IRS Relief for Hurricane Irma Areas – Letter to Clients
Posted on September 13, 2017
by
Joseph Saka
Dear Clients and Friends,
We are grateful that Hurricane Irma veered away from South Florida and hope that your family is safe and that the impact to your property was minimal.
Our offices in Miami, Boca Raton and West Palm Beach are open as of today, Wednesday, September 13, 2017. Our office in Fort Lauderdale has sustained some minor water damage, and its opening will be delayed while repairs are underway. The majority of our personnel is back in the office or working remotely.
IRS Deadline Extensions:
We are pleased to inform you that the Internal Revenue Service has granted extensions until January 31, 2018, for any tax return, extended tax return or tax payment that was or is due on or after September 4, 2017. This applies to any taxpayer who resides in or whose business is located in the Florida counties of Broward, Charlotte, Clay, Collier, Duval, Flagler, Hillsborough, Lee, Manatee, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Palm Beach, Pinellas, Putnam, Sarasota and St. Johns. Additional counties may be added if they are designated by FEMA as disaster areas eligible for individual assistance.
Here is what this announcement means for those in the affected areas.
· Calendar year partnerships, LLCs and corporations on valid extension through September 15, 2017, now have until January 31, 2018, to file their tax returns (Forms 1065, 1120 and 1120S).
· Calendar year estates and trusts on valid extension through September 30, 2017, also have until January 31, 2018, to file their tax returns (Form 1041).
· Individual taxpayers on valid extension through October 16, 2017, now have until January 31, 2018, to file their tax returns (Form 1040).
We expect most, if not all, states to follow the IRS extended deadlines for state income tax filings that are due after September 4, 2017.
Additionally, the quarterly individual and trust/estate estimated 2017 income tax payments due September 15, 2017, and January 15, 2018, do not have to be paid until January 31, 2018. Similarly any corporate or foreign partner withholding estimated 2017 income tax payments due on or after September 4, 2017, can be postponed without penalty or interest until January 31, 2018.
These extensions will apply automatically to any taxpayer whose address of record with the IRS is identified as being in a FEMA Disaster Area. The IRS has also included in this extension taxpayers located outside the FEMA Disaster Area whose tax practitioners or record keepers are located within the covered area.
Our firm intends to take advantage of this extension procedure for clients outside the FEMA Disaster Area. We will provide the IRS with a list of clients located outside of the disaster area who are eligible for the extension
During this time of year, we often receive requests from other tax practitioners who need certain tax forms, such as partner and shareholder Schedule K-1s or trust beneficiary statements, which we prepare for our clients and are necessary for non-client tax return filings. We regret that we will not be able to issue these forms before the filing deadline if they were not yet completed prior to Hurricane Irma.
Under current circumstances, the IRS has announced that it will work with taxpayers who cannot meet the September and October filing deadlines because their required records are prepared by firms located within the FEMA-designated disaster area. Taxpayers who live outside the FEMA Disaster Area but qualify for relief and are assessed a penalty for filing late can request abatement by contacting the IRS at 1-866-562-5227 and explaining that our firm is inside the FEMA disaster area.
We are grateful that the IRS has provided this extension. We feel confident that with the additional time granted to file, we can carefully evaluate clients’ FEMA Disaster Area-related tax planning opportunities and have more time to assess the financial impact of damages and other uninsured losses, if any.
We hope all affected by the hurricane are recovering quickly and want you to know that we are here to help.
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