IRS Extends Deadline for Some Surviving Spouses to “Inherit” Deceased Spouse’s Estate Tax Exemption
The Federal Estate Tax Law sometimes allows a surviving spouse to “inherit” a deceased spouse’s unused estate tax exemption. This reduces the estate tax to the family when the surviving spouse dies, under current law saving the family as much as 40 cents of estate tax for every dollar of “inherited” exemption. This is only possible, however, only if an estate tax return claiming the transferred exemption is timely filed for the deceased spouse’s estate.
The IRS has announced that a surviving spouse of a person who died before January 1, 2014, will be granted an limited extension to file such a return. For some, this creates a second opportunity to revisit taking advantage of this tax benefit.
Here is a link to the IRS ruling. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-14-18.pdf