Beginning in 2017 (for 2016 tax returns), the IRS is changing its income tax return filing deadlines:
Old deadlines:
- C Corporations: March 15
- S Corporations: March 15
- Partnerships: April 15
- Individuals: April 15
New deadlines:
- Partnerships: March 15
- S Corporations: March 15
- C Corporations: April 15
- Individuals: April 15
At Forbes.com, Tony Nitti analyzes the impact this will have on tax preparers - and is less than sanguine about the results:
If you are the average tax preparer, you have traded the pressure of preparing one C corporation return prior to March 15th for the pressure of filing two partnership returns, because each year, there are twice as many partnership returns filed with the IRS than there are C corporation returns. Dig a little deeper, and you’ll find that the overwhelming percentage of C corporation returns are the domain of the Big Four, meaning regional and local firms are likely trading one early C corporation filing for five or six accelerated partnership returns. That’s a lot of extra work to get done by March 15th.
I know what you’re thinking…why not just file for an extension? While that seems like the easy answer, there are two fundamental problems with doing so:
- Clients hate extending their returns.
- Congress is the worst.