Whilst many of us have been enjoying the summer, some regained freedoms, and a number of public holidays, the US tax year has been quietly rolling along in the background. Well here we find ourselves at the 15th February…, hasn’t time gone by quickly!
One month from today’s date, marks the first major US tax deadline of the year, being the 15th March submission dates for foreign trust filings (Form 3520-A).
Form 3520-A is required of most grantors (owners, settlors, trustees) of non-US trusts, or those who’ve contributed assets to a foreign trust. This includes Self-Managed Super Funds in Australia.
Whilst ordinarily most individual tax filings are due on 15th April each year, Form 3520-A has a due date one month earlier than an ordinary US tax return.
As we’ve written about a number of times over the last two years, this is a deadline which is taken very seriously by the IRS, and has resulted in a large amount of severe penalties being issued to taxpayers who’ve not filed in time, along with many taxpayers who’ve been wrongly issued penalties due to the IRS not correctly considering the postmarked date of an extension as the filing date.
For most New Zealand and Australian based taxpayers, filing Form 3520-A before 15th March is not possible, due to the local financial year not having ended yet. But, an extension of time to file can be obtained until 15th September 2022.
This extension is obtained by filing Form 7004, which can be filed by post or electronically (for trusts which have an EIN number assigned to it).
If you have already engaged an accountant/CPA for your 2021 United States income tax return (and have a foreign trust), it is worth double checking that they intend to file your extension.
If you’ve not yet engaged an accountant/CPA, and will need foreign trust filing, it is important to either file your extension ASAP, or engage an accountant to do this for you.
At US Global Tax, we file extensions for all clients at no cost, filing all extensions electronically where possible.
For any questions, contact us today at +64-9-373-2949 (NZ) or +61-2-9211-7130 (Australia).