Form 8716 Election to Have a Tax Year Other Than a Required Tax Ye

8716

Form
(Rev. December 2008)
Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service

Election To Have a Tax Year Other Than a
Required Tax Year

Name

Type or
Print

OMB No. 1545-1036

Employer identification number

Number, street, and room or suite no. (or P.O. box number if mail is not delivered to street address)

City or town, state, and ZIP code

2

Name and telephone number (including area code) of person who may
be called for information:

1

Check applicable box to indicate type of entity:
Partnership
S corporation (or C corporation electing to be
an S corporation)
Personal service corporation (PSC)

3

Enter ending date of the tax year for the entity’s last filed return. A new entity should enter the
ending date of the tax year it is adopting

4

Enter ending date of required tax year determined under section 441(i), 706(b), or 1378

5

Section 444(a) Election. Check the applicable box and enter the ending date of the first tax
year for which the election will be effective that the entity is (see instructions):
Adopting
Retaining
Changing to

Month

Day

Month
Month

Year
Day

Day

Year

Under penalties of perjury, I declare that the entity named above has authorized me to make this election under section 444(a), and that the statements made are, to
the best of my knowledge and belief, true, correct, and complete.




Signature and title (see instructions)

Date

General Instructions

Where To File

Section references are to the Internal
Revenue Code unless otherwise noted.

File Form 8716 at the applicable IRS
address shown below.

Purpose of Form

If the entity’s
principal place
of business or
principal office or
agency is located
in

Form 8716 is filed by partnerships,
S corporations, and personal service
corporations (as defined in section
441(i)(2)) to elect under section 444 to
have a tax year other than a required tax
year.

When To File
Form 8716 must be signed and filed by
the earlier of:
1. The 15th day of the 5th month
following the month that includes the 1st
day of the tax year the election will be
effective or
2. The due date (not including
extensions) of the income tax return for
the tax year resulting from the section
444 election.
Items 1 and 2 relate to the tax year, or
the return for the tax year, for which the
ending date is entered on line 5 above.
Under Regulations section 301.9100-2,
the entity is automatically granted a
12-month extension to make an election
on Form 8716. To obtain an extension,
type or legibly print "Filed Pursuant To
Section 301.9100-2" at the top of Form
8716, and file the form within 12 months
of the original due date.



Connecticut, Delaware,
District of Columbia,
Georgia, Illinois, Indiana,
Kentucky, Maine, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Michigan,
New Hampshire,
New Jersey, New York,
North Carolina, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island,
South Carolina, Tennessee,
Vermont, Virginia, West
Virginia, Wisconsin
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona,
Arkansas, California,
Colorado, Florida, Hawaii,
Idaho, Iowa, Kansas,
Louisiana, Minnesota,
Mississippi, Missouri,
Montana, Nebraska,
Nevada, New Mexico, North
Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon,
South Dakota, Texas, Utah,
Washington, Wyoming

Use the following
address


Department of
the Treasury
Internal Revenue
Service Center
Cincinnati, OH
45999

Department of
the Treasury
Internal Revenue
Service Center
Ogden, UT
84201

An entity without a principal office or
agency or principal place of business in
the United States must file Form 8716
with the Internal Revenue Service Center,
P.O. Box 409101, Ogden, UT 84409.

For Paperwork Reduction Act Notice, see instructions.

Cat. No. 64725S

Also file a copy of Form 8716 with
your income tax return for the first tax
year for which the election is made. To
enable electronic filing, you may file an
unsigned Form 8716 containing the
same information as on the signed Form
8716 you filed separately.

Effect of Section 444
Election
Partnerships and S corporations. An
electing partnership or S corporation
must file Form 8752, Required Payment
or Refund Under Section 7519, for each
year the election is in effect. Form 8752
is used to figure and make the payment
required under section 7519 or to obtain
a refund of net prior year payments. File
Form 8752 by May 15 following the
calendar year in which each applicable
election year begins.
The section 444 election will end if the
partnership or S corporation is penalized
for willfully failing to make the required
payments.
Personal service corporations (PSC).
An electing PSC should not file Form
8752. Instead, it must comply with the
minimum distribution requirements (see
next paragraph) of section 280H for
each year the election is in effect. If the
PSC does not meet these requirements,
the applicable amounts it may deduct
for payments made to its
employee-owners may be limited.

Form

8716

(Rev. 12-2008)

Form 8716 (Rev. 12-2008)

Use Schedule H (Form 1120), Section
280H Limitations for a Personal Service
Corporation (PSC), to figure the required
minimum distribution and the maximum
deductible amount. Attach Schedule H to
the income tax return of the PSC for each
tax year the PSC does not meet the
minimum distribution requirements.

The section 444 election will end if the
PSC is penalized for willfully failing to
comply with the requirements of section
280H.

Members of Certain Tiered
Structures May Not Make
Election
No election may be made under section
444(a) by an entity that is part of a tiered
structure other than a tiered structure that
consists entirely of partnerships and/or S
corporations all of which have the same
tax year. An election previously made will
be terminated if an entity later becomes
part of a tiered structure that is not allowed
to make the election. See Temporary
Regulations section 1.444-2T for other
details.

