The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced to push the Tax Day deadline from April 15 to May 17, 2021, which means Americans can file their taxes till mid-May.
IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig announced an extension of the deadline while urging the taxpayers to consider filing as soon as possible for their own benefit. He further claimed that the quickest way is to file tax electronically. This way, they will receive stimulus payments more quickly if they are eligible to receive any.
The Chairman of the House Ways & Means Subcommittee on Oversight, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. applauded this decision by the IRS claiming that this extension is very necessary for the Americans to have flexibility in time because of the unprecedented crisis.
The latter part of the announcement made by the IRS mentioned the penalties, interest, and additions on tax incurred if there remain any unpaid balances after May 17, 2021.
Also, the April 15 deadline is still intact for those tax-paying citizens who are filing for 2021. All those taxpayers including retirees or certain gig workers must make sure that they have made their first tax payment by April 15, 2021.
The May 17 extension means that there is an ample amount of time available to the taxpars to fund or top up their individual retirement accounts and health savings accounts for the taxation year 2020.
A similar tax extension was provided to the victims of the Texas winter storm by the IRS last month, in lieu of managing disaster situations. The disaster tax relief postponed many tax filings which were supposed to be submitted by February 11. The winter storm victims were given an extension till June 15 2021 to file returns and pay any taxes which were originally due by April 15. The May 17 deadline is not for them.
The IRS has been busy dispersing the first installment of $1400 stimulus checks under the American Rescue Plan. It has dispatched stimulus payments to more than 90 million Americans by Wednesday.
