Dear Gamburg CPA Client,
Ms. Frances Valenzuela (my tax manager, if you haven’t met her yet), our staff, and I- hope that each and every one of you is safe and healthy during these unprecedented times.
Our firm is open and we are working on a rotation basis from the New Jersey office, and from our homes. Email is the best method of communication, but if you need to reach us by phone, you can call the office at 212-247-2525. We use a VOIP system, and it rings at all of our locations.
With new legislation by the hour, here is what you need to know:
NEW FEDERAL TAX DEADLINE
The IRS has extended the filing and payment deadline to July 15th, some states have followed, and some states we are still waiting on guidance. It is my guess that all states will comply and extend their filing and payment deadlines. While we handle clients all over the US and the world, our major states are NY, NJ, and CA. CA already announced they will extend the deadline to July 15th, and we are waiting on guidance from NY, NJ, and the 35 other states in which we prepare tax filings.
NEW PAYMENT DEADLINE
If you owe on your 2019 taxes, the payment due will be postponed until July 15th. If you owe 1st quarter 2020 and/or 2nd quarter 2020 Federal estimated taxes, payment is postponed until July 15th. I would imagine that there will be one voucher for this, which will be due on July 15th, barring any additional extensions. CA also postponed 1st and 2nd quarter 2020 estimated tax payments until July 15th, waiting on guidance from the other states.
PAYMENT EXTENSION LIMITS
With the initial extension of 90 days for the tax payments, the extension was limited to individual taxpayers owing less than $1,000,000, and businesses owing less than $10,000,000. We don’t know yet if these limits apply to 2020 estimated taxes as well. We also don’t have guidance on whether or not the new tax deadline of July 15th, allows individual taxpayers owing more than $1,000,000 to pay on July 15th. I would imagine this would be the case, but I will send an update directly to the clients that expected to owe more than the $1,000,000.
CURRENT OPERATIONS
We are working on the tax returns for which we received information already. If you are expecting to receive a refund for 2019 taxes, we suggest to file the taxes sooner rather than later, so you can get a refund.
We do have a new client portal for this year, so you can upload your tax documents in a secure way to us directly. If you are planning to use the portal, please let me know, and I will setup a username and password for you.
We will keep updating you as we know more.
Please stay well and safe!
