IRS Gives Late Filers An Extra Six Months

by Leroy Baker, Tax-News.com, New York

18 April 2006

The Internal Revenue Service has granted taxpayers who missed yesterday's filing deadline an extra six months to file their taxes, although the agency warned that taxpayers will be subject to interest and penalties if they failed to pay their taxes on time.

Taxpayers in most states had until yesterday's filing deadline to submit applications for a filing deadline, although taxpayers in the District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont have until the end of today to file and pay because of the Patriot’s Day Holiday on April 17 in Massachusetts, where the Andover Service Center is located.

The IRS says that extension filers can electronically file their returns until October 16. Last year, nearly 1.8 million taxpayers filed electronically after the April deadline.

Taxpayers affected by Hurricane Katrina who still cannot file their 2005 income tax return by the postponed due date, August 28, 2006, may request this six-month extension of time to file in addition to the postponement already granted to them for their April 17, 2006, filing and payment deadlines. The six-month extension would extend the filing due date for Hurricane Katrina taxpayers to February 28, 2007. To request the additional six-month extension, Hurricane Katrina taxpayers need to file the 2005 version of Form 4868 by August 28, 2006.

Earlier this year, the IRS automatically postponed the filing and payment deadlines for individual and business taxpayers in the parishes and counties most severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina to August 28, 2006. Other affected taxpayers, who lived outside of the areas that received the automatic postponement, as well as disaster relief workers still in the area, can also get a postponement.

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