What happens if we file Form 7004 after the deadline?
An extension has to be in place before the time it is meant to extend has run out, so a request made afterwards does not restore the position. The practical consequence is that the underlying return is simply late, and the exposure that follows is charged by reference to that return and the length of the delay rather than to the tax on it. Once that is the position, the useful work is not arguing about the request; it is getting the return filed, capping the delay, and recording accurately why the date was missed.
Is there a penalty for the extension request itself being late?
The charge an entity meets is not on the request. It attaches to the return that is now late, because a request lodged out of time leaves the original filing date standing. That is why an entity can hear nothing at all about its extension and still face an exposure on the return it thought had been extended. It also means the remedy sits with the return rather than with the form: file, then document the reason for the delay. We would not spend a client's money contesting the request itself.
We extended but still missed the extended date, what now?
The extended date behaves like any other filing date once it passes, so the return is late from that point and the delay is what drives the exposure. File as soon as the return can be honestly completed, on a stated basis if something is still open, rather than waiting for a final figure. Then look at why the extended period was not enough, because in a cross-border group the answer is usually structural: the foreign close lands too near the extended date. That is fixable for next year in a way that this year's charge is not.
Can we extend a return that is already late?
No, because there is no time left to extend. Once the filing date has passed, the route is to file and to deal with the delay, not to seek more time in retrospect. Entities sometimes lodge a request anyway, on the theory that it can only help; it does not, and it can absorb weeks that the return should have been using. The order of work we recommend is fixed: establish which returns are outstanding, file them, and assemble the account of the delay from documents while those documents are still to hand.
Our parent's figures were late, does that excuse the late return?
It may support relief, but only as evidence rather than as an explanation. What carries weight is the specific record: when the overseas close finished, when the figures reached the entity, what was asked for and when. A general statement that the group's books come from abroad describes every cross-border entity and settles nothing. There is also a harder question behind it, which is whether the entity needed all of those figures in order to file at all. Groups that separate the numbers required to file from the numbers that refine the result usually stop being late.
Do we sort out the extension first or file the return?
File the return. Where the extension was lodged out of time there is nothing to sort out, because the original date governs and every further period of delay is being charged for. So the sequence is to establish which entity and which return are outstanding, complete the return to the point where it can honestly be filed, lodge it, and only then write up the reason the date was missed. Doing the write-up first feels productive and leaves the thing that is actually accruing untouched.
How does the treaty tie-breaker work when both countries say I am resident?
As a sequence, stopping at the first test that gives an answer: where you have a permanent home available; if in both or neither, where your centre of vital interests is; then habitual abode; then nationality; and if all of those tie, the two tax authorities decide by agreement. It is evidential rather than elective — you do not choose your treaty residence, you demonstrate it, which makes the record of homes, family and time the substance of the claim. See tie-breaking dual residency.
Do I pay tax when I inherit property abroad?
The inheritance itself is often not income to you, but three other things can create tax: the estate may owe tax where the deceased or the property was situated, some countries tax the recipient directly, and the gain from the date you inherit to the date you sell is yours. Reporting obligations can also attach to holding the asset. See inheriting property abroad.
