(a) Return required. The return of any section 2801 tax imposed by chapter 15 of subtitle B of the Internal Revenue Code (Code) must be made on Form 708, United States Return of Tax for Gifts and Bequests Received from Covered Expatriates, in accordance with the instructions applicable to the form (or on such other form as may be provided in future guidance or instructions). With respect to each covered gift and covered bequest received during the calendar year, the U.S. recipient as defined in § 28.2801-2(e) must include on Form 708 the information set forth in § 25.6019-4 of this chapter. The U.S. recipient must file Form 708 for each calendar year in which the U.S. recipient receives a covered gift or covered bequest. The U.S. recipient who receives the covered gift or covered bequest during the calendar year is the person required to file the return. A U.S. recipient is not required to file such form, however, for a calendar year in which the total fair market value of all covered gifts and covered bequests received by that person during that calendar year is less than or equal to the section 2801(c) amount (as defined in § 28.2801-2(l)).

(b) Protective return safe harbor. A U.S. citizen or resident (as defined in § 28.2801-2(b)) who receives a gift or bequest from an expatriate and reasonably concludes that the gift or bequest is not a covered gift or a covered bequest from a covered expatriate may file a protective Form 708 to start the running of the period of limitations for assessment of tax. Under the safe harbor procedure of this paragraph (b), a Form 708 will start the running of the period of limitations for assessment of tax if the return includes all of the information otherwise required on Form 708, along with an affidavit, signed under penalties of perjury, setting forth the information on which the U.S. citizen or resident has relied in concluding that the donor or decedent, as the case may be, was not a covered expatriate, or that the transfer was not a covered gift or a covered bequest, as well as that person's efforts to obtain other information that might be relevant to these determinations. For purposes of this safe harbor, if the U.S. citizen or resident has obtained, and is permitted to rely on, information from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) (as described in § 28.2801-7(b)(1)), the U.S. citizen or resident must attach a copy of such information to the protective return. For purposes of this safe harbor, the U.S. citizen or resident also must attach a copy of a completed Part III of Form 3520, Annual Return to Report Transactions With Foreign Trusts and Receipt of Certain Foreign Gifts, for all trust distributions, or Part IV of Form 3520 for all gifts and bequests, if applicable.

(c) Applicability date. This section applies on and after January 14, 2025.