Form 1065 is a Federal Tax Return filed by an LLC partnership. LLC does not pay tax on its income but passes through any profits or losses to its partners.

IRS Form 1065 is an information return used to report the income, gains, losses, deductions, credits, and other information from the operation of a partnership. A partnership doesn’t pay tax on its income but passes through any profits or losses to its partners. Partners must include partnership items on their tax or information returns prepared by their Tax Accountants.

Partnership

A partnership is a relationship between two or more persons who join to carry on a trade or business, with each person contributing money, property, labor, or skill and each expecting to share in the profits and losses of the business whether or not a formal partnership agreement is made.

The term “partnership” includes a limited partnership, syndicate, group, pool, joint venture, or other unincorporated organization, through or by which any business, financial operation, or venture is carried on, that isn’t, within the meaning of regulations under section 7701, a corporation, trust, estate, or sole proprietorship.

A joint undertaking merely to share expenses isn’t a partnership. Mere co-ownership of property that is maintained and leased or rented isn’t a partnership. However, if the co-owners provide services to the tenants, a partnership exists.

A business owned and operated by spouses. Generally, if you and your spouse jointly own and operate an unincorporated business and share in the profits and losses, you are partners in a partnership and you must file Form 1065.

Exception—Qualified joint venture.

If you and your spouse materially participate as the only members of a jointly owned and operated business, and you file a joint return for the tax year, you can make an election to be treated as a qualified joint venture instead of a partnership. By making the election, you will not be required to file Form 1065 for any year the election is in effect and will instead report the income and deductions directly on your joint return.

A qualified joint venture conducts a trade or business where the only members of the joint venture are a married couple who file a joint return; both spouses materially participate in the trade or business, as mere joint ownership of property isn’t enough; both spouses elect not to be treated like a partnership, and the business is co-owned by both spouses and isn’t held in the name of a state law entity such as a partnership or limited liability company.

To make this election, you must divide all items of income, gain, loss, deduction, and credit between you and your spouse in accordance with your respective interests in the venture. Each of you must file a separate Schedule C or F (Form 1040 or 1040-SR). On each line of your separate Schedule C or F (Form 1040 or 1040-SR), you must enter your share of the applicable income, deduction, or loss. Each of you must also file a separate Schedule SE (Form 1040 or 1040-SR) to pay self-employment tax, as applicable.

If you and your spouse make the election for your rental real estate business, you each must report your share of income and deductions on Schedule E (Form 1040 or 1040-SR). Rental real estate income isn’t generally included in net earnings from self-employment subject to self-employment tax and generally, is subject to the passive loss limitation rules. Electing qualified joint venture status doesn’t alter the application of the self-employment tax or the passive loss limitation rules.

To make the qualified joint venture election for 2019, jointly file the 2019 Form 1040 or 1040-SR with the required schedules. This generally doesn’t increase the total tax on the return, but it does give each spouse credit for social security earnings on which retirement benefits are based, provided neither spouse exceeds the social security tax limitation.

Once made, the election cannot be revoked without IRS consent. If you and your spouse filed a Form 1065 for the year before the election, you don’t need to amend that return or file a final Form 1065 for the year the election takes effect.

For more information on qualified joint ventures, go to IRS.gov/QJV.

Foreign Partnership

A foreign partnership is a partnership that isn’t created or organized in the United States or under the law of the United States or of any state. See Notice 2010-41 for information on when a domestic partnership will be classified as foreign.

If a domestic section 721(c) partnership is formed on or after January 18, 2017, and the gain deferral method is applied, then a U.S. transferor must treat the section 721(c) partnership as a foreign partnership and file a Form 8865, Return of U.S. Persons With Respect to Certain Foreign Partnerships, with respect to the partnership. See Form 8865 and its instructions. See also Regulations section 1.721(c)-6T(b)(4).

General Partner

A general partner is a partner who is personally liable for partnership debts.

General Partnership

A general partnership is composed only of general partners.

Limited Partner

 A limited partner is a partner in a partnership formed under a state limited partnership law, whose personal liability for partnership debts is limited to the amount of money or other property that the partner contributed or is required to contribute to the partnership. Some members of other entities, such as domestic or foreign business trusts or limited liability companies that are classified as partnerships, may be treated as limited partners for certain purposes.

Limited Partnership

A limited partnership is formed under a state limited partnership law and composed of at least one general partner and one or more limited partners.

Limited Liability Partnership

 A limited liability partnership (LLP) is formed under a state limited liability partnership law. Generally, a partner in an LLP isn’t personally liable for the debts of the LLP or any other partner, nor is a partner liable for the acts or omissions of any other partner solely because of being a partner.

