Taxpayers now have more time to compile their 2020 income taxes as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) moves this year’s tax-filing deadline to May 17th, offering taxpayers and their accountants a huge sigh of relief. This move comes following many pleas from lawmakers and accountants to extend the deadline amid recent changes to U.S. tax laws. More than 100 House members signed a letter earlier this week urging the IRS to institute the delay.
“This extension is absolutely necessary to give Americans some needed flexibility in a time of unprecedented crisis,” said House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Bill Pascrell Jr., D-N.J., and House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass. in a statement on Wednesday, March 17.
This move by the IRS and the U.S. Treasury Department comes following the $1.9 trillion stimulus package passed last week that added even more changes to an already complex tax-filing year. The extension also allows the agencies more time to process tax returns while simultaneously completing the task of sending another round of stimulus checks to many Americans.
The IRS emphasized the extended deadline only applies to federal tax returns and encouraged taxpayers to check with their state. Not all states follow the federal filing deadline and may set their own.
Many accountants are still awaiting guidance from the IRS on items that affect the current tax season. Jeff Spiegel, CPA and Founding Principal of Spiegel Accountancy Corp. says, “The IRS and tax software systems still have not completed their programs and forms for all of the changes from the many bills that have passed over the past 12 months.”
Last year, the IRS extended the filing season to July 15 due to issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Any accounting, business or tax advice contained in this communication, including attachments and enclosures, is not intended as a thorough, in-depth analysis of specific issues, nor a substitute for a formal opinion, nor is it sufficient to avoid tax-related penalties.