IRS to Accept Email, Digital Signatures

To help taxpayers and the tax professional community during this COVID-19 period, effective immediately, the IRS will begin temporarily accepting images of signatures (scanned or photographed) and digital signatures on documents related to the determination or collection of tax liability.

In addition, the IRS is allowing IRS employees to accept documents via email and to transmit documents to taxpayers using SecureZip or other established secured messaging systems.

“The IRS is continuing to monitor methods to lessen the burden on taxpayers and professionals during this period,” said Sunita Lough, IRS Deputy Commissioner for Services and Enforcement. “We greatly appreciate the patience, support and valuable comments we continue to receive from the tax professional community as we move forward.”

This effort, described in an internal IRS memo, is in response to the Coronavirus situation maximizing the ability of the IRS to execute on mission-critical duties where employees, taxpayers and their representatives are working from alternate, remote locations outside their office.

The taxpayer or representative must include a statement, either in the form of an attached cover letter or within the body of the email, saying to the effect: “The attached [name of document] includes [name of taxpayer]’s valid signature and the taxpayer intends to transmit the attached document to the IRS.” The choice to transmit documents electronically is solely that of the taxpayer.

The limited categories of documents included in the scope of this effort include extensions of statute of limitations on assessment or collection, waivers of statutory notices of deficiency and consents to assessment, agreements to specific tax matters or tax liabilities (closing agreements), and any other statement or form needing the signature of a taxpayer or representative traditionally collected by IRS personnel outside of standard filing procedures (for example, a case specific Power of Attorney).

The IRS is continuing to review standards for e-signing other documents and invites suggestions and comments as it pursues additional efforts designed to lessen the burden on taxpayers and professionals during this period.

Derek Ganter

Director Stakeholder Liaison

Communications & Liaision

Internal Revenue Service

Office (626) 927-1416|Fax (877) 477-8628

Rhode Island Tax Filing Deadline now 07/15/2020

Rhode Island has decided to extend the 2019 state individual income tax filing and payment deadline from April 15 to July 15 due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. This is in line with the recent ruling by the IRS to do the same.

Massachusetts Tax Filing Deadline now 07/15/2020

Massachusetts has decided to extend the 2019 state individual income tax filing and payment deadline from April 15 to July 15 due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. This is in line with the recent ruling by the IRS to do the same.

Income tax filing deadline moved to July 15 from April 15

WASHINGTON (AP) — The income tax filing date has been pushed back from April 15, to July 15,

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

Mnuchin announced the decision in a tweet Friday saying that at President Donald Trump’s direction “we are moving Tax Day from April 15 to July 15. All taxpayers and businesses will have this additional time to file and make payments without interest or penalties.”

The administration had announced earlier in the week that it would delay the payments, a move that Mnuchin said would leave $300 billion in the economy at a critical time.

The delay is available to people who owe $1 million or less and corporations that owe $10 million or less.

Mnuchin had said the payment delay could provide $300 billion in temporary support to the economy by giving households and businesses the ability to use money they would have paid to the IRS as financial support to meet other needs during the economic emergency created by the efforts to contain the coronavirus.

The administration is working with Congress to develop a $1 trillion support package and Mnuchin has said the IRS payment delay will add $300 billion to that effort.