Acceptance of Election
After your election is received and
accepted by the service center, the center
will stamp it “Accepted” and return a copy
to you. Be sure to keep a copy of the form
marked “Accepted” for your records.

End of Election
The election is made only once. It remains
in effect until the entity changes its
accounting period to its required tax year
or some other permitted year or it is
penalized for willfully failing to comply with
the requirements of section 280H or 7519.
If the election is terminated, the entity may
not make another section 444 election.

Signature
Form 8716 is not a valid election unless it
is signed. For partnerships, a general
partner or a member-manager of a limited
liability company must sign and date the
election.
For corporations, the election must be
signed and dated by the president, vice
president, treasurer, assistant treasurer,
chief accounting officer, or any other
corporate officer (such as tax officer)
authorized to sign its tax return.
If a receiver, trustee in bankruptcy, or
assignee controls the entity’s property or
business, that person must sign the
election.

Page

Specific Instructions
Line 1
Check the applicable box to indicate
whether the entity is classified for federal
income tax purposes as a partnership, an
S corporation (or a C corporation electing
to be an S corporation), or a PSC.
A corporation electing to be an
S corporation that wants to make a section
444 election is not required to attach a
copy of Form 8716 to its Form 2553,
Election by a Small Business Corporation.
However, the corporation is required to
state on Form 2553 its intention to make a
section 444 election (or a backup section
444 election). If a corporation is making a
backup section 444 election (provided for
in Part II, item Q, of Form 2553), it must
type or print the words “Backup Election”
at the top of the Form 8716 it files. See
Temporary Regulations section 1.444-3T
for more details.

Line 2
Enter the name and telephone number
(including the area code) of a person that
the IRS may call for information needed to
complete the processing of the election.

Line 4
Required tax year. The required tax year
for an S corporation or PSC is a calendar
year. Generally, the required tax year for a
partnership is the tax year of a majority of
its partners (see Regulations section
1.706-1(b) for details).

Line 5
The following limitations and special rules
apply in determining the tax year an entity
may elect.
New entity adopting a tax year. An entity
adopting a tax year may elect a tax year
under section 444 only if the deferral
period of the tax year is not more than 3
months. See Deferral period below.
Existing entity retaining a tax year. In
certain cases, an entity may elect to retain
its tax year if the deferral period is not
more than 3 months. If the entity does not
want to elect to retain its tax year, it may
elect to change its tax year as explained
below.
Existing entity changing a tax year. An
existing entity may elect to change its tax
year if the deferral period of the elected tax
year is not more than the shorter of 3
months or the deferral period of the tax
year being changed. If the tax year being
changed is the entity’s required tax year,
the deferral period for that year is zero and
the entity is not permitted to make a
section 444 election.
Example. ABC, a C corporation that
historically used a tax year ending October
31, elects S status and wants to make a
section 444 election for its tax year

2

beginning November 1. ABC’s required tax
year under section 1378 is a calendar tax
year. In this case, the deferral period of the
tax year being changed is 2 months. Thus,
ABC may elect to retain its tax year
beginning November 1 and ending October
31 or elect a tax year beginning on
December 1 (with a deferral period of one
month). However, it may not elect a tax
year beginning October 1 because the
3-month deferral period would be longer
than the 2-month deferral period of the tax
year being changed. If ABC elects a tax
year beginning on December 1, it must file
a short tax year return beginning
November 1 and ending November 30.
Deferral period. The term “deferral period”
means the number of months between the
last day of the elected tax year and the last
day of the required tax year. For example,
if you elected a tax year that ends on
September 30 and your required tax year
is the calendar year, the deferral period
would be 3 months (the number of months
between September 30 and December 31).
Paperwork Reduction Act Notice. We
ask for the information on this form to
carry out the Internal Revenue laws of the
United States. You are required to give us
the information. We need it to ensure that
you are complying with these laws and to
allow us to figure and collect the right
amount of tax.
You are not required to provide the
information requested on a form that is
subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act
unless the form displays a valid OMB
control number. Books or records relating
to a form or its instructions must be
retained as long as their contents may
become material in the administration of
any Internal Revenue law. Generally, tax
returns and return information are
confidential, as required by section 6103.
The time needed to complete and file
this form will vary depending on individual
circumstances. The estimated average time
is:
Recordkeeping
2 hr., 37 min.
Learning about the
law or the form
1 hr., 12 min.
Preparing and sending
the form to the IRS
1 hr., 16 min.
If you have comments concerning the
accuracy of these time estimates or
suggestions for making this form simpler,
we would be happy to hear from you. You
can write to the Internal Revenue Service,
Tax Products Coordinating Committee,
SE:W:CAR:MP:T:T:SP, 1111 Constitution
Ave. NW, IR-6526, Washington, DC 20224.
Do not send the form to this address.
Instead, see Where To File on page 1.