With less than four weeks until April 15th, we learned this week from the federal government that the 2019 tax return filing deadline and 2019 tax liability payment deadline have been automatically extended to July 15th from the usual April 15th date because of the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic. This deferment is only for tax year 2019 filings and it applies to all taxpayers, including individuals, trusts and estates, corporations and other non-corporate tax filers as well those who pay self-employment tax. The automatic extension also applies to 2020 1st quarter estimated tax payments that would otherwise be due April 15th.

No extension filing is needed as the change to July 15th is automatic. Put another way, July 15th is the new April 15th this year and there is nothing a taxpayer must do to take advantage of the delayed date. Any late filing or late payment penalties and any interest that would have accrued for unpaid balances after April 15th related to a balance shown as due on a 2019 tax return will not apply and these penalties and interest will only begin to accrue after the new July 15th deadline has passed for remaining unpaid balances at that time. If a taxpayer needs to delay filing a 2019 tax return beyond July 15th, they can request a filing extension by that date.

I will add that Arizona has since announced that it will also automatically extend the filing and payment deadline for Arizona returns to July 15th this year. For those who live in Arizona, that is also good news and keeps the deadlines consistent for taxpayers for both government agencies.

At Weech Financial, we will continue to work to complete the tax returns for our clients who provided their documents and information by the required deadline date we provided with our tax organizers this year. We will pay special attention to those returns that may generate refunds for our clients. If you are an existing client who has already provided your documents and information, we will contact you if we have questions. We are doing our best to complete returns on a first-in, first-out basis. Unless you have additional information to provide related to your tax returns, we appreciate your patience as you allow us to devote our time to preparing your returns.

We appreciate all our existing clients and would love to work with you if you are not currently a client. We hope for an expedited end to the current pandemic and a restoration to normal business operations and life in general.

Mark J Weech, CPA