, U.S. Return of Partnership Income; and

* Form 1120S, U.S. Income Tax Return for an S Corporation.

Note: This is the due date for the tax return and also for the Schedules K-1 that the entity must provide to its owners.

April 15 (Extensions Until Oct. 15, Unless Noted Below)

* Form 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Return;

* Form 1041, U.S. Income Tax Return for Estates and Trusts (extensions until Sept. 30);

* Form 1120, U.S. Corporation Income Tax Return (extensions until Sept. 15 until 2026, see note below); and

* FinCEN Form 114, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) (any late filing penalty for a first-time filer may be waived).

Note: Calendar-year C corporations can get extensions until Sept. 15 until tax years beginning after 2025, when the extended due date will be Oct. 15. June 30 fiscal-year-end C corporations (returns due Sept. 15) can get extensions to April 15 until tax years beginning after 2025; after 2025, June 30 fiscal-year-end C corporations will have an Oct. 15 due date and can get extensions until April 15.

May 15 (Extensions Until Nov. 15)

* Form 990, Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax (series).

July 31 (Extensions Until Oct. 15)

* Form 5500 for employee benefit plans.

Note: The Form 5500 extension due date of Oct. 15 remains unchanged. The Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015, (3) signed into law on Dec. 4,2015, repealed the employee benefit plan Form 5500 extension provision in the July 2015 highway bill, which had provided a 3 1/2-month filing extension until Nov. 15. As requested by the U.S. Department of Labor, the result of the Form 5500 extension provision in the December 2015 Act is that the Form 5500 extension is back to 2 1/2 months, due on Oct. 15. Note that there was a negligible revenue effect from the Form 5500 due date extension as no tax payments are made with fifing this return. (4)

Other Forms That May Be Affected

Although the legislation does not go into detail about due dates for various other forms, it should be noted that forms that are tied to the due dates of the above forms will need to be revised accordingly. For example, Form 5471, Information Return of U.S. Persons With Respect to Certain Foreign Corporations, will likely be changed to coincide with the corresponding return's new due date. Some other forms that are likely to be changed to go along with the corresponding return's new due date are:

* Form 926, Return by a U.S. Transferor of Property to a Foreign Corporation',

* Form 5472, Information Return of a 25% Foreign-Owned U.S. Corporation or a Foreign Corporation Engaged in a U. S. Trade or Business (Under Sections 6038A and 6038C of the Internal Revenue Code);

* Form 8804, Annual Return for Partnership Withholding Tax (Section 1446);

* Form 8805, Foreign Partner's Information Statement of Section 1446 Withholding Tax;

* Form 8858, Information Return of U.S. Persons With Respect to Foreign Disregarded Entities;

* Form 8865, Return of U.S. Persons With Respect to Certain Foreign Partnerships; and

* Form 8886, Reportable Transaction Disclosure Statement.

State Tax Return Due Dates

Many states are likely to follow the above federal due date changes but may need to enact legislation (or issue regulations or guidance from the state departments of revenue) to change their due dates to conform to the new federal dates. As of this writing, due dates conformity legislation had been enacted in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, and West Virginia. (5) California is considering due date legislation. (6) During 2016, the state CPA societies likely will be working with their legislatures and departments of revenue on any needed and desired state due...