Ugh. There’s more snow in the forecast for parts of the country today. This, following reports of accumulations of more than a foot in parts of Minnesota and North Dakota with a particularly painful “up to 23 inches of snow reported in the Bismarck area.” In mid-April.
Winter storms have been hammering much of the nation over the past few days, bringing snow, sleet, and generally miserable conditions. It’s been tough to get anywhere – much less to the post office to get those tax returns filed.
With that in mind, the IRS has announced will provide penalty relief to anyone unable to file on time due to severe storms in parts of the South and Midwest over the past few days. According to the official statement from IRS, “taxpayers directly impacted by these storms will qualify for penalty relief, based on reasonable cause, if, due to these storms, they are unable to file their returns or pay the tax due until after tonight’s midnight deadline.” The relief is available “provided taxpayers file the return or pay the tax within a reasonable time after the power outages and transportation problems have been resolved.”
If you are affected and you receive a notice from IRS assessing you penalties, you can have those removed by requesting reasonable cause relief. By law, the IRS cannot abate interest.
The State of North Dakota has announced similar “reasonable cause” extensions for those individual taxpayers affected by the storms. In response to the storms, the State of Minnesota has extended its filing deadline to April 19, 2013 (downloads as a pdf) as taxpayers dig out.
Extension relief isn’t restricted to weather-related issues: earlier in the week, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania announced an extension of time to file due to website outages. Additionally, the IRS has announced extensions for those affected by the tragedy in Boston.
I’ll update state and federal extension relief as information is made available.
