NCCPAP calls for pushing all tax deadlines to Oct. 15

The National Conference of CPA Practitioners is calling on the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service to push the federal tax filing and payment deadlines to Oct. 15.

On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that the federal government would allow individual taxpayers to defer tax payments of up to $1 million until July 15 and would allow corporations to defer payments of up to $10 million, but did not change or postpone any filing dates. On Wednesday, the IRS issued guidance on deferring payments on Wednesday. (See our story.)

However, in an open letter to Mnuchin, NCCPAP president Neil Fishman wrote, “The action taken by the U.S. Department of the Treasury with respect to the preparation and filing of 2019 income tax returns, along with any payments that would be due with those returns in many cases, does not reflect the difficulties that have been imposed on both tax practitioners and their clients by the current crisis.”

Noting that many businesses had been forced to shut down or significantly curtail operations, and that many individual taxpayers were staying at home, the letter recommends that the Treasury grant an automatic extension for filing all return and making all payments until Oct. 15, including waiving all penalties and interest charges.

“We are going through a difficult time right now, the likes of which have not been seen since the Influenza Pandemic of 1919 and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, and we need the federal government to lead,” Fishman wrote. “The CPA profession, along with all of those who prepare tax returns, want the system to function well. For that to happen, we not only need payment relief, but filing relief as well, and we need it now.”