The IRS announced on March 17, 2021 an extension of the INDIVIDUAL tax filing deadline from April 15th, 2021 to May 17th, 2021. This extension comes on the eve of IRS Commissioner Rettig testifying before congress regarding the 2021 filing season and after several inquiries and requests from congressional officials in the past month. The extension is the result of the American Rescue Plan Act, which included a change retroactive to 2020 for the 2021 filing season.
A copy of the IRS release on this can be found here. A few key takeaways from the current IRS Guidance
- The release states several times individual returns (Form 1040) and is silent on other returns due April 15th, such as C Corporation returns and trusts. As such, taxpayers can only assume that these returns are still due on April 15th.
- Individual taxpayers will not be required to file any forms in order to receive this relief.
- Estimated payments for First Quarter 2021 are still due on April 15, 2021. As many taxpayers still utilize prior year safe harbors, this means they will need to have a solid understanding of their 2020 tax liability.
- As this is new, so far only the IRS and therefore Federal tax returns have been extended. We will still need to receive guidance from states. Nearly every state extended in 2020 with the COVID related delay, so its very likely this will happen again, but something that needs to be monitored.
Taxpayers can still file prior to May 17th and are encouraged to not wait until the last minute to file.
Edward McWilliams, CPA
Partner
Ed is a Partner in the firm’s tax and business advisory practice focusing on providing services to middle market private companies across different industries as well as to early stage startups. Ed has over a decade of experience providing tax and business consulting services to these companies of different sizes and across different industries, bringing a broad and diverse knowledge base and strategic solutions to the many complex issues that businesses face.