IRS proceeding with July 15 filing deadline

The Treasury Department and IRS said late Monday that they are proceeding with a July 15 tax-filing deadline, after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin last week left the door open to an additional extension. 

Treasury and the IRS in March extended the tax filing and payment deadlines from April 15 to July 15, due to the coronavirus pandemic. As is typically the case, people can request a filing extension to Oct. 15.

“After consulting with various external stakeholders, we have decided to have taxpayers request an extension if more time is needed,” Mnuchin said in a news release late Monday. “I would encourage Americans to file their taxes as soon as possible, so those who are due refunds can receive them quickly.”

IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig said that “the IRS understands that those affected by the coronavirus may not be able to pay their balances in full by July 15, but we have many payment options to help taxpayers.” He added that many of these options are available on the IRS’s website and don’t require taxpayers to contact an agency representative.

The news that the filing deadline is staying in place comes after Mnuchin last week said that he was thinking about whether the deadline should be extended again. He said that it made sense to extend the deadline in March because people were unable to meet with their tax preparers, but that most people have already filed their 2019 tax returns.

The IRS said that as of June 19, it has received about 138 million returns and has processed about 127 million of those documents. The IRS typically receives more than 150 million returns in a year, including extensions.

As of June 19, the number of processed tax returns was down 11.4 percent on a year-over-year basis, and the number of refunds was down 10.8 percent, according to IRS data.

Some prominent conservatives, such as Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, had encouraged the IRS to extend the payment deadline to help taxpayers with their cash flow, but wanted to keep the filing deadline in place to ensure that people get refunds sooner rather than later.