On March 20, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service released Notice 2020-18, its second round of formal guidance – this time expanding its earlier guidance (Notice 2020-17) by including relief to taxpayers for both federal income tax returns and federal income tax payments which would be due April 15, 2020. Notice 2020-18 is available here. Notice 2020-17 is superseded by Notice 2020-18.
Under the expanded guidance, the President’s March 13, 2020, Emergency Declaration instructs the Treasury Secretary to provide relief to taxpayers affected by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The notice provides that any person with a federal income tax return or federal income tax payment due April 15, 2020, is an “Affected Taxpayer.” Any such person includes an individual, trust, estate, partnership, association, company, or corporation. For Affected Taxpayers, the relief provides that federal income tax returns or federal income tax payments that would ordinarily be due April 15, 2020, are postponed until July 15, 2020.
The notice provides that there is no limitation on the amount of the payment that may be postponed to July 15, 2020. The relief is provided for income tax payments in respect of an Affected Taxpayer’s 2019 tax year or federal estimated tax payments due April 15, 2020, for an Affected Taxpayer’s 2020 tax year.
The relief provided in the notice applies only to federal income tax returns and federal income tax payments from April 15, 2020, through July 15, 2020. The notice clarifies that any interest, penalty, or addition to tax for failure to pay income taxes postponed by the notice will begin to once again accrue on July 16, 2020. The notice expressly states: “No extension is provided in this notice for the payment or deposit of any other type of Federal tax, or for the filing of any Federal information return.”
The IRS urges taxpayers who are due a refund to file as soon as possible. Most tax refunds are still being issued within 21 days.
“Even with the filing deadline extended, we urge taxpayers who are owed refunds to file as soon as possible and file electronically,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. “Filing electronically with direct deposit is the quickest way to get refunds. Although we are curtailing some operations during this period, the IRS is continuing with mission-critical operations to support the nation, and that includes accepting tax returns and sending refunds. As a federal agency vital to the overall operations of our country, we ask for your personal support, your understanding – and your patience. I’m incredibly proud of our employees as we navigate through numerous different challenges in this very rapidly changing environment.”
The IRS will continue to monitor issues related to the COVID-19 virus, and updated information will be posted on a special coronavirus page on IRS.gov.
Additional Resources from IRS.gov:
IRS Filing and Payment Deadlines Questions and Answers (Click Here)
Mission Critical Functions Continue at the IRS
IDAHO UPDATE
Governor Little has just announced that Idaho will defer the filing deadline from April 15, 2020 to June 15, 2020. This includes any payments that would have been due on April 15, 2020 may now be deferred until June 15, 2020. Normally taxpayers who need an additional amount of time to file their Idaho return are able to receive an automatic extension of time to file their Idaho return up to October 15th, 2020 by paying at least 100% of their prior years taxes or 80% of their current years estimated taxes by April 15th. Harris CPAs has not received guidance from the Idaho State Tax Commission, however we anticipate these same rules will apply on June 15th for those needing to extend beyond the June 15th due date to file. We will continue to monitor the situation.
Read the full press release from Idaho State Tax Commission HERE
If you have any questions about this new tax deadline, please reach out to your CPA.
< Back to Harris CPAs COVID-19 Resource Page
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