Due to the late changes in the Federal Gift and Estate Tax law included in the 2010 Tax Relief Act passed on December 17, 2010, IRS Form 709 underwent significant revisions to incorporate those changes.
We originally expected the form to be released by late January and practitioners, such as us, patiently waited for it through January and February. During that time, we received no insight as to when the updated form would be available.
Finally, on March 17, 2011, the IRS posted the updated Form 709 on its website.
Unfortunately, the updated form instructions have not been posted yet!
As a result, it will take some time for the tax software developers to catch up and implement the revised form into their tax programs. This will probably result in more 2010 Gift tax returns being extended than has historically been the case. Since most taxpayers won’t owe any gift tax with their 2010 gift tax returns, there won’t be any penalties resulting from filing after the original due date. However, you must file for an extension!
How do you extend your gift tax return? If you extend your 2010 Federal Individual Income Tax Return, form 1040, you will automatically extend the time to file your 2010 Federal Gift Tax Return. If you do not extend your Federal Individual Income Tax Return, and you have a Federal Gift Tax filing requirement, you must extend the Gift Tax Return by filing Form 8892, Application for Automatic Extension of Time To File Form 709 and/or Payment of Gift/Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax.
