Payments for Unrealized Receivables

If a partner receives money or property in exchange for any part of a partnership interest, the amount due to their share of the partnership’s unrealized receivables or inventory items results in ordinary income or loss. This amount

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is treated as if it were received for the sale or exchange of property that is not a capital asset.

This treatment applies to the unrealized receivables part of payments to a retiring partner or successor in interest of a deceased partner only if that part is not treated as paid in exchange for partnership property. See Liquidation at Partner’s Retirement or Death , later.

Unrealized receivables. Unrealized receivables include any rights to payment not already included in income for the following items.

Goods delivered or to be delivered to the extent the payment would be treated as received for property other than a capital asset.
Services rendered or to be rendered.

These rights must have arisen under a contract or agreement that existed at the time of sale or distribution, even though the partnership may not be able to enforce payment until a later date. For example, unrealized receivables include accounts receivable of a cash method partnership and rights to payment for work or goods begun but incomplete at the time of the sale or distribution of the partner’s share.

The basis for any unrealized receivables includes all costs or expenses for the receivables that were paid or accrued but not previously taken into account under the partnership’s method of accounting.

Other items treated as unrealized receivables. Unrealized receivables include potential gain that would be ordinary income if the following partnership property were sold at its FMV on the date of the payment.

Mining property for which exploration expenses were deducted.
Stock in a domestic international sales corporation (DISC).
Certain farmland for which expenses for soil and water conservation or land clearing were deducted.
Franchises, trademarks, or trade names.
Oil, gas, or geothermal property for which intangible drilling and development costs were deducted.
Stock of certain controlled foreign corporations.
Market discount bonds and short-term obligations.
Property subject to recapture of depreciation under sections 1245 and 1250. Depreciation recapture is discussed in chapter 3 of Pub. 544.

Determining gain or loss. The income or loss realized by a partner upon the sale or exchange of its interest in unrealized receivables and inventory items, discussed below, is the amount that would have been allocated to the partner if the partnership had sold all of its property for cash at FMV, in a fully taxable transaction, immediately prior to the partner’s transfer of interest in the partnership. Any gain or loss recognized that is attributable to the unrealized receivables and inventory items will be ordinary gain or loss.

Example. You are a partner in ABC Partnership. The adjusted basis of your partnership interest at the end of the current year is zero. Your share of potential ordinary income from partnership depreciable property is $5,000. The partnership has no other unrealized receivables or inventory items. You sell your interest in the partnership for $10,000 in cash and you report the entire amount as a gain because your adjusted basis in the partnership is zero. You report as ordinary income your $5,000 share of potential ordinary income from the partnership’s depreciable property. The remaining $5,000 gain is a capital gain.

Inventory items. Inventory items are not limited to stock-in-trade of the partnership. They also include the following property.

Property that would properly be included in the partnership’s inventory if on hand at the end of the tax year or that is held primarily for sale to customers in the normal course of business.
Property that, if sold or exchanged by the partnership, wouldn’t be a capital asset or section 1231 property (real or depreciable business property held more than 1 year). For example, accounts receivable acquired for services or from the sale of inventory and unrealized receivables are inventory items.
Property held by the partnership that would be considered inventory if held by the partner selling the partnership interest or receiving the distribution.

Notification required of partner. If a partner exchanges a partnership interest attributable to unrealized receivables or inventory for money or property, they must notify the partnership in writing. This must be done within 30 days of the transaction or, if earlier, by January 15 of the calendar year following the calendar year of the exchange. A partner may be subject to a $50 penalty for each failure to notify the partnership about such a transaction, unless the failure was due to reasonable cause and not willful neglect.

Information return required of partnership. When a partnership is notified of an exchange of partnership interests involving unrealized receivables or inventory items, the partnership must file Form 8308, Report of a Sale or Exchange of Certain Partnership Interests, with Parts I–IV completed, as an attachment to its Form 1065. Form 8308 is filed with Form 1065 for the tax year that includes the last day of the calendar year in which the exchange took place. If notified of an exchange after filing Form 1065, the partnership must file Form 8308 separately, within 30 days of the notification.

All partnerships required to file Form 8308 must provide Form 8308 with Parts I–III completed to each transferee and transferor by the later of January 31 following the end of the calendar year or 30 days after it receives notice of the exchange.

The partnership may be subject to a penalty for each failure to timely file Form 8308 and a penalty for each failure to furnish a copy of Form 8308 to a transferor or transferee, unless the failure is due to reasonable cause and

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not willful neglect. If the failure is intentional, a higher penalty may be imposed. See sections 6721, 6722, 6723, 6724 and 6698 for details.

