On March 20, 2020, at the direction of the United States President Donald J. Trump, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that the deadline to file federal income tax returns has been extended from April 15, 2020 to July 15, 2020.
Previously, on March 18, 2020, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service had announced that they were providing payment relief to individuals and businesses in response to the COVID-19 Outbreak by automatically extending the payment deadline, but not the filing deadline, to July 15, 2020.
Per the March 18th guidance, income tax payment deadlines for individual returns are being automatically extended to July 15, 2020, for up to $1 million of their 2019 tax due. This payment relief applies to all individual returns, including self-employed individuals, and all entities other than C corporations, such as trusts or estates. For C corporations, income tax payment deadlines are being automatically extended to July 15, 2020, for up to $10 million of their 2019 tax due. This payment relief also includes estimated tax payments for tax year 2020 that are due on April 15, 2020. Today's announcement by the Treasury Secretary goes further by extending the filing deadline as well.
The Treasury Secretary has also encouraged taxpayers who expect to get a refund to file now to get their money.
It is expected that taxpayers will still be eligible to request a six-month extension to file their tax returns, even with the new filing deadline of July 15, 2020. Individuals may request a filing extension by electronically filing Form 4868 through their tax professional, tax software, or the Free File link on IRS.gov. Businesses must file Form 7004.
Also on March 20, 2020, New York State Governor Andrew M. Cuomo moved the deadline to file state income tax returns from April 15, 2020 to July 15, 2020.
The IRS encourages taxpayers to check with their state agencies for details regarding state filing and payment deadlines.
For more information on how these changes affect your business, please contact Laura L. Spring, Esq. at [email protected] or 315-663-7972.