In the summer of 2016, practitioners started reporting that the IRS, without any notice, was imposing additional requirements prior to issuing a Certificate Discharging Property Subject to Estate Tax Lien. Generally, this certificate is needed in order to sell a cooperative apartment or residential real estate by an estate. The result was an additional layer of complexity overlying an already cumbersome sales process. Unsurprisingly, practitioners and commentators alike took issue with the added burden and published a number of articles critical of the practice in effort to have the requirements clarified or modified. The IRS responded to the public pressure and released a memorandum providing interim guidance in April of 2017. The Interim Guide is the IRS attempt to clarify the process in order to decrease the burden associated with selling an estate.
See Shaina S. Kamen & Michael S. Schwartz, Update on New IRS Release of Estate Tax Lien Requirements, Probate and Property Magazine, December 2017.
