IRS Delays Deadlines for Individual Tax Returns

Yesterday, the Treasury Secretary announced a delay in the payment deadlines for 2019 tax returns. Normally, balances owed on your 2019 tax return must be paid by April 15, 2020 to avoid late payment penalties and interest. The announcement pushed that deadline to July 15, 2020 with no late payment penalties or interest. Here’s what we know.

• A formal, written announcement from the Treasury Department is pending. Details could change.
• The initial filing deadline remains April 15, 2020 unless we extend your return.
• If you owe tax for your 2019 return, you can delay payment to July 15^th without penalty or interest.
• We do not know whether states will follow suit although some states, such as California, have already delayed payments of some taxes
• We are awaiting clarification on many issues surrounding this change, so please stay tuned.

We will continue working diligently on returns, although we will utilize automatic extensions if the late payment penalties are removed. We strongly favor and encourage extensions for a variety of reasons. Please see our blog post for an explanation. In short, we think it is better not to work on your returns while working 80-hour weeks and working 7 days per week like we have. Working at a less hectic pace allows more time on your return and, more importantly, time to review and implement potential tax law changes that may assist individual and business clients.

More importantly, we expect to spend significant time assisting clients with disaster recovery efforts with the new laws being passed and assistance becoming available for both individuals and businesses. Stay tuned while we provide updates as they become available.

If you have extenuating circumstances where you need your return completed earlier due an expected refund to help you get through the current financial/COVID-19 crisis or for such things as a loan refinance or home purchase, please let us know so we can finish those earlier.

As you know, we went to a virtual business model last November. This turned out to be particularly fortuitous in light of the current COVID-19 issues. We continue to maintain a virtual operation utilizing virus-free paper (also known as digital copies), our drop-off location, secure portals, mail, phone, email and videoconferencing when needed. This assures that you don’t need to travel, and we can prepare returns and provide assistance remotely avoiding the potential for spreading the virus. We can also send you pre-paid mailers if you prefer not to drop-off and wish to mail your documents to us using the U.S. Post Office and Priority Mail.

If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know. We will post updates as they come out, and you may wish to follow us on Facebook as we are posting a lot of information on our Facebook page as well. Or subscribe to blog updates here.