On April 9, 2020, the IRS issued Notice 2020-23 (the “Notice”) to provide additional extensions of certain tax filing deadlines, which Notice supplements Notice 2020-18 and Notice 2020-20. The IRS previously issued Notice 2020-18 on March 20, 2020, which extended the filing date for (i) 2019 individual tax returns and (ii) first-quarter estimated tax payments from April 15, 2020 to July 15, 2020. The IRS subsequently issued Notice 2020-20 on March 27, 2020, which extended the filing dates and payments for gift and generation skipping transfer tax returns until July 15, 2020.
This Notice provides that all taxpayers with federal tax payment or filing obligations on or after April 1, 2020 and before July 15, 2020 are “affected taxpayers.” The payment and filing obligations for affected taxpayers are extended until July 15, 2020. For example, this Notice extends the due date for second quarter individual and corporate estimated tax payments from June 15, 2020 to July 15, 2020. Since first quarter estimated payments had already been extended until July 15, 2020 pursuant to Notice 2020-18, the Notice corrects the odd scenario in which second-quarter payments would have been due before first-quarter payments. Accordingly, first and second quarter estimated payments for individuals and corporations will both be due on July 15, 2020. The Notice also extends other return filings and payments for affected taxpayers, including those for corporations, partnerships, estates and trusts, exempt organizations and nonresident individuals, until July 15, 2020.
The filing and associated payment extension are automatic, as no further action must be taken by the affected taxpayers. The Notice also suspends any assessment of interest, penalties or other additions to tax until July 15, 2020 (i.e., the filing and payment dates have been extended in every sense of the word).
Additionally, the Notice extends the filing date for “time-sensitive” actions for Affected Taxpayers until July 15, 2020. Examples of such actions would be petitions filed with the Tax Court (if the applicable statute of limitations had not expired prior to April 1, 2020), filing a claim for credit or refund of any tax, and filing suits for any claim for credit or refund of any tax.
Finally, the Notice gives the IRS an additional 30 days to perform “time-sensitive” actions if the IRS was previously required to respond between April 6 and July 15, 2020. Examples of such time-sensitive action would be IRS’ responses for taxpayers (i) under examination or (ii) with cases with the Independent Office of Appeals.
