IRS Confirms Tax Filing Extension and Announces Postponed IRA, HSA Contribution Deadline

The IRS has issued Notice 2021-21, in which the IRS makes official the previously announced delay of the April 15, 2021 federal income tax filing due date for individuals for the 2020 tax year to May 17, 2021. This delay is a result of the ongoing COVID-19 Emergency Declaration issued in March 2020.

The tax return due date for an affected taxpayer is automatically postponed to May 17, 2021. An “affected taxpayer” is defined as any person with a federal income tax return or income tax payment filed on a Form 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, series with an original due date of April 15, 2021. No form, including IRS Form 4868, Application for Automatic Extension of Time To File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, is required to obtain this relief, and it applies to all schedules, returns, and other forms that are attachments to the Form 1040 series or required to be filed by the Form 1040 series due date.

In conjunction with the Form 1040 series delay, Notice 2021-21 also automatically postpones to May 17, 2021,

• the time for affected taxpayers to make 2020 contributions to their Traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs, health savings accounts (HSAs), Archer medical savings accounts (Archer MSAs), and Coverdell education savings accounts (Coverdell ESAs), and
• the time for reporting and payment of the 10 percent additional tax on amounts includible in gross income from 2020 IRA or employer-based retirement plan distributions.

The due date for filing and furnishing forms in the Form 5498, IRA Contribution Information, series is postponed to June 30, 2021.

This relief provided for filing federal income tax returns and paying federal income taxes does not apply to businesses or any other type of taxpayer who files federal income tax returns on forms other than the Form 1040 series. Notice 2021-21 further states that “no extension is provided in this notice for the payment or deposit of any other type of federal tax, including federal estimated income tax payments, or for the filing of any federal return other than the Form 1040 series and the Form 5498 series for the 2020 taxable year.”

While this guidance only applies to the filing of federal tax returns, many states have issued similar delays. Individuals are advised to review their state and local regulations to ensure compliance with all 2020 filing deadlines.