IRS moves tax deadline back to June 15 for Texans and their businesses in wake of winter storm

The Internal Revenue Service has moved the tax-filing and payment deadline for individuals and businesses in Texas to June 15 because of damage across the state caused by the severe winter storms.

Texans in all of the state's 254 counties will automatically be given the

extra two months to file and pay their individual and business taxes. The normal filing deadline is April 15. Texans who receive a late-filing penalty notice are encouraged to call the IRS to have it abated.

The extension applies to a variety of filing deadlines that fell after Feb. 11, including those for 2020 business returns, originally March 15, and quarterly payroll and excise tax returns, normally April 30.

Now they are all due June 15, the agency announced in a press release Monday.

Texans will also have until then to make their 2020 IRA contributions.

People affected by the same storms in other states may qualify for the same relief if they live in a FEMA-declared disaster area. A list of eligible locations will be posted on the IRS website. The IRS will also work with people assisting with relief in the affected areas who work for recognized governmental or philanthropic agencies.

Taxpayers in federally declared disaster areas can claim uninsured or unreimbursed disaster-related casualty losses on their federal income tax returns this year.

Texans make up about 9% of the country's population, meaning close to 1 in 10 Americans will be receiving an extension this tax season. There was no indication whether the rest of the country would also be given an extension because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Some Democratic politicians in Washington have been pushing to extend the tax-filing and payment deadline because of the pandemic. Last year, taxpayers were given until July 15, as Americans were dealing with the onset of the pandemic.

Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee had requested the tax-filing extension in a letter Thursday to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig.

"For starters, health and safety concerns continue to keep taxpayer assistance sites closed and taxpayers homebound," they wrote. "As a result, taxpayers are having a much harder time receiving the crucial assistance they are accustomed to and require. These challenges are especially acute for low-income taxpayers with limited digital or English proficiency."

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