It is safe to say the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been felt across the country. To provide some financial relief to millions of Americans, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) are providing special tax payment relief by extending the tax payment deadline to July 15, 2020, for individuals and businesses. The tax filing deadline for tax returns remains April 15, 2020. If you will be receiving a tax refund, it would be wise to file your tax return as quickly as possible. This way, you can collect your refund sooner. This especially benefits filers who are already seeing their earnings impacted as COVID-19 batters the economy. For those who will not be able to file by the April 15, 2020 deadline, you are still eligible to request a six-month extension of time to file your tax return.
Under the new announcement, Payment Relief Includes:
For Individuals: Income tax payment deadlines for individual tax returns, with a due date of April 15, 2020, are being automatically extended until July 15, 2020, for up to $1 million of 2019 tax due. This payment relief applies to all individual tax returns, including self-employed individuals, and all entities other than C-Corporations, such as trusts or estates. So long as you file your tax return or request an extension of time to file by April 15, 2020, you will automatically avoid interest and penalties on the taxes paid by July 15, 2020. There is no need for taxpayers to file any additional forms or call the IRS to qualify for this relief as the IRS will automatically provide it.
Tax Cheat Sheet for Individuals
Tax Cheat Sheet for Small Business Owners
For Corporations: For C Corporations, income tax payment deadlines are being automatically extended until July 15, 2020, for up to $10 million of 2019 tax due.
This relief also includes estimated tax payments for tax year 2020 that are due on April 15, 2020.
Penalties and interest will begin to accrue on any remaining unpaid balances as of July 16, 2020.
This relief only applies to federal income tax (including tax on self-employment income) payments otherwise due April 15, 2020, not state tax payments or deposits or payments of any other type of federal tax.
We have been working with the State of Georgia Department of Revenue (the “Department”) to formulate strategies and plans for suspending enforcement actions concerning certain payment plans, and the Department is in the process of formulating an amnesty plan for late and/or deferred payments.
Please reach out to any of our qualified tax attorneys if you have any questions regarding this recent change in the tax payment deadline. In the meantime, we will continue to monitor and report on how COVID-19 is affecting our clients. We hope everyone is staying safe and remaining healthy.
