Congress Passes Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act

On July 31, 2015, President Obama signed into law H.R. 3236, the “Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015.” The bill includes the following tax provisions:

Effective for taxable years beginning after Dec. 31, 2015:

• Partnerships and S corporations would be required to file their tax returns by March 15, or 2 ½ months after the end of their tax year.
• C corporations would be required to file their tax returns by April 15, or 3 ½ months after the end of their tax year. C corporations would be allowed an automatic 6-month filing extension. For calendar year C corporations, the automatic extension would be up to 5 months (or September 15), until tax years beginning after Dec. 31, 2025; after this date, the extension is increased to 6 months (or Oct. 15). For C corporations with tax years ending on June 30, the current due date of Sept. 15 would remain in effect until tax years beginning after Dec. 31, 2015, and would be extended to Oct. 15 after that.
• Lenders would be required to report more information on outstanding mortgages, including the origination date, the outstanding principal and property address.
• Large estates that are required to file estate tax returns must provide the IRS with the value of property included in the gross estate. Any underpayment of tax, due to the understatement of basis, would be subject to a 20 percent penalty.
• With respect to the employer mandate, veterans enrolled in a health plan under the VA or TRICARE would be exempt from the 50 full-time employee threshold.
• Eligible veterans are not disqualified from contributing to a Health Savings Account (HSA), as a result of receiving medical care under the VA for a service related disability.
• Clarification that the six-year statute of limitation applies to cases of overstatement of basis resulting in substantial omission of income.
• The provision allowing employers to transfer excess defined benefit plan assets to retiree medical accounts and group-term life insurance would be extended an additional four years (through Dec. 31, 2015).