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From IR-2025-47, April 14, 2025
The Internal Revenue Service announced today tax relief for individuals and businesses in the entire state of Tennessee affected by severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes and flooding that began on April 2, 2025.
These taxpayers now have until Nov. 3, 2025, to file various federal individual and business tax returns and make tax payments.
The full announcement IR-205-47 at the following link –
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?pli=1#inbox/FMfcgzQZVJzzFxfSCzRrbMsrFXCPDFTm
Imagine having worked long hours for months on end. The next day is April 15, the tax due date without extension. You glance at your news feed and the government has just extended the due date for both filing and paying taxes for over six months for all 95 counties in Tennessee. This accommodation is not just for the areas and people who have been subject to a true life changing disaster but for everyone in your state.
Then your phones start ringing off the hook. Clients want to know have you already hit the send button to file their electronic extension and to have their tax payment drafted or want to know if we mailed their check they brought us last week to pay their 2024 federal tax and/or first quarter 2025 estimated tax payment.
There are days and then there are days. Today was one of those days Tennessee tax preparers may laugh about in the future, just not today or tomorrow. I would encourage our elected federal officials to change the due date for filing individual returns to the following October 15 every year and just get rid of extension requirements. This is not new thinking as many states already have this procedure in place. The federal government can just charge interest and/or late payment penalty exactly as they already do and eliminate a lot of stress and needless work on both the IRS and preparers by having a more reasonable due date.
What are your thoughts on how we may do better as we work for a more perfect union?
Unfortunately my CPA called me about five minutes after I dropped my five figure tax check in the mail. I called back and asked if I should stop payment and she said “Don’t! It will give them an excuse to remember you.”
William, thanks for pointing this out. I have a nephew in Nashville and I’ll let him know. I just checked the IRS site and it looks like AK gets similar relief. A bunch of states also have until May 1. I looked at 2024, and there were well over 100 announcements of various tax relief provisions. It reminded me of the wide-spread devastation that hurricanes, floods, and fires can cause. Check your homeowners insurance!
I recently had a client at AARP TaxAide who insisted she lived in a disaster area because a tree fell in her yard, and caused some minimal damage to her home. Instead of arguing with her I said I’d research the issue, and later pointed her to the IRS’ web site of disaster declarations. She seemed satisfied by that.