Form 8621 · Elections
How to make a QEF or mark-to-market election on Form 8621
When each election is made, what it needs, what a late election costs and how one is undone — the procedure. Which election fits a given fund is the comparison, linked below.
By Danilson Ramos · Founder, Atamatax
Published July 2026 · Updated November 2026
Direct answer
How do you make a QEF or mark-to-market election?
On Form 8621 itself: Part II, Election A for a QEF (§1295) or Election C for mark-to-market (§1296), attached to a return filed by its due date, including extensions, for the first tax year the election is to apply. There is no separate election form, and each PFIC needs its own.
Once made, either election applies to every later year you hold the stock and is revoked only with IRS consent. What decides which one you can make is a document and a market: QEF needs the fund's PFIC Annual Information Statement, mark-to-market needs marketable stock.
What changes the answer
- You held the fund in an earlier year without an election: a late QEF stays unpedigreed unless you also make a purging election, and the first year of a late mark-to-market election is taxed under §1291.
- The fund provides no PFIC Annual Information Statement: a QEF election is not available.
- The stock is not marketable under §1296(e): mark-to-market is not available.
Next step: Which election fits your fund?
Check it for your own holding
Could this investment be a PFIC?
Two questions and, if you have it, the ticker or ISIN. The read is immediate, nothing you enter leaves this page, and it names what would settle the rest.
Free, no account, nothing you answer leaves this page. Open the full portfolio scanner
Screened against the fund registry on this page. It is never sent anywhere.
A screen. Whether a fund is a PFIC turns on its own annual income and asset facts under §1297; the read above says how far your answers go and what would settle the rest.
Two elections let you step out of the default §1291 regime: the Qualified Electing Fund (QEF, §1295) and mark-to-market (§1296). Which one suits a given fund is a comparison of outcomes; this page is about the mechanics — where the election lives, when it has to be made, and what happens when it is made late.
Where and when the election is made
- Both elections are made on Form 8621 for the PFIC concerned, attached to a timely filed return (including extensions) for the first tax year the election is to apply. There is no separate election form.
- Each election is made per PFIC. A portfolio of six foreign funds is six elections and six Forms 8621, and a fund of funds can add lower-tier PFICs under §1298(a)(2).
- Once made, the election stays in force for every later year you hold the stock. It is not re-elected annually, and it is revoked only with IRS consent.
What a QEF election does (§1295)
- You include your pro-rata share of the fund's ordinary earnings (as ordinary income) and net capital gain (as long-term gain) each year.
- Requires the fund to provide a PFIC Annual Information Statement — many non-U.S. funds don't, which is the practical catch.
What a mark-to-market election does (§1296)
- You mark the stock to fair market value each year, recognising the change as ordinary income (or a limited ordinary loss).
- Generally available only for marketable (publicly traded) PFIC stock.
| §1291 default | QEF | Mark-to-market | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tax treatment | Ordinary, top rate + interest, thrown back | Annual pass-through (ordinary + LT gain) | Annual FMV change as ordinary income |
| Needs fund statement | No | Yes (PFIC AIS) | No |
| Availability | Always (default) | If the fund provides an AIS | Marketable stock only |
Late elections: what the first-year rule costs
The elections work cleanly only when made for the first year of the holding period. Made later, they do not erase the §1291 years already behind you.
- Late QEF. A QEF election made after the first year produces an unpedigreed QEF: the fund is taxed under §1295 going forward, but a later sale still runs the §1291 allocation and interest charge over the pre-election years. To clean that up the shareholder makes a purging election — a deemed sale under §1291(d)(2), or a deemed dividend where the fund is a controlled foreign corporation — recognising the built-in gain as an excess distribution in the election year.
- Late mark-to-market. In the first year of a §1296 election on stock that was already a §1291 fund, the amount by which fair market value exceeds basis is treated as an excess distribution under §1296(j): allocated across the holding period, taxed at each year's top rate, with interest. Only the years after that are taxed on the annual mark.
- Either way, the purging or first-year amount is a real tax bill in a year you may have sold nothing. Model it before electing; the §1291 estimator runs the allocation on your own dates and amounts.
Undoing an election
Neither election can simply be dropped. A QEF election is revoked only with the consent of the IRS (§1295(b)(2)); a mark-to-market election likewise, and it ends automatically only if the stock stops being marketable. Selling the stock ends the election for that stock but not the history — a fresh purchase of the same fund later starts a new holding period and needs a new election.
Check which method your actual inputs support
A QEF calculation requires the fund's Annual Information Statement; mark-to-market requires marketable stock and election facts. Atamatax analyzes the holding without inventing either set of inputs.
From one fund to the whole case
What does your PFIC situation actually require?
Four questions — how many funds, for how long, whether Forms 8621 were ever filed, whether the returns are current — and a route into the preparation that fits, with what it costs. Nothing you answer leaves this page.
Free, no account, nothing you answer leaves this page. Open the full portfolio scanner
A routing read, not a determination. Whether a fund is a PFIC, whether an exception applies and what a prior year needs are established when the holdings are screened; the route above says where that happens and what it costs.
Authorities cited
- IRC §1291 — IRC §1291 — Interest on tax deferral (excess-distribution regime)
- IRC §1295 — IRC §1295 — Qualified Electing Fund (QEF) election
- IRC §1296 — IRC §1296 — Mark-to-market election for marketable PFIC stock
- IRC §1297 — IRC §1297 — Definition of a passive foreign investment company
- IRS Form 8621 — About Form 8621 — Information Return by a Shareholder of a PFIC or QEF
Primary sources (Cornell Legal Information Institute for the US Code and CFR; IRS.gov for forms, procedures, and treaty documents). This page is general information, not individualized tax or legal advice.
Atamatax provides tax preparation support and educational resources. This website does not constitute legal or tax advice.