Refunds Confined to Statute of Limitations

Same-sex couples may file a refund claim for gift or estatetaxes paid prior to the Supreme Court’s recent DOMA decision.  However, they should probably act now as theIRS’s relief is confined to the current three-year statute of limitations, meaningamended returns will only be accepted for the years 2010, 2011, and 2012.

A challenge to the IRS’s decision to confine relief to thisthree-year period is likely forthcoming. As Florida practitioner George Karibjanian says, “If a law is unconstitutional,that means it is . . . void from the start. It’s as if it never existed. Shouldn’t that trump whatever statute of limitations says I can’t amenda return?”  However, the IRS may beunlikely to expand the statute of limitations, which would “open things up fora really long time.” 

See Diane Freda, Same-Sex Marriage Fight Looms Next on IRSEstate Refunds: Taxes, Bloomberg, Oct. 15, 2013.