By: Janet L. Houston
In March the IRS announced that taxpayers generally have until July 15, 2020 to file and pay federal income taxes that were originally due on April 15, without incurring any late-filing penalty, late-payment penalty or interest. On April 9, 2020, the IRS issued another notice which expands the relief to additional returns and tax payments. Now the extensions generally apply to all taxpayers (individuals, trusts, estates, corporations, partnerships, LLC, charities, private foundations) that have a filing or payment deadline falling on or after April 1, 2020, and before July 15, 2020.
Notably, the due date for second quarter 2020 estimated tax payments (which would have been due June 15) has now also been extended to July 15. The time to claim a refund for the 2016 tax year has also been extended to July 15, 2020.
The original Notice only applied to federal income taxes. Now, the extension also applies to gift tax, generation skipping transfer tax, estate tax, excise taxes on investment income (payable by private foundations), exempt organization business income tax and unrelated business taxable income tax (payable by some charities) payments that originally would have been due between April 1 and July 15, 2020.
For a full list of filing and payment obligations that have been postponed, see IRS Notice 2020-23.
Janet L. Houston has extensive experience in representing high-net-worth clients in the areas of taxation, estate planning and business planning. Her practice focuses primarily on tax and estate planning including multi-generational planning and incorporating charitable giving into estate plans. In addition, Jan assists business owners with succession planning and also handles income tax and estate tax audits.