The Internal Revenue Service recently issued a change to the rules regarding portability of a deceased spouse’s unused exclusion (DSUE), expanding the time period from two years to five years. As explained in the recent article “IRS Extends Portability Election” from The National Law Review, portability allows spouses to combine their exemption from estate and gift tax. Here’s how it works.

A surviving spouse may use the unused estate tax exemption of the deceased spouse to lower their tax liability. Let’s say Spouse A dies in 2022, when the estate tax exemption is $12.06 million. If, during Spouse A’s lifetime, they had only used $1 million of their exemption amount, Surviving Spouse B may elect portability to claim $11.06 million DSUE, as long as they file for the exemption within five years of the decedent’s date of death.

Prior to the rule change, the surviving spouse only had two years to claim the DSUE. The due date of an estate tax return is still required to be filed nine months after the decedent’s death or on the last day of the period covered by an extension, if one had been secured.

The IRS had previously extended the deadline to file for portability to two years. However, over time, the taxing agency found itself managing a large number of requests for private letter rulings from estates failing to meet the two year deadline. It was noted many of these requests for portability relief occurred on or before the fifth anniversary of a decedent’s date of death, which led to the current change.

How do I Elect Portability?

To elect portability, the executor (or personal representative) of the estate must file an estate tax return on or before the fifth anniversary of the decedent’s date of death. This estate tax return is a Form 706. The executor must note at the top of Form 706 that it is filed pursuant to Rev. Proc. 2022-32 to elect portability under Sec. 2010(C)(5)(A).

Eligibility to elect portability is not overly burdensome for most people. The decedent must have been a U.S. citizen or resident on the date of their death and the executor must not have been otherwise required to file an estate tax return. This means the decedent was under the estate tax exemption at the time of their death. With the current estate tax exemption now at $12.06 million for an individual, most people will find themselves well under the limit.

This new regulation expands the number of people who will be able to take advantage of the exemption and will help families pass wealth on to the next generation without incurring the federal estate tax. Speak with your estate planning attorney to be sure to elect portability when the first spouse passes, in order not to lose this exemption.

Reference: The National Law Review (Aug. 1, 2022) “IRS Extends Portability Election”