Saturday, March 21, 2020

WHERE THE FAKAWI


The Internal Revenue Service has officially announced that the deadline for filing the 2019 Form 1040 has been moved from April 15, 2020 to July 15, 2020. 

This means it is not necessary to either mail a finished return or submit a Form 4868 – request for automatic extension – to the IRS by April 15th.

Previously the Service announced that it would not charge interest and penalties for payments made between April 15 and July 15, 2020 – but that the actual filing date was not extended.  The Service has now announced, via Notice 2020-18

“ . . .the due date for filing Federal income tax returns and making Federal income tax payments due April 15, 2020, is automatically postponed to July 15, 2020. “

This automatic extension applies to tax returns and payments due April 15, 2020 for individuals, trusts, estates, partnerships, and corporations.  It also applies to “Federal estimated income tax payments . . . due on April 15, 2020.”

I personally will continue to work to prepare the returns I have received as soon as possible.  While, no longer having the original April 15th deadline hanging over my head, I may work a bit more leisurely, I do not intend to make any change to my daily tax season schedule .  I certainly do not intend to stretch my season out till July 15th. 

Clients with refunds will want their returns done promptly so they can get their money.  And those who may owe will want to know how much, even though payment does not need to me made until July.

The only change is that I will not stop work on April 14th as planned (actually April 13th, as the 14th is usually spent writing up the extensions), and will postpone my annual recuperative trip to the Jersey shore for a week or two, assuming the hotel will be open.

It is my intention that all returns for which I will receive all the necessary information in a timely fashion will be finished before the end of April.  As of this writing I have actually either completed, received a package from, or heard from just about all of my 1040 clients.

What this postponement of the filing deadline means is that I will probably have only 1 or 2 actual GDEs (the E is for “extension”) this year – as 1 client waits for K-1s from multiple limited partnership investments to arrive before filing and another is just a procrastinator.

TTFN










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