Extension To File Portability Election

If your spouse died within the first six months of 2011, the IRS recently extended the deadline for you to make a portability election.

The portability election allows the surviving spouse to use the decedent spouse’s unused estate and gift tax exclusion. On Friday, the IRS announced that an extension is available to surviving spouses of decedent spouses who died between December 31, 2010 and July 1, 2011 with estates less than $5 million. If those two requirements are met, the surviving spouse can file a Form 4768 to request an extension no later than 15 months after the decedent spouse died. With this extension, the first estate tax returns for estates that can make the portability election will be due on Monday, April 2, 2012.

To qualify for the extension, estates should submit a Form 4768 and Form 706 to the IRS within 15 months of the date of the decedent’s death.

See Michael Cohn, IRS Extends Deadline on Estate Tax Portability Election, Accounting Today, Feb. 17, 2012.