Tax Filing Deadline Moved to July 15 After Tester Pressure

Senator: “The absolute last thing Montana families and businesses should be worrying about during a public health emergency is filing forms with the IRS”

U.S. Senator Jon Tester today announced that the Treasury Department heeded his call to move the tax filing deadline for individuals and businesses to July 15, after his sustained efforts to get the Internal Revenue Service to take this concrete step to provide relief to Montana families and businesses.

“The absolute last thing Montana families and businesses should be worrying about during a public health emergency is filing forms with the IRS,” said Tester. “I have been pushing Secretary Mnuchin to take this important step, and I’m glad he took that input and made the right decision to give Montanans some relief in the face of this outbreak.”

Yesterday, Tester sent his second letter in seven days to Secretary Mnuchin pushing him to extend the filing deadline to July 15.

“We are writing to ask that you formally and officially extend the deadline for individuals and businesses to file their 2019 taxes to, at a minimum, July 15,” wrote Tester along with 20 of his colleagues. “Your current guidance allows taxpayers such an extension only for payments, but the trajectory of the spread of COVID-19, and the continued precipitous economic downturn, require that the filing deadline also be moved back automatically for all filers. We worry that the existing plan is unduly cumbersome to Americans already faced with economic uncertainty.

They continued, “[Extending the deadline] will provide much-needed relief to elderly and low-income tax filers…It would help many American taxpayers if they knew they could file on July 15 without needing to ask for extensions or worry about late payments.”

Tester has led the charge in responding to the coronavirus pandemic. He has introduced legislation to guarantee testing for the virus will be at zero cost, and he passed bipartisan legislation through the Senate to ensure veterans GI benefits are protected during the outbreak. He has also doubled down on his efforts to press the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Indian Health Service to provide veterans, VA healthcare staff, and Tribes with access to proper resources and information.

Read Tester’s first letter to Mnuchin from March 11 HERE.

Read Tester’s second letter to Mnuchin from March 19 HERE.