Brett McGurk was reported to have handed in his resignation on Thursday.

该句是下面一句的变体：

主动语态：

The newspaper reported that Brett McGurk had handed in his resignation on Thursday.

被动语态

 It was reported that Brett McGurk had handed in his resignation on Thursday.

以上二句，无论主动还是被动语态，报道的内容是某人提交了辞呈这个事件，而不是报道某个人。

现在将被动句中的that从句的主语Brett McGurk提升到主句作主语：Brett McGurk was reported 至此，谓语动词was reported 的意义并不完整，需要补足。于是将that从句的谓语had handed in...改为不定式的完成体，接在was reported的后面，作为主语补足语。于是得到网友提问的句子。

Brett McGurk 主语 was reported 谓语 to have handed in his resignation on Thursday主语补足语.

这种结构在生成语法被称为提升主语（raised subject）。

再比较下面句子：

It seemed that Brett McGurk had handed in his resignation on Thursday.

Brett McGurk seemed to have handed in his resignation on Thursday.

这也是提升主句结构。但本句中seemed to have handed被分析为复合谓语。