This morning the AICPA shared the following notice with members:

“The AICPA is asking Members of Congress to call on the IRS to immediately give tax payment and filing relief to all taxpayers. While we appreciate the IRS’ recognition that a filing deadline postponement is indeed necessary, the announcement is far too selective in who is receiving relief. The IRS’ failure to include estimated payments unfortunately creates more bureaucracy and confusion and is out of sync with the real-world stresses faced by taxpayers, tax practitioners and small businesses. Please reach out to your Representative and Senators (contact information may be found here: www.congress.gov/members) to share your unique story—and encourage your impacted small business clients to do the same.”

We encourage you to contact your representatives and highly recommend that you share your concerns in your own words. If preferred, you can modify the AICPA draft email below.

Thank you for helping the CPA profession address this important issue.

Kimberly Scott, CAE

WSCPA President & CEO

Dear Representative/Senator NAME:

Congress must act immediately to help taxpayers and ask the IRS to move all tax payment and filing deadlines to June 15th.

Unfortunately, the IRS’ recent announcement that it would extend the tax filing and payment deadline from April 15th to May 17th benefits some – but not all – taxpayers for the 2021 tax season.

While we appreciate the IRS’ recognition that a filing deadline postponement is indeed necessary, the announcement is far too selective in who is receiving relief. In fact, the taxpayers who are most likely to benefit from this additional time are those who are able to meet the original filing deadline.

The IRS’ failure to include estimated payments in its decision hurts taxpayers because so much tax return work has to be done to calculate estimated payments. More than 9.5 million individual returns filed for the 2018 tax year included estimated payments. The IRS’ selective decision unfortunately creates more bureaucracy and confusion and is out of sync with the real-world stresses faced by taxpayers, tax practitioners and small businesses.

The benefits of extending the payment and filing deadline to June 15th for all taxpayers are many. Doing so would ease the impact of the pandemic on taxpayers – especially small businesses—and the tax practitioners who advise them.

Thank you for your work to guide the country through these difficult days.