Estate Planning and Tax Lawyer Blog

The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department announced that Form 8939 will not be due April 18, 2011, and should not be filed with the final Form 1040 of persons who died in 2010. More guidance will be issued at a later date announcing the form due date. Following the release of more guidance will be the release of Form 8939, Allocation of Increase in Basis of Property Acquired from a Decedent, which is an informational return used to establish basis for income tax purposes of property acquired from a person who died in 2010. The estate tax was repealed for persons who died in 2010 under the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. However, the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 reinstated the estate tax for persons who died in 2010. The law established that executors of the estates of decedents who died in 2010 to elect to have the rules of the estate tax not apply to the property of a decedent’s estate. This should be made in the manner and at the time prescribed by the Treasury Department. Future guidance will include a deadline for filing Form 8939 and for electing to have the estate tax rules not apply to the estates of persons who died in 2010. The prior deadline of April 18, 2011 still remains the deadline for filing a decedent’s final Form 1040. When the further guidance is available, it will be provided on http://www.irs.gov.