March 17, 2021—The National Conference of CPA Practitioners (NCCPAP), an organization representing CPAs across the country, gives its thanks to the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regarding its decision to extend the April 15 filing and payment due date for personal income tax returns or extensions until May 17, 2021.
“The past year has been extremely trying for everyone, especially for those who prepare income tax returns and advise businesses,” says Mark Stewart, CPA, National President of NCCPAP. He continues, “Since the beginning of the COVID crisis, CPAs have been under extreme pressure helping both our small business and individual clients with various government programs, as well as recent tax law changes, and how they can make use of them. Furthermore, the recent effect of the exemption of the first $10,200 of unemployment compensation for lower income taxpayers has been a monumental change—one rarely seen in March, in the middle of tax season—that retroactively changes prior year tax law. Practitioners as well as software providers desperately needed this extra time to adjust for these changes.”
Stephen Mankowski, CPA and Sanford Zinman, CPA, co-Chairs of the NCCPAP Tax Policy Committee agreed. “Starting with the EIDL program, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) round 1 in 2020, and now having to deal with the forgiveness of PPP round 1 and the applications for PPP round 2, our members have been inundated helping their clients deal with all of this,” said Mr. Mankowski. “In addition to these federal programs, there have been state, local, and various professional programs that have emerged to help business owners, and our members. We have been working with clients to take advantage of those programs as well, further compressing our schedules,” added Mr. Zinman.
Many taxpayers are still waiting for issues involving their 2019 tax returns to be resolved. “The IRS is still backed up dealing with 2019 returns. Many people who are due refunds—for example, because their spouse passed away and the return was pulled for a manual review or those who had to file a paper return due to identity theft issues—have yet to receive them,” added Frank Sands, Executive Vice President of NCCPAP. In addition, taxpayers who cannot get their 2019 tax return processed by the IRS, were unable to receive the stimulus money they were entitled to, and therefore are not able to file their 2020 return accurately.
A recent letter sent to the IRS, signed by over 100 members of Congress, had called for an extension of the April 15 due date, citing among other things, that the IRS is only answering 1 out of 4 calls made to them by taxpayers.
NCCPAP congratulates the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the IRS for their decision to extend the April 15 deadline for filing.
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The National Conference of CPA Practitioners (NCCPAP) is a professional organization comprised of Certified Public Accountants practicing in the United States. In addition to serving as a forum for education, networking, and community impact, NCCPAP also advocates for its clients. NCCPAP influences tax administration and tax policy by regularly meeting with Internal Revenue Service representatives, state taxing authorities, and elected officials. NCCPAP members represent over one million businesses and individual clients. The organization is headquartered in Woodbury, NY. For more information visit, www.NCCPAP.org.
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