The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service are providing special payment relief to individuals and businesses in response to the COVID-19 Outbreak. The filing deadline for tax returns remains April 15, 2020. The IRS urges taxpayers who are owed a refund to file as quickly as possible. For those who can’t file by the April 15, 2020 deadline, the IRS reminds individual taxpayers that everyone is eligible to request a six-month extension to file their return.

This payment relief includes:

Individuals: Income tax payment deadlines for individual returns, with a due date of April 15, 2020, are being automatically extended until July 15, 2020, for up to $1 million of their 2019 tax due. This payment relief applies to all individual returns, including self-employed individuals, and all entities other than C-Corporations, such as trusts or estates. IRS will automatically provide this relief to taxpayers. Taxpayers do not need to file any additional forms or call the IRS to qualify for this relief.

Just to draw your attention:

The filing deadline for tax returns remains April 15, 2020. 

The IRS has identified a new version of a phishing email scam targeting tax professionals. The fake email states the preparer’s EFIN has been put on a temporarily hold and warns the EFIN will be suspended unless the preparers open an embedded document and confirm or deny that they submitted the Form 1040. The embedded “1040” document likely contains malware.

The IRS reminds all tax professionals that they are targets of cybercriminals seeking to steal client data or the practitioners’ identities. Thieves use many variations of phishing emails such as this. The fake emails are characterized by an urgent message (your EFIN will be suspended) and try to entice recipients to open a link or attachment. The IRS urges all tax professionals to be on alert and take security steps to protect their clients and their businesses. Review Publication 4557, Safeguarding Taxpayer Data, for how to be safer.

Notice 2020-17; Payment relief on account of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) emergency. The Treasury Department and IRS are extending the due date for Federal income tax payments due April 15, 2020, to July 15, 2020, for payments due of up to $10 million for corporations and up to $1 million for individuals – regardless of filing status – and other unincorporated entities. Associated interest, additions to tax, and penalties for late payment will also be suspended until July 15, 2020.

Notice 2020-17 will be in IRB 2020-15, dated April 6, 2020.

The IRS established a special webpage on IRS.gov/coronavirus to include all of the available tax-related information. This page will be updated as more information is available.

Treasury News Release:  Treasury and IRS Issue Guidance on Deferring Tax Payments Due to COVID-19 Outbreak

QSRA Number: QSRA 2020-01

Issued:  January 22, 2020

QSR Topic:  Quality Site Requirement #4 – Reference Materials

Reason Issued:  Change in policy: Quality Site Requirement (QSR) #4 – Reference Materials

New Policy:  QSR #4 is expanded to include the Publication 4299, Privacy, Confidentiality, and Civil Rights – A Public Trust (PDF), as one of the required reference materials that must be available (either in paper or electronic format) at the site for use by volunteers. To heighten awareness of security requirements at VITA/TCE sites, Publication 4299 is now required to be readily available to coordinators and volunteers at the VITA/TCE sites.

References:  The Publications 17, 4012 and 4299 are all available for download on IRS.gov or by signing into the TaxSlayer tax preparation software and selecting the option VITA/TCE Publications and User Guides found on the Navigation Bar.

The following VITA Tax Alerts can be accessed with the link below:

VTA-2020-01  Issued January 13, 2020:  Tax Law Extenders

VTA-2020-02 Issued January 29, 2020:  Form 1099-R Box 7 Distribution Codes • Self-Employed Health Insurance Deduction • Special Rule for Determining Earned Income for Individuals Impacted by Federally Declared Disasters

VTA-2020-03 Issued March 3, 2020:  Medicaid waiver payments and refundable credits

Click here to view VTAs

The conference begins at 1:00 PM Eastern Time on February 13, 2020; you may join the conference 5 minutes prior.

Dial-in: 888-251-2949 or 215-861-0694
Access Code: 3719634#

This an opportunity to hear from TaxSlayer about the software and the filing season.  Participants will have an opportunity to ask general software questions.  Keep in mind that TaxSlayer cannot answer tax return or site specific questions on this call.   TaxSlayer VITA/TCE Support is available to handle return and site specific questions.

The conference begins at 1:00 PM Eastern Time on January 30, 2020; you may join the conference 5 minutes prior.

Dial-in: 888-251-2949 or 215-861-0694
Access Code: 3284966#

This an opportunity to hear from TaxSlayer about the software and the filing season.  Participants will have an opportunity to ask general software questions.  Keep in mind that TaxSlayer cannot answer tax return or site specific questions on this call.   TaxSlayer VITA/TCE Support is available to handle return and site specific questions.

11/18/19 – E-filing is no longer available until a To-Be-Determined date in January 2020. Federal and state returns prepared at this time must be paper filed.

1040 MeF Production Shutdown/Cutover Schedule

Shutdown begins on Saturday, November 16, 2019, at 11:59 p.m. in order to prepare the system for the upcoming Tax Year 2019 Filing Season.

What does this mean for you?

You will not be able to electronically file any year return until e-file comes back up at a yet to be determined date in January of 2020.