The agency had been under pressure for weeks to extend the filing and payment deadlines as it did last year as the coronavirus pandemic’s first wave swept the country.
The IRS will push back its filing and payment deadlines to May 15, according to a House Democratic aide briefed on the decision. The agency had been under pressure for weeks from congressional Democrats to extend the filing and payment deadlines as it did last year as the coronavirus pandemic’s first wave swept the country. Senate Finance ranking member Michael D. Crapo, R-Idaho, on Wednesday joined the clamor of those seeking a delay. “There is growing bipartisan support for the IRS to extend the filing deadline,” Crapo said in a statement Wednesday. “The various coronavirus relief programs created over the last year, including the bill signed into law just last week, have resulted in a large amount of extra paperwork for taxpayers this year and have required tax preparation firms to constantly update their systems.” Democrats have been pushing for an extension for a month. A Feb.18 request from House Ways and Means Chairman Richard E. Neal to push deadlines back had by March 8 become a demand from the Massachusetts Democrat “as the pandemic continues to impose titanic strain on the agency and on taxpayers.” In that March 8 statement, Neal noted there had been large declines in processing returns and in customer service at the agency during the current filing season compared with last year’s.
