Form 8971 and Schedule A: reporting estate values to beneficiaries

Form 8971 tells the IRS which beneficiaries received property from a decedent’s estate and at what estate tax value. Each of those beneficiaries gets a separate Schedule A listing only their own property, and that value becomes the ceiling on the basis they can claim when they later sell or depreciate it. The current form is Rev. August 2025 (Schedule A is dated August 2025 as well), and the instructions are Rev. December 2026, published October 27, 2026 for use with that form.

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Who files Form 8971, and when it is not required

The filer is the executor of an estate that files Form 706 or Form 706-NA after July 2015, whether that estate tax return is on time or late. “Executor” here also covers a personal representative or administrator. If nobody has been appointed and is acting in the United States, every person in actual or constructive possession of the decedent’s property counts as an executor, so one estate can produce several Forms 8971, each covering only the property that person reported or had to report.

A trustee files one too, later in the chain: when a trust that received property reported on a Schedule A transfers or distributes that property (or property whose basis comes from it, such as replacement property in a like-kind exchange). That duty ends when the trust disposes of the property in a sale or other recognition event that leaves it with a basis unrelated to the estate value.

No Form 8971 is due in three situations:

• The gross estate plus adjusted taxable gifts and specific exemption is below the basic exclusion amount for the year of death.
• The estate files only another estate tax form, such as Form 706-QDT, 706-CE or 706-GS(D).
• The Form 706 or 706-NA is filed solely to elect portability of the deceased spousal unused exclusion (DSUE), solely to make a generation-skipping transfer tax allocation or election, or solely as a protective filing for a penalty or a state law requirement.

Outside those cases the form is still due when every asset is excepted property or no Schedule A has to go out yet. In that situation Part II can leave out the beneficiary list entirely.

Due date and the Florence, Kentucky address

Form 8971 goes to the IRS, and each required Schedule A goes to its beneficiary, by the earlier of two dates: 30 days after the Form 706 or 706-NA is due (including extensions), or 30 days after that return is actually filed. An estate that files its Form 706 early therefore starts its 30 days early. When the deadline falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, the next business day counts.

The complete package, Form 8971 plus a copy of every Schedule A, is filed separately from any other return the estate files. The instructions give this address:

Internal Revenue Service
Mail Stop 824G
7940 Kentucky Drive
Florence, KY 41042

For a private delivery service, the instructions send you to the IRS page of PDS street addresses. As checked on October 31, 2026, that page lists the Austin, Kansas City and Ogden submission processing centers and does not mention Form 8971, so this guide gives no separate courier address; U.S. mail to the address above is the route the instructions spell out.

Schedules A reach beneficiaries in person, by email, or by U.S. mail or a private delivery service to the beneficiary’s last known address. Column (d) of Part II is where you certify the date each one was provided, and the instructions say to keep proof of mailing or delivery, or an acknowledgment of receipt. When the beneficiary is a trust or another estate with several trustees or executors, giving Schedule A to one of them is enough.

How to fill out Form 8971, Part I and Part II

Page 1 of the form has the decedent and executor details in Part I and the beneficiary summary in Part II; page 2 continues the beneficiary list and carries the totals. In the image, S is the supplemental filing checkbox, numbers mark Part I lines, and the letters b, d and e mark the columns of Part II, line 6.

Line 6 lists every beneficiary who must receive a Schedule A, an executor who is also a beneficiary included, plus anyone who already received an optional one by the filing date. The instructions allow specific entries when information is missing:

• Column (b), TIN not received after a written request to the beneficiary’s last known address: enter “requested” and attach a copy of the request. A supplement follows once the TIN arrives.
• Column (b), a beneficiary trust with no trustee or TIN by the due date: enter “trust not yet established” and attach a statement of your efforts.
• Column (b), a foreign beneficiary not required to provide a TIN: enter “Not Required” and attach a statement citing the authority.
• A beneficiary you cannot locate: enter the name, any known TIN and the last known address, write “not furnished” in column (d), and attach a page describing your efforts to find them.

Values are reported in U.S. dollars and rounded to whole dollars: drop amounts under 50 cents and raise 50 to 99 cents to the next dollar, rounding only the total when several amounts are added.

