This morning, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin held a press conference to announce a significant change regarding the due date for tax payments owed as a result of filing a 2019 income tax return.

Generally, tax payments are due by the tax filing deadline, which is April 15 for most taxpayers. Mnuchin announced that deadline will be extended by 90 days, which makes July 14, 2020 the new tax payment due date.

 The following parameters were announced with respect to this tax payment deadline change:

• The extension applies to individual taxpayers on up to $1 million of taxes owed.
• The extension applies to corporate taxpayers on up to $10 million of taxes owed.
• No interest and no penalties will be assessed on taxes within the above parameters that are deferred and not paid during this 90-day extension.

At the time this alert was distributed, our understanding is that this change does not impact the April 15th filing deadline; however, there are certain situations that are unclear. For example, direction was not provided on how this extension impacts first quarter estimated tax payments for 2020 that would normally be due on April 15. It is also unclear how this change will impact tax payments due to individual states, including Arizona.

We will keep you posted if and when we receive further clarification or updated information. For now, we recommend that you stay on course to file your 2019 return by the April 15th deadline, especially if you expect to receive a refund.

For those of you who are expecting to owe taxes for 2019, our tax team will be in contact with you very soon to discuss these changes as they pertain to your respective tax situations.

As always, please feel free to contact us at (602) 776-6300 if you have any questions or concerns.