An article on IRS audits…just what you needed to read before going to bed tonight, and I’m not kidding. Now, don’t be embarrassed if you haven’t heard of the Centralized Partnership Audit Regime (“CPAR”). If you think it sounds like something out of a George Orwell novel that only CPA’s and Tax Attorneys care about – well then, you’re half right. It’s not from Nineteen Eighty-Four. It is a real thing; the sort of thing people in my profession like to bring up when they’re trying to sound smart at cocktail parties – the most boring cocktail parties EVER.
Anyway, despite the sleep-inducing name, the CPAR is something many of our clients need to be aware of – namely clients who file (or should be filing) an annual Form 1065 Partnership Tax Return. So, if you are involved in a partnership, try to stay awake – this is for you.
A little background: The CPAR was enacted into law by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (“BBA”). As with most federal laws, the statute itself is nice and all, but the real meat comes in the form of the administrative rules implementing the law. The Proposed Rules for the BBA were introduced earlier this year, and barring something really crazy (which can’t be ruled out in the Washington D.C. of 2017) they will go into effect for all tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2018.
In a nutshell, the CPAR will replace the rules that currently govern partnership audits (which come from the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 (“TEFRA”). The intent of the CPAR is to make it simpler and easier for the examine partnerships, particularly large partnerships with multiple tiers or levels of ownership.
So, What’s New in the CPAR?
1) “Partnership Representative” Replaces “Tax Matters Partner”: Currently, a partnership is required to designate a “Tax Matters Partner.” This is typically done in an Operating or Limited Partnership Agreement. While the Tax Matters Partner can bind the partnership in connection with an audit, it cannot bind the individual partners. In addition, a partner who is not the Tax Matters Partner has certain rights during an audit, including notification rights and the right to participate in the proceedings.
Under the CPAR, the Tax Matters Partner is replaced by the concept of a “Partnership Representative” who is the sole point of contact between the partnership and the IRS. Unlike with the Tax Matters Partner, all partners and the partnership itself are bound by the actions of the Partnership Representative and no one other than the Partnership Representative is vested with a statutory right to participate in a partnership-level audit proceeding. Neither state law nor the partnership agreement itself may limit the authority of the Partnership Representative when it comes to an audit.
Under the CPAR, a partnership must designate its Partnership Representative in the partnership’s annual tax return. Unlike with the Tax Matters Partner, the Partnership Representative may or may not be a partner. The only hard and fast requirement is that the Partnership Representative have a “substantial presence” in the United States. The Partnership Representative designation must be made separately for each tax year and is effective only for that year. One Orwellian tidbit here is that if you fail to designate a Partnership Representative, the IRS is allowed to pick one for you!!! This is a little scary. Again, the Partnership Representative does not have to be a partner in the partnership – so it is at least conceivable that the IRS could appoint as Partnership Representative a non-partner third-party who then becomes the sole point of contact for the IRS regarding the audit and is vested with full authority to bind the partnership in an audit.
Given the above, under the CPAR it becomes more important than ever that you don’t blow off your annual 1065 Partnership Return. File the return on time and name a Partnership Representative! A pretty simply recipe to avoid IRS trouble. I have seen some chatter online about amending operating or partnership agreements to make this designation. However, while this is certainly a good place for the partners agree in writing as to who will be designated the Partnership Representative (or how the Partnership will choose the Partnership Representative), the actual designation must be made on the filed partnership return.
2) “Imputed Underpayment” and the “Push Out Election”: These will become important if you are ever in an audit, but we will not be going into detail here. They are technical changes regarding how the IRS notifies the partnership of an amount owed after audit, and how and when a partnership can decides to pay what is owed at the partnership level, or “push out” that liability to the individual partners.
Am I Stuck with the CPAR?
The short answer is “not necessarily.” Partnerships with 100 or fewer partners – all of whom are considered “Eligible Partners” by the IRS can opt out of the CPAR. Eligible Partners are defined as:
- Individuals
- C-Corporations
- S-Corporations
- The Estates of Deceased Partners
So, if any partner is a trust, a disregarded entity (such as a single-member LLC), or another partnership, opting out is simply not an option. Just like naming a Partnership Representative, opting out of CPAR is done annually, when you file your 1065 partnership return. In order to successfully opt out, you will need to provide the IRS with the name, tax ID number, and federal tax classifications of all partners. Also, the election to opt out only applies to the year to which your tax return applies, so it will need to be done each year going forward.
If you opt out, the IRS will be required to initiate deficiency proceedings at the partner level (instead of the partnership level) to adjust items associated with the partnership and thereby assess and collect any tax that may result from those adjustments. This makes life harder for the IRS, and for this reason, it will likely make sense for eligible partnerships to opt out of CPAR – if they can. The decision to opt out can be made in an operating or partnership agreement, but will need to be submitted to the IRS each year as part of filing the 1065 partnership return.
Because opting out makes a partnership audit more difficult for them, the IRS has stated its intention to closely scutinize any partnership’s decision to opt out. This will include analyzing whether the partnership correctly identified all of its partners. For example, the IRS could conduct a review of a partnership’s partners to confirm that none are acting as nominees or as agents for a beneficial owner.
At the end of the day, for most of our clients, the shift to CPAR will not be noticed. Most partnerships don’t get audited, and if they do, the partners work together to get through it. However, by taking the steps to opt out of CPAR (if eligible), or to make sure a Partnership Representative is named (if opting out isn’t a possibility), you can avoid running into a CPAR problem that could have otherwise been avoided.