This article discusses how some of the new IRS forms are creating confusion amongst executors, inheritors, and lawyers. One of the new forms is Form 8971, Information Regarding Beneficiaries Acquiring Property From A Decedent, and it is due on March 31, 2016. To provide estate planners with some guidance the IRS released proposed rules on “Consistent Basis Reporting Between Estate And Person Acquiring Property From Decedent.” Some of the new reporting requirements deals with duplicate reporting of a deceased person’s assets on information statements that are sent to multiple beneficiaries, and there are also new requirements for subsequent transfers. The purpose of these new rules is to close many of the loopholes, but this article describes many of the problems and issues that estate planning professionals are having with complying with these requirements.
See Ashlea Ebeling, Executors, Inheritors, Lawyers Flummoxed By New IRS Forms, Forbes, March 9, 2016.
Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse for bringing this article to my attention.
