Congress recently enacted the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015. This bill contains a number of significant changes to the Internal Revenue Code and the Bank Secrecy Act.
One change such significant change is the adjustment of due dates of various tax returns and for the Foreign Bank Account Reporting Form (“FBAR”) for all tax year beginning after December 31, 2015. Under the new law, calendar year Partnership and S-Corporation returns must be filed by March 15th of the following year. Personal and Corporate returns, as well as FBARs generally must be filed by April 15th. Each of these due dates can be extended by up to six months upon request.
Another significant change is that the bill overturns the Supreme Court’s decision in Home Concrete v. United States, 132 S.Ct. 1836 (2012). In that case, the Court held that in order for the six-year statute of limitations to apply (instead of the normal 3 year statute), a taxpayer must have omitted 25% or more of his income. Under the old rules, this meant that overstatement basis (which lowers gains) did not increase the statute of limitations to six years.
The new law explicitly overrules this case by including an overstatement of basis in the definition of the omission from gross income.
Disclaimer: This article is for general information only and is not intended as legal advice.