Taxpayers affected by the major storm that hit the Northeastern United States April 16 now have until Thursday, April 26 to file their tax returns, the Internal Revenue Service said today.
Earlier this week, the IRS gave taxpayers directly impacted by the storm an additional two days beyond the April 17 deadline to meet their tax filing obligations without incurring late filing and payment penalties. After further assessment of conditions across the region affected by the April 16 storm, the IRS has decided to allow affected taxpayers an additional seven days to fulfill their tax filing obligations.
Power outages and public transportation problems made it impossible in some cases for some taxpayers and tax professionals to meet the April 17 filing deadline.
Affected taxpayers can mark their paper tax returns with the words "April 16 Storm." Taxpayers who e-file their returns can use their software's "disaster" feature, if available.
The second extension relates to those who had problems with e-filing on Tuesday night. Taxpayers who were unable to e-file their tax returns Tuesday using Intuit Inc. software products have until midnight on Thursday, April 19, to file their returns.
Potentially up to several hundred thousand last-minute tax filers were affected by company server problems on Tuesday evening, and they or their accountants may have been unable to electronically file returns. Intuit confirmed Wednesday that those problems had been resolved, and it was successfully accepting e-file returns on Wednesday.
The company said affected taxpayers and tax professionals include those using "TurboTax," "ProSeries," "Lacerte" and Intuit's Free File offering, "TurboTax Freedom."
Intuit product users who were unable to file their returns through the company's servers Tuesday should e-file as soon as possible. The IRS will not apply late filing penalties to taxpayers who were affected by this problem.
Overall, the IRS has seen a strong year for e-filing. Taxpayers filed more than 75 million returns electronically through April 17, shattering last year's record of 73.2 million.
