The Association received a message from the AICPA this morning that their Tax Advocacy team reached out earlier in the week to the IRS on behalf of practitioners and taxpayers. Their request was the IRS act as quickly as possible regarding any changes to the Sept. 15 filing deadlines, depending on the scope of Hurricane Florence’s effects.
The IRS’ authority to grant deadline extensions is limited to taxpayers affected by federally-declared disasters, and the IRS can act only after the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has provided either an “emergency declaration” or a “major disaster declaration.” The IRS has confirmed it will react as quickly as the law allows.
On a side (but related) note, the AICPA and other state societies have long supported a set of permanent disaster relief tax provisions to alleviate this built-in delay caused by the need for a prior FEMA assessment.
We will keep you updated as we receive any news from the AICPA and IRS. In the meantime, there are additional resources on the AICPA Disaster Tax Relief page.