Statement required of partner. If a partner sells or exchanges any part of an interest in a partnership having unrealized receivables or inventory, they must file a statement with their tax return for the year in which the sale or exchange occurs. The statement must contain the following information.

The date of the sale or exchange.
The amount of any gain or loss attributable to the unrealized receivables or inventory.
The amount of any gain or loss attributable to capital gain or loss on the sale of the partnership interest.

Partner’s disposition of distributed unrealized receiv- ables or inventory items. In general, any gain or loss on a sale or exchange of unrealized receivables or inventory items a partner received in a distribution is an ordinary gain or loss. For this purpose, inventory items do not include real or depreciable business property, even if they are not held more than 1 year.

Example. Oscar, a distributee partner, received his share of accounts receivable when his law firm dissolved. The partnership used the cash method of accounting, so the receivables had a basis of zero. If Oscar later collects the receivables or sells them, the amount he receives will be ordinary income.

Exception for inventory items held more than 5 years. If a distributee partner sells inventory items held for more than 5 years after the distribution, the type of gain or loss depends on how they are being used on the date sold. The gain or loss is capital gain or loss if the property is a capital asset in the partner’s hands at the time sold.

Example. Marucia receives, through dissolution of her partnership, inventory that has a basis of $19,000. Within 5 years, she sells the inventory for $24,000. The $5,000 gain is taxed as ordinary income. If she had held the inventory for more than 5 years, her gain would have been capital gain, provided the inventory was a capital asset in her hands at the time of sale.

Substituted basis property. If a distributee partner disposes of unrealized receivables or inventory items in a nonrecognition transaction, ordinary gain or loss treatment applies to a later disposition of any substituted basis property resulting from the transaction.

Foreign partner’s transfer of an interest in a partner- ship engaged in the conduct of a U.S. trade or busi- ness. Section 864(c)(8) requires a foreign partner that transfers part or all of an interest in a partnership engaged in the conduct of a trade or business in the United States (U.S. trade or business) to include in income the effectively connected gain or loss from the transfer. A partnership distribution is considered a transfer when it results in recognition of gain or loss. See Regulations section 1.731-1(a).

In general, any foreign person, any domestic partnership that has a foreign person as a direct partner, and any domestic partnership that has actual knowledge that a foreign person indirectly holds, through one or more partnerships, an interest in the domestic partnership that transfers an interest in a partnership engaged in a U.S. trade or business must notify the partnership of the transfer in writing within 30 days after the transfer. The notification must include:

The names and addresses of the notifying transferor and the transferee or transferees;
The U.S. TIN of the notifying transferor and, if known, of the transferee or transferees; and
The date of the transfer.

This notification requirement does not apply to the transfer of an interest in a publicly traded partnership if the interest is publicly traded on an established securities market or is readily tradable on a secondary market (or the substantial equivalent thereof). It also does not apply to a notifying transferor that is treated as transferring an interest in the partnership because it received a distribution from the partnership. This notification may be combined with or provided at the same time as the statement required of a partner that sells or exchanges any part of an interest in a partnership having unrealized receivables or inventory, provided that it satisfies the requirements of both sections. For more information, see Regulations section 1.864(c)(8)-2.

To determine the amount of gain or loss described in section 864(c)(8), generally, a foreign transferor must first determine its outside gain or loss on the transfer of a partnership interest. For this purpose, outside gain or loss is determined under all relevant provisions of the Code and regulations thereunder. A foreign transferor may recognize outside capital gain or loss and outside ordinary gain or loss on the transfer of its partnership interest and must separately apply section 864(c)(8) with respect to its capital gain or loss and its ordinary gain or loss.

The foreign transferor must compare the outside gain or loss amounts with the relevant aggregate deemed sale effectively connected gain or loss that the partnership calculates based on the foreign transferor’s distributive share of gain or loss that would have been effectively connected if the partnership had sold all of its assets at FMV. This information will be provided to the notifying transferor on or before the due date (with extensions) for issuing Schedule K-1 (Form 1065). The foreign transferor only includes in income the lower of the outside amount and the deemed sale effectively connected amount. This determination is made separately with respect to capital gain or loss and ordinary gain or loss. For example, a foreign transferor would compare its outside ordinary gain to its aggregate deemed sale effectively connected ordinary gain, treating the former as effectively connected gain only to the extent it does not exceed the latter. For more information, see Regulations section 1.864(c)(8)-1.

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