IRS Provides Penalty Relief for Partnerships that Filed Late Returns in 2017

IR-2017-141, Sept. 1, 2017

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today issued guidance providing penalty relief for certain partnerships that did not file the required returns by the new due date for tax years beginning in 2016.  Partnerships file Form 1065 PDFor Form 1065-B PDF or request an automatic extension by filing Form 7004 PDF.

The Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015 changed the date by which a partnership must file its annual return.  For calendar year partnerships, the due date for filing the annual return or request for an extension changed from April 15 (April 18 in 2017) to March 15.  

Many partnerships filed their returns or their extension requests for tax year 2016 by the April deadline, and if not for the Surface Transportation Act, these returns and requests for extension of time to file would have been on time.

Notice 2017-47 PDF provides penalty abatement for these partnerships, provided:

1. the partnership filed the returns with the IRS and furnished copies to the recipients (as appropriate) by the date that would have been timely, or
2. the partnership filed Form 7004 to request an extension of time to file by the date that would have been timely.

Taxpayers who qualify for relief under Notice 2017-47 will not be treated as having received a first-time abatement under the IRS’s administrative penalty waiver program.  Additional details are available in Notice 2017-47.

The new deadlines were provided in the instructions for Form 1065 PDF and the instructions for Form 1065-B PDF.

For calendar year partnerships, the due date for filing a return after receiving an extension is Sept 15. The IRS projected that corporations and partnerships will file almost 6.9 million extension requests during 2017 The IRS expects to receive more than 4 million partnership returns during 2017. 

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