2019 Federal and California Income Tax Payment Deadlines Extended

[Updated March 20, 2020]

Federal / IRS

Individual Taxpayers. On March 20, 2020, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that, at the President’s direction, “we are moving Tax Day from April 15 to July 15.” While no formal notice has been issued, we expect that the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) will release a formal announcement shortly. This announcement comes following a notice released by the IRS on March 18, 2020 that postponed the due date for certain payments of income and estimated tax for 90 days (from April 15, 2020 to July 15, 2020). A copy of the full notice can be accessed here. Specifically, the due date for making up to $1 million of Federal individual income tax payments (including payments of tax on self-employment income) due on April 15, 2020, has been postponed to July 15, 2020. This includes both (a) tax payments due with respect to a taxpayer’s 2019 tax year and (b) estimated tax payments (including payments of tax on self-employment income) due in connection with a taxpayer’s 2020 tax year.

Corporate Taxpayers. The payment postponement operates in the same manner for corporate taxpayers with April 15, 2020 payment obligations, except that the limit on total income taxes for a consolidated group which may be postponed is $10 million. Mnuchin’s announcement regarding extending the due date for filing federal tax returns to July 15, 2020 also applies to corporate taxpayers: “[a]ll taxpayers and businesses will have this additional time to file and make payments without interest or penalties[.]”

California

Governor Newsom’s March 12, 2020 Executive Order grants filing and payment extensions to June 15, 2020, but the California Franchise Tax Board (“FTB”) has announced an updated relief for California taxpayers, pushing back the filing date for California returns to July 15, 2020 in conformity with the federal extension. Currently, the FTB has postponed until July 15, 2020 the filing and payment deadlines for all individuals and business entities for:

2019 tax returns;
2019 tax return payments;
2020 first and second quarter estimated payments;
2020 LLC taxes and fees; and
2020 non-wage withholding payments.

Taxpayers do not need to claim any special treatment or call the FTB to qualify for this relief. These extensions will not affect the payment of refunds to taxpayers by either the IRS or the FTB, so if you expect your returns will generate refunds to you, you should proceed to file on your usual schedule.

For more information, contact Coblentz Tax attorneys Jeffry Bernstein, jbernstein@coblentzlaw.com, or Wendy Bleiman, wbleiman@coblentzlaw.com.