In an unprecedented move intended to ease the economic pain inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced that the IRS will postpone the April 15 tax payment deadline for millions of individuals, giving Americans an additional 90 days to pay their 2019 income tax bills.
Individuals can defer up to $1 million of tax liability, and corporations get an extension on up to $10 million, Mnuchin said Tuesday, March 17, 2020, at a press conference. The IRS hasn’t yet extended the deadline to file your taxes, but you do have a lot more time to pay them.
The call to extend the tax deadline started early in the coronavirus outbreak. In an Oval Office address to the nation on March 11, President Donald Trump said he had asked the Treasury Department to extend the filing season deadline, but no additional information had been made available since that time.
“The AICPA appreciates the efforts being made by the Treasury Department and IRS to provide relief to the taxpaying public,” said Edward Karl, vice president of tax policy and advocacy at the American Institute of CPAs in a March 13 statement. “However, in light of the uncertainty and challenges caused by the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic, we are disappointed that the Treasury Department and IRS have yet to make an announcement on how relief would help millions of individuals and businesses, and to the CPAs who advise them.”
State Extension:
Several states have announced they will conform to the decision of the IRS for corporate and individual tax returns. Maryland, in a March 11 statement, indicated that they will conform to any IRS decision with respect to the April 15 filing deadline for corporate and individual income tax returns. We understand that the IRS today extended the payment deadline but not the filing deadline, so we await further clarification from the Maryland Comptroller’s office. The District of Columbia and Virginia have not yet announced if they will extend the deadline. Stay tuned.
MCB Protocol:
MCB asks our clients to provide us their tax information on a timely basis as is the usual course, and we will prepare your returns as received. However, due to the health and safety guidelines recommended by federal, state and local governments due to the coronavirus, we will likely end up extending some tax returns that would otherwise be finalized and completed by April 15, 2020. We will keep you updated on our progress, and will be filing tax extensions for many of you.
As more IRS and State announcements are made, we will share them with you. Please contact your MCB Tax Advisor with any questions.
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