Partnership & Trust Extensions End September 15

If you have a calendar year 2008 partnership, estate or trust return on extension, don’t forget the extension for filing those returns ends on September 15, 2009.  In prior years, the extension was for six months (to October 15) but was reduced to five months beginning in 2009.  

Pass-through entities such as partnerships and fiduciaries (trusts, estates) pass their income, deductions, credits, etc., through to their investors, partners or beneficiaries, who in turn report the various items on their individual tax returns. Partnerships file Form 1065 and fiduciaries file Form 1041, with each partner or beneficiary receiving a Schedule K-1 from the entity that shows their share of the reportable items.

Prior to this change, all of the aforementioned entities could obtain an automatic extension to file their returns for the same length of time allowed to individuals.  This made it difficult for individuals to meet the filing deadline without estimating the pass-through information and then later filing an amended return when the actual data was received.

As a result, the IRS has reduced the automatic extension period for pass-through entities from six to five months, thus providing individual taxpayers with a month’s grace period to complete their individual returns.

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