Friday, March 27, 2020

Covid Tax Return Deadlines and Other IRS and State Covid Tax Changes


First case of COVID-19 confirmed in Kandiyohi County | West ...


Current government and IRS pronouncements are not clear whether the automatic extension of time to file your tax returns and pay taxes without penalties apply to US expatriates living and working abroad (normal tax return due date for expatriates is 6/15/20). This may be clarified in the future, but in the interim if you are an expatriate you may want to pay all taxes by 4/15/20 to avoid interest.

The automatic extension until July 15,2020 under the COVID tax bill does not currently appear to include an automatic extension of time to file certain special reporting forms such as 5471, 3520, etc. Therefore, it is best until this is clarified that you file an IRS extension request for any returns that include these forms or the forms by the previous regular due date.

1040-NR returns which were previously due on April 15 (i.e. if there were wages paid) those returns have been extended to July 15, 2020.

The recent COVID tax bill includes outright payments of amounts to each taxpayer if their 2019 earnings (or 2018 if 2019 has not yet been filed) do not exceed certain amounts. SEE THE EXACT RULES FOR THE PAYMENT

If you have not filed your US return for 2018 and 2019 yet, you may want to file them immediately so the stimulus payment referred to in the previous paragraph will be made to you. If you have not filed for 2018, no payment will be made. If you wait too long, the stimulus might not be available. Note that if your 2019 income is lower than 2018 you may want to file in order to show eligibility.

Whether tax income limits for these cash payments apply to your expatriate income after deducting the foreign earned income exclusion or before is not certain at this time

For those who file state returns, many states including California have extended the due date your 2019 state tax return to match the July 15, 2020 federal deadline. Many also do not require payment of the taxes due until that date.

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