IRS Tax Filing Deadline Being Pushed Back To May 17

(CBS Detroit) -- The deadline for filing taxes traditionally falls in the middle of April. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is reportedly going to push back this year's April 15 deadline until May 17.

Last year's tax deadline was postponed until July 15 due to the economic turmoil surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. This year's postponement is to allow taxpayers and tax preparers extra time to work through the ongoing tax issues that continue one year later.

"This extension is absolutely necessary to give Americans some needed flexibility in a time of unprecedented crisis," according to Democratic Representatives Bill Pascrell, Jr. from New Jersey, and Richard Neal from Massachusetts, who is also chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight. "Under titanic stress and strain, American taxpayers and tax preparers must have more time to file tax returns."

The delay may also have something to do with the backlog of 2019 filings the IRS still faces. As with most office workers, many IRS employees have had to do their jobs from home. Paper returns have been inaccessible and sat waiting in trailers. About 6.7 million returns had yet to be processed by the end of January.

The IRS currently faces at least two other monumental tasks beyond processing 2020 (and 2019) tax returns. The agency is in the process of sending out approximately 150 million stimulus checks. The American Rescue Plan Act recently signed by President Biden provides for these payments as part of the historic $1.9 trillion stimulus package. Also included are key revisions to the Child Tax Credit. The Act mandates periodic payments to parents starting in July. The execution of those payments is still in the planning stages.

The looming extension for federal taxes doesn't necessarily mean states will follow suit. Only taxpayers in two states have delayed deadlines. Maryland's is July 15. Victims of Texas's winter storms have until June 15. A few other states had already scheduled due dates that fell later than the original April 15 date.

Taxpayers in states that don't move deadlines may effectively hold their taxpayers to the original April 15 deadline. An individual's adjusted gross income or federal taxable income is often the basis for figuring out their state taxes.