Changes to Business Tax Return Filings

In case you were wondering, your federal government has been hard at work. Recently, new legislation (Highway Trust Fund extension law) has come up with new filing due dates for business tax returns.

All of these changes apply to returns for tax years beginning after December 31, 2015 with the one exception described above for C corporations with June 30 year-ends.

• March 15 – Will now be the filing due date for all calendar year-end partnerships and S corporations. This is new for partnerships and continues to be the case for S corporations. Those not filing with calendar year-ends will file their returns on the 15th day of the third month following the year-end of the entity (for example, an S corporation with a March 31 year-end would have a due date of June 15,excluding any extension).
• April 15 – C Corporations will file by the 15th day of the fourth month following the year-end of the entity. For calendar year-end C corporations, this will mean a filing due date of April 15. The exception to the rule is for those C corporations with years ending on June 30. For these entities, the due date will remain the 15th day of the 3rd month following the year-end of the entity until tax years ending after December 31, 2026. At that time, the filing due date will be the 15th day of the 4th month following the year-end of the entity.

Extension filing periods have been affected as well.    

• S Corporations – Will continue to be allowed an automatic extension for 6 months.
• Partnerships – Automatic extensions will increase from 5 months to 6 months.
• C Corporations – Calendar year-end C corporations will have an automatic extension of 5 months. C corporations with year-ends that end on June 30 will be allowed a 7-month extension. C corporations with other year-ends will be granted extensions of 6 months.

There are items in this legislation that affect other taxpayers, but more on that in future postings.