IRS Announces New Fee for Estate Tax Closing Letters
By: Chris Gaetano
Published Date:
Sep 28, 2021
The IRS announced that closing letters for estate tax returns will soon come with a $67 fee. The new fee goes into effect Oct. 28.
An estate tax closing letter informs its authorized recipient of the IRS’s acceptance of the estate tax return—generally, Form 706, United States Estate (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Tax Return—and provides some return information, such as the amounts of the net estate tax, any state death tax credit or deduction, and any generation-skipping transfer tax for which the estate is liable.
Previously, the issuance of such letters was free of charge. However, the IRS has determined that issuing closing letters is a service that confers a special benefit warranting a user fee. That’s because, although obtaining a closing letter from the IRS can be helpful to an executor of an estate, it is not required by law. Moreover, the estate has the option of obtaining from the IRS, free of charge, an account transcript, showing certain information from the estate tax return, comparable to that found in a closing letter.
The new user fee was authorized under final regulations, TD 9957, available today in the Federal Register. Closing letter requests must be made using Pay.gov. The IRS will provide further procedural details before the user fee goes into effect.
