In a televised interview with KTLA, attorney‑CPA Mark J. Kohler explains the IRS’s COVID‑19‑related tax deadline extensions announced in 2020. He clarifies that the federal individual filing deadline is moved from April 15 to July 15, giving all taxpayers a 90‑day window to file without needing an extension, though a filing extension is still advisable if the tax due cannot be paid to avoid penalties. Kohler urges taxpayers expecting refunds to file promptly, noting that billions of dollars in refunds were left unclaimed in prior years. Quarterly estimated tax payments are also extended 90 days with no penalties, providing relief for small‑business owners. He outlines the exceptions that are not covered by the general extension, such as IRA contribution deadlines (still April 15) and specific business entity filing dates (S‑corp/LLC extensions to September 15). Regarding home‑office expenses, he explains that under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act unreimbursed employee expenses are no longer deductible, though business owners can deduct supplies they provide to employees. Kohler emphasizes that the extra time benefits accountants and small‑business owners for planning, while expressing empathy for those financially impacted by the pandemic.
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COVID 19. It's changed the work environments for many of us with major economic impacts expected. The government has responded. They've done so by extending tax deadlines. Believe it's normally April 15th and now it's July 15th. So the big question, of course, what does that mean for you?
Joining US live via FaceTime is attorney and CPA Mark Kohler. Good morning. Thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate it.
Thanks for having me. Very safe of you to have me via webcam.
Right? Yeah, we like that, too. Here's the thing. So with the federal tax filing deadline being extended the way it has to July 15, can you talk about what does that really mean? Who does this apply? Apply to?
You bet. This applies to all individuals, first and foremost. So you've got 90 days to get your return filed, but without having to even file an extension. But I want to point that out still on July 15, if you can't pay, still file an extension because we don't want any additional penalties. But you've got this 90 days to
just sit back and get your affairs to together and there's no penalties or interest.
So you think that they'll actually let you file another extension in July?
Yes. Normally we have until October 15th, and this week has been crazy. It's been up and down. Do we still need to file? We don't have to pay. So now they made it uniform, which is really helpful. So come July 15, you'll still need to file an extension if you want until October. A lot of people will.
I don't know if you answered it. Let's just say hypothetically, if you file them on April 15, is your refund going to be delayed if you have a refund?
No, and that's a great question. The federal government has been begging everybody if you think you might get a refund file. And I think that's a great recommendation. Some of you are like, oh, I don't have to file or extend. I got 90 days. Well, hey, you might be due a refund and you could use that money.
You know what's interesting? 2015, which just the extension or the
deadline ended for that on when you could still file and claim a refund. There was over $1.4 billion left on the table. So many are entitled to refunds and don't even know it. So get out there and file.
Yeah, no doubt. All right, now, what if you have a quarterly tax payment due? What do you do about that?
Now those are also extended. So we've got individual 1040s extended 90 days and any quarterly payments. And this is where the small business world starts to feel a little bit of the relief too. So if there's quarterly payments due, no penalties or interest, you can wait 90 days on that as well.
All right, fantastic. Okay, let's talk about the tax extensions announced so far that do not apply to certain transactions. Say, for example, example IRA contributions. What else is not included?
Well, we still. That's right, you nailed it. IRAs, if you want to contribute to an IRA, still be thinking about April 15th and there's the Coverdale and a few other deadlines and so you're going to want to watch for those. But the other one is business owners. We still had to file an extension on March 15, and so we don't know if they're going to extend anything. For s corporations or LLCs, you have until September 15th. Hopefully by then we'll feel a little more of the reprieve.
So I just, you know, it's really trying to get more money in people's pocket right now with the 1040 payments.
And so many people need it right now, especially if you're, you know, if your work, your employment has been impacted. So that's really important.
Well, speaking of work, we know a lot of folks are working from home right now. They've been ordered to do so by their companies. So if we wanted to say maybe, like if we want to write off something like we use our toilet paper as a table for our computer. We saw that before. Can someone write off the toilet paper maybe, like, maybe not this year, but can they do so next year?
Well, I regrettably know I've got good news and bad news. At least you're going to get a straight answer here. Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs act,
which we just got, you know, hit with two years ago, the deduction for an unreimbursed employee expense at home is gone. So that that's no longer an itemized deduction. So if you're spending your own money to get to work from home more efficiently, it's not going to be a write off. But we've got lower tax tax rates and we've got the bigger standard deduction for business owners. This is a big deal. If you were the business owner and bought all of your employees a case of toilet paper for their home office, you get to deduct that, but not the employee.
Got it.
Hey, real quick, I don't think the tax industry has ever seen anything like this. I know you guys call it, you know, the in the biz. They call it tax season. Right. Are accountants excited about the deadline being pushed? That gives you more time. Doesn't.
Does. There's a lot of good reasons to extend anyway. And so some people think if I don't file by April 15, I'm going to get audited. It's actually the opposite. The more time you take to file
your tax return, the better.
So professionals are liking this breathing room. We can spread things out and do more planning as well. The government is. They're trying to do a number of
things, whether it's just the tax payments or family leave. There's a lot of things for small business owners especially, that have been hit so hard. My heart just goes out to so many of you that might be watching, too. This is difficult whether you're an employee or a small business owner. So hard.
Really good information. We appreciate it. For more tax advice from Mark, you can find him online@markjkohler.com that was really helpful. Yeah, thanks so much, Mark.
