Electronic, digital signatures extended

[jklcpa]

To alleviate concerns of practitioners having to meet with clients in person to obtain signatures on forms that are required to be filed on paper while promoting timely filing, the IRS has extended the date through which taxpayers and representatives may use electronic or digital signatures when signing the following forms that currently require a handwritten signature:

• Form 3115, Application for Change in Accounting Method;
• Form 8832, Entity Classification Election;
• Form 8802, Application for U.S. Residency Certification;
• Form 1066, U.S. Income Tax Return for Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit;
• Form 706, U.S. Estate (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Tax Return;
• Form 706-NA, U.S. Estate (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Tax Return;
• Form 709, U.S. Gift (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Tax Return;
• Form 1120-ND, Return for Nuclear Decomm.Funds & Certain Related Persons;
• Form 1120-RIC, U.S. Income Tax Return for Regulated Investment Companies;

• Form 1120-C, U.S. Income Tax Return for Cooperative Associations;
• Form 1120-REIT, U.S. Income Tax Return for Real Estate InvestmentTrusts;
• Form 1120-L, U.S. Life Insurance Company Income Tax Return;
• Form 1120-PC, U.S. Property and Casualty Insurance Co Income Tax Return;
• Form 1128, Application to Adopt, Change or Retain a Tax Year;
• Form 3520, Annual Return To Report Transactions With Foreign Trusts and 
Receipt of Certain Foreign Gifts;
• Form 3520-A, Annual Information Return of Foreign Trust With a U.S. Owner; 
• Form 8453 series, Form 8878 series, and Form 8879 series regarding IRS e-file 
Signature Authorization Forms; and
• Form 8038 series, pertaining to tax-exempt bonds.

 

This memorandum is effective for the forms listed above, that are signed and 
postmarked from January 1, 2021 through June 30, 2021.

 

The above information was taken from the IRS memorandum of Dec 11th that is linked to here in this JoA article.

Edited December 16, 2020 by jklcpa
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[Lee B]

There was also a similar announcement earlier this month specifically related to Forms  2848 and 8821.

The IRS news release said the they wanted practitioners to be aware that this would not speed up the processing time for these forms.