AICPA Again Urges IRS to Delay Tax Filing Season

The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) has replied via a statement in response to criticism of its proposal to postpone the April 15^th tax filing and payment deadline for the 2021 tax season:

“The COVID-19 pandemic has created immeasurable hardship for millions of taxpayers and tax practitioners, making it incredibly difficult for them to meet the April 15^th filing and payment deadline. The IRS must not overlook the impact the pandemic has had on this year’s tax filing season.

“In the midst of a global pandemic, parents are straining to balance remote work with educating their children at home and businesses are struggling to remain open.

“Even the IRS – faced with a significant mail processing backlog, a delayed start of the 2021 tax season, inundated phone lines, and a new round of COVID-19 relief payments – is overwhelmed. Denying a postponement of this filing and payment deadline disregards and further exacerbates the continued difficulties being faced by these families and businesses.

“Opponents of a deadline postponement fail to consider that while any taxpayer has the ability to file for an extension, the process can itself be unduly burdensome:

Taxpayers must properly estimate their 2020 tax liability using the information available to them when preparing the request for extension on Form 2848
Taxpayers who do not pay the correct amount of tax with the extension request will owe interest and possibly penalties
If taxpayers do not compute a “proper” amount of tax on their extension request, it can be deemed invalid by the IRS

“In reality, the extension filing process can be very challenging, even for those not dealing with the pandemic, as gathering and computing the extension payment requires nearly as much work as filing a return.

“AICPA also understands the revenue dilemma many states face; a payment and filing deadline postponement to June 15^th would still help many states maintain revenue levels within their current fiscal years. Most states should be able to adopt a similar deadline to the federal deadline should they choose to.

“To claim there are no issues with retaining the April 15^th filing and payment deadline does not reflect the taxpayers’ perspective. We must not minimize or trivialize the hardships of taxpayers and tax professionals or the urgent need for deferment from an arduous filing environment.”