Limited Liability Company

A limited liability company (LLC) is an entity formed under state law by filing articles of organization as an LLC. Unlike a partnership, none of the members of an LLC are personally liable for its debts. An LLC may be classified for federal income tax purposes as a partnership, a corporation, or an entity disregarded as an entity separate from its owner by applying the rules in Regulations section 301.7701-3. See Form 8832, Entity Classification Election, for more details.

Who Must File

Domestic Partnerships

Except as provided below, every domestic partnership must file Form 1065, unless it neither receives income nor incurs any expenditures treated as deductions or credits for federal income tax purposes.

Note. To be certified as a qualified opportunity fund (QOF), the partnership must file Form 1065 and attach Form 8996, Qualified Opportunity Fund, even if the partnership had no income or expenses to report. See Schedule B question 26 and the Instructions for Form 8996.

Entities formed as LLCs that are classified as partnerships for federal income tax purposes have the same filing requirements as domestic partnerships.

A religious or apostolic organization exempt from income tax under section 501(d) must file Form 1065 to report its taxable income, which must be allocated to its members as a dividend, whether distributed or not. Such an organization must figure its taxable income on an attached statement to Form 1065 in the same manner as a corporation. The organization may use Form 1120, U.S. Corporation Income Tax Return, for this purpose. Enter the organization’s taxable income, if any, on line 6a of Schedule K and each member’s distributive share in box 6a of Schedule K-1. Net operating losses aren’t deductible by the members but may be carried back or forward by the organization under the rules of section 172. The religious or apostolic organization must also make its annual information return available for public inspection. For this purpose, “annual information return” includes an exact copy of Form 1065 and all accompanying schedules and attached statements, except Schedules K-1. For more details, see Regulations section 301.6104(d)-1.

A qualifying syndicate, pool, joint venture, or similar organization may elect under section 761(a) not to be treated as a partnership for federal income tax purposes and will not be required to file Form 1065 except for the year of election. For details, see section 761(a) and Regulations section 1.761-2.

Real estate mortgage investment conduits (REMICs) must file Form 1066, U.S. Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit (REMIC) Income Tax Return.

Certain publicly traded partnerships treated as corporations under section 7704 must file Form 1120.

Foreign Partnerships

 Generally, a foreign partnership that has gross income effectively connected with the conduct of a trade or business within the United States or has gross income derived from sources in the United States must file Form 1065, even if its principal place of business is outside the United States or all its members are foreign persons. A foreign partnership required to file a return must generally report all of its foreign and U.S. source income.

A foreign partnership with U.S. source income isn’t required to file Form 1065 if it qualifies for either of the following two exceptions.

Exception for foreign partnerships with U.S. partners. A return isn’t required if:

• The partnership had no effectively connected income (ECI) during its tax year;
• The partnership had a U.S. source income of $20,000 or less during its tax year;
• Less than 1% of any partnership item of income, gain, loss, deduction, or credit was allocable in the aggregate to direct U.S. partners at any time during its tax year; and
• The partnership isn’t a withholding foreign partnership as defined in Regulations section 1.1441-5(c)(2)(i).

Exception for foreign partnerships with no U.S. partners. A return isn’t required if:

• The partnership had no ECI during its tax year,
• The partnership had no U.S. partners at any time during its tax year,
• All required Forms 1042 and 1042-S were filed by the partnership or another withholding agent as required by Regulations section 1.1461-1(b) and (c),
• The tax liability of each partner for amounts reportable under Regulations section 1.1461-1(b) and (c) has been fully satisfied by the withholding of tax at the source, and
• The partnership isn’t a withholding foreign partnership as defined in Regulations section 1.1441-5(c)(2)(i).

A foreign partnership filing Form 1065 solely to make an election (such as an election to amortize organization expenses) need only provide its name, address, and employer identification number (EIN) on page 1 of the form and attach a statement citing “Regulatsions section 1.6031(a)-1(b)(5)” and identifying the election being made. A foreign partnership filing Form 1065 solely to make an election must obtain an EIN if it doesn’t already have one.

Termination of the Partnership

 A partnership terminates when all its operations are discontinued and no part of any business, financial operation, or venture is continued by any of its partners in a partnership.

The partnership’s tax year ends on the date of termination which is the date the partnership winds up its affairs. Special rules apply in the case of a merger, consolidation, or division of a partnership. See Regulations sections 1.708-1(c) and (d) for detail.

Electronic Filing

 Certain partnerships with more than 100 partners are required to file Form 1065, Schedules K-1, and related forms and schedules electronically. For tax years beginning on or after July 2, 2019, a religious or apostolic organization exempt from income tax under section 501(d) must file Form 1065 electronically. Other partnerships generally have the option to file electronically.

See Rev. Proc. 2012-17, at IRS.gov/pub/irs-irbs/irb12-10.pdf PDF, for the requirements for furnishing substitute Schedule K-1 in electronic format.

The option to file electronically doesn’t apply to certain returns, including:

• Bankruptcy returns, and
• Returns with pre-computed penalty and interest.