On Wednesday, March 17, the IRS announced a one-month extension of the 2020 individual income tax (form 1040) filing deadline from April 15, 2021 until May 17, 2021.
This extension also applies to the deadline for paying 2020’s tax liability. Since May 15 fell on a Saturday, the one-month extension goes to the following Monday, May 17.
Although this extension may sound like a good thing there are a number of important points to keep in mind.
A taxpayer may file for an extension of time to file their return until October 15, but their 2020 tax liability must be met by May 17. Importantly this extension deadline until May 17 does not apply to form 1041 estate and trust tax returns or to form 1120 Corporate tax returns.
The deadline for those types of returns remains at April 15 at this time.
Another factor to be aware of is that the due date for first quarter 2021 federal income tax estimated payments has not been extended; it remains April 15.
This is unlike last year when the IRS extended the deadline for tax filing it included the first quarter estimated income tax payment also.
So, for those taxpayers who may take until May 17 or file for an extension on their 2020 income taxes, the deadline for the first quarter 2021 estimated income tax payment remains April 15.
A taxpayer may need to make an estimated income tax payment for 2021 before completed their 2020 taxes.
Normally the state of Ohio follows the federal government filing deadline. However, at the time of writing this article, Ohio and the local tax agencies have not agreed to this year’s extension.
In the past, when the IRS has extended the deadline, Ohio and the local tax agencies including the Regional Income Tax Agency, known as RITA, and the Central Collection Agency, known as CCA, have followed suit. RITA has indicated that they will follow the lead of the state of Ohio in regards to any deadline extension. At this time a bill has been introduced in the Ohio House to extend the deadline to May 17. So far 30 other states have adjusted their filing deadlines to match the federal due date.
This lack of conformity for the Ohio and Ohio local deadline creates a unique situation in how to ensure that your tax returns are filed timely and extended properly. As the April 15 deadline approaches, a taxpayer would be advised to visit the Ohio Department of Taxation website at tax.ohio.gov to get the most up-to-date rules and guidance on how to properly extend the returns if the returns will not be completed by April 15.
There certainly is a strong possibility that Ohio will agree to this federal extended deadline, but as of now the Ohio Department of Taxation website indicates that the deadline for filing an individual income tax return remains April 15.
Change is one thing we can be certain will occur. The changes experienced in recent years in regards to tax laws, filing deadlines, deduction and other tax-related matters has certainly accelerated in recent years.
This is two years in a row that we now have experienced an income tax deadline different from the traditional April 15 deadline that we have come to expect. In addition, even though both years have experienced a deadline change, the new deadline has been different for each of these two changed years. For someone like myself who likes to know the rules and likes predictability versus uncertainty this has certainly presented some challenges.
This article originally appeared on The News-Herald.
