Sec. 9100 relief: final regulations on extension of time to make elections.

• Author: Garland, Cindy M.
• Position: IRC s. 9100 - Brief Article

The IRS has issued final regulations on requesting extensions of time to make certain elections and the standards it will use to grant those extensions. The regulations are effective for requests submitted to the IRS on or after Dec. 31, 1997.

The final regulations generally adopt Temp. Regs. Secs. 301.91001 1T through -3T, which provided:

* An automatic 12-month extension of time to make certain regulatory elections;

* An automatic six-month extension from the due date of the return (excluding extensions) to make both statutory and regulatory elections whose due dates were the return's due date (or its due date including extensions);

* IRS standards to determine whether to grant extensions for certain regulatory elections that did not qualify for relief under the automatic extensions (a taxpayer had to demonstrate that it acted reasonably and in good faith and that granting the relief would not prejudice the interest of the government); and

* Extended time to file Form 3115, Application for Change in Accounting Method. (A taxpayer could have filed Form 3115 anytime during the tax year in which it desired to make the accounting method change.)

The temporary regulations defined a statutory election as an election whose deadline was prescribed by the Code; a regulatory election was one whose deadline was prescribed by a regulation, revenue ruling, revenue procedure, notice or announcement.

One modification was made to the final regulations. Regs. Sec. 301.9100-2(a) provides that, in measuring the 12-month automatic extension for eligible regulatory elections whose deadlines are the due date of the return or the due date of the return including extensions, the extended due date may be used if an extension was obtained.

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