IRS Gives Issuers Hurt by Sandy More Time To File Bond Forms

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service’s tax-exempt bond office is giving issuers affected by Hurricane Sandy additional time to file certain bond-related forms.

State and local governments located in federally-declared disaster areas, including Connecticut, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island, are allowed to file bond information forms — 8038, 8038-T and 8038-CP — late until Feb. 1, 2013, according to an IRS release issued Thursday.

This applies to all forms that had a due date between late October and Jan. 31, 2013.

The 8038 series information forms are filed when bonds are issued and include: 8038 for qualified private-activity bonds; 8038-G for tax-exempt governmental bonds in excess of $100,000; 8038-GC for governmental obligation bonds less than $100,000; 8038-B for Build America Bonds and the 8038-C for qualified tax credit bonds.

Form 8038-T is required for issuers making an arbitrage payment and is due at the end of an issuer’s computation period.

Form 8038-CP is filed by an issuer of Build America Bonds or other direct-pay bonds to notify the IRS that they are entitled to receive subsidy payments.

Affected issuers can also file forms and payments up until Feb. 1, 2013 if the records necessary to make such filings are located in a disaster area, the release said. The IRS said it will abate any late-filing penalty that would normally apply.

The IRS said that this relief will be applied automatically to affected issuers in disaster areas and the issuers do not need to contact the agency. However, when affected issuers file a late return or payment they should indicate at the top of the paperwork it was a result of Hurricane Sandy, the Service said.

Steve Chamberlin, manager of compliance and program management for the TEB office, said no issuers have contacted the IRS office since the storm hit one-month ago.

“As soon as Sandy hit, the IRS has been talking about what we can do to help people,” he said. “Muni bonds don’t have real problems in this area, but we have existing procedures where issuers can request relief and will be granted relief on a case-by-case basis.”

“We felt that putting out a release was necessary to give assurance to issuers affected by Sandy that the relief is granted so they aren’t waiting for confirmation from the IRS,” Chamberlin added.

Hurricane Sandy torpedoed the mid-Atlantic coast at the end of October killing at least 135 people and causing approximately $62 billion in economic damages. It has been listed as the second-costliest storm in U.S. history, after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

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