Only one executor has to sign, but every executor shown on the form or on the line 8 statement is responsible for its contents and liable for the penalties. A paid preparer signs in the preparer block and gives the executor a copy. Checking “Yes” in the box next to the signature lets the IRS discuss the Form 8971 and its Schedules A with that preparer; it does not let the preparer represent the estate.

Schedule A, column by column

Schedule A is a separate two-page PDF with a wide, horizontal page, also dated August 2025. You need the filed Form 706 or 706-NA open next to it, because columns (b) to (d) repeat what that return says. In the image, 3 marks the beneficiary’s name and TIN, 8 the reason boxes for a supplement, and the letters mark the Part II columns.

Column (f) drives the most consequences. Property that qualifies for the marital deduction under section 2056 or 2056A, or the charitable deduction under section 2055, generally generates no estate tax and gets “N”. The notice printed at the foot of Schedule A tells the beneficiary that when property increased the estate tax, section 1014(f) requires consistent basis reporting.

Column (h) works differently for time-limited and undivided interests. Suppose a rental building was reported on Form 706 at $750,000. If the surviving spouse gets a life estate and a daughter gets the remainder, both Schedules A show the full $750,000; the instructions say not to split basis between interests that differ only in time. If instead two sons inherit the building as equal tenants in common, each son’s Schedule A shows 50% in column (e) and $375,000 in column (h).

Each Schedule A goes only to the beneficiary named on it. Beneficiaries never receive Form 8971 itself; the notice on page 1 of the form says this is to protect privacy.

Which property needs a Schedule A

A Schedule A is required for a beneficiary who acquired property subject to reporting on or before the Form 706 due date (or the filing date, if earlier) when any of that property is not excepted. Property subject to reporting is property included in the gross estate, including property that qualified for the marital or charitable deduction, plus property whose basis is figured from it. A beneficiary acquires property when title vests under local law or when they have enough control to sell or depreciate it; property passing by contract or by operation of law is generally acquired at death.

Excepted property never appears on Schedule A. The instructions list 14 categories. Among them:

• U.S. dollars, dollar demand deposits and certificates of deposit, and money market fund shares priced in dollars.
• Life insurance on the decedent paid in a lump sum in dollars, and tax and other refunds payable in dollars.
• Household and personal effects that need no appraisal under the estate tax regulations.
• Property sold or exchanged by the estate or the decedent’s revocable trust in a recognition event before distribution, such as a pecuniary bequest satisfied in property on which the estate recognizes gain or loss.
• IRAs, Roth IRAs and other retirement plan interests expressed entirely in U.S. dollars, annuities under section 72, and income in respect of a decedent.
• Appreciated property under section 1014(e) acquired by the decedent within one year of death.

An executor may also send an optional Schedule A for property a beneficiary has not acquired yet but is expected to. Once sent, that beneficiary must be listed on Form 8971.

Supplemental Form 8971 and Schedule A

A supplement is filed with the IRS, and a supplemental Schedule A goes to each affected beneficiary, when a beneficiary acquires non-excepted property not reported on an earlier Schedule A, or when a change makes earlier information incorrect or incomplete. On both documents you check the supplemental box and report only what changed.

The instructions give examples: a disclaimer or death changing who receives property, newly discovered assets added to the gross estate on examination, a like-kind exchange or involuntary conversion replacing the property listed, and a corrected or finally determined value. Final value means the reported value once the assessment period runs out without an IRS adjustment, a value in a binding written agreement with the IRS, or a value fixed by a court that can no longer be appealed. The duty to supplement lasts until final values are set for all reportable property or, if later, until beneficiaries have acquired all of it.

Related forms

• Form 706 and Form 706-NA: the estate tax returns whose filing triggers Form 8971 and whose schedules and item numbers fill Schedule A, columns (b) to (d).
• Form 2848: needed if the preparer is to represent the estate on Form 8971. The executor, not the estate, is the taxpayer on line 1, with the executor’s TIN; on line 3 enter “Civil Penalties”, “Form 8971/Schedule A” and the month of death as YYYYMM. A copy may be attached to Form 8971 with “copy” written at the top.
• Form 8822: the instructions name it for reporting a change in the executor’s address.
• Form SS-5: the application for a Social Security number if the decedent never had one; the Social Security Administration handles it.