Following suit with Federal tax date.
COVID-19 has interrupted lives and businesses and has also taken a toll on the federal and state tax filing system. With so many workers furloughed and businesses closed, the Federal Government pushed back the April 15 Federal Tax filing date to July 15. Mississippi authorities followed with at first a move to a May 15 due date, but amended that to the same July 15 date.
Many individuals and businesses were already in the process of filing, but for those last-minute filers, more time has been given. That may or may not be a good thing according to local CPAs and tax filing experts.
“Really all it did was add a little sanity to the situation,” said Gary Gainspoletti, Managing Partner of Gainspoletti Financial Services. “It’s always tough when you’ve got essentially the same work due on different dates.”
Melody Salley of Barfield, Lindsey, Salley and Associates noted the changed due date’s “impact has been very minimal. Most clients did not take advantage of the extended deadline and filed by April 15. Only a small percentage of our clients are waiting to file.”
According to Salley, “there has been no confusion with the extension. And the extension has been a good thing. It kept our clients who needed to stay at home from being rushed to bring us their tax information.”
Gainspoletti noted that, “It’s a different world we’re living in. Paying taxes and filing tax returns, it’s not something that everybody gets excited about. The last thing you expect is for them to rush in. But, we’ll have that same group of people that wait till July 15th and that’s to be expected.”
He also explained that normally April 15th of this year was “very anticlimactic. We have just a few more returns left to do. We still have work to do and we will still get extensions after that.”
Salley also explained the July 15 date “just stretched out the normal rate of returns.”
Extended Income Tax Filing Deadline was the decided after consultation among the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the House of Representatives for the state of Mississippi.
“Mississippi has extended the due date for filing income tax returns and making first quarter and second quarter estimated payments to July 15, 2020. This extension applies to Individual Income Tax returns, Corporate Income and Franchise Tax returns, and Fiduciary Income Tax returns,” according to the Department of Revenue website. To learn more, visit https://www.dor.ms.gov/.
By MARK H. STOWERS
The Bolivar Bullet