California Conforms to New Tax Due Dates – Update your Agreements!

By: Tamara B. Pow, Esq.

On December 8, 2015 I published a blog about new federal partnership tax return filing deadlines . At that time, the IRS had just announced that partnership and S corporation returns will be due 2 ½ months after year end, or on March 15 th if the partnership is on the calendar tax year. C corporation returns will be due 3 ½ months after year end, or on April 15 th for calendar year corporations. California has now conformed to these due dates (AB 1775, Ch. 16-348). (Note: California has not conformed to the federal delay in changing the due date for C corporations with fiscal years ending on June 30 th .)

Federal extensions (based on requests) of time to file partnership returns have changed – from five months to six months, same as S corporations. C corporation extensions depend on the taxable year, with some being reduced from six months to five months. California (automatic) extensions of time to file may change as well from the current six months for partnerships and seven months for corporations to six months for both ( Spidell’s California Taxletter, Volume 38.10, p.4).

Don’t forget to update LLC operating agreements and LP and LLP partnership agreements, as well as corporate shareholder agreements if necessary to make sure the requirements are in line with these new deadlines. Often these agreements have particular time periods for management to provide tax reporting documents to owners, which may need to be changed. For example, the partnership tax return deadline for a calendar year partnership is now March 15 th . If your partnership agreement still says the managing partner shall prepare tax information by the 90 th day of the tax year, it should be changed to the 60 th day (or thereabouts) to meet the new requirements.

Tamara B. Pow is a founding partner of Strategy Law, LLP in downtown San Jose, California where she practices business and real estate law including limited liability company and other business entity formations, operations, transfers, conversions and dissolutions. Her tax background, including time as a tax consultant at Price Waterhouse, LLP, as well as her MBA and real estate brokers license help her stay apprised of these items when advising owners of LLCs and other business entities.

The information appearing in this blog does not constitute legal advice or opinion. Such advice and opinions are provided by the firm only upon engagement with respect to specific factual situations. Specific questions relating to this article should be addressed directly to Strategy Law, LLP.

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