Late S Election Relief

Late S election relief is the IRS's standing administrative program that lets a business rescue a missed Form 2553 deadline without a private letter ruling. Under Rev. Proc. 2013-30, an entity can file the election up to three years and 75 days after the intended effective date if it can show reasonable cause for the delay, has behaved like an S corporation the whole time (filed returns and had shareholders report income consistently with S status), and all shareholders sign on. The relief request is typically attached to the current Form 1120-S or filed with a standalone Form 2553 marked with the revenue procedure citation. Because the conditions are mechanical and the IRS routinely grants these requests, a missed deadline is usually a paperwork problem rather than a lost year of tax savings.