Press Release
June 25, 2020
ICYMI: Douglas Holtz-Eakin on Delaying the Tax Filing Deadline
In this morning’s Daily Dish, AAF President Douglas Holtz-Eakin argues against further postponing the federal tax filing deadline, as the Treasury Department is reportedly considering. Deferring the deadline is a de facto deferral of collecting taxes for state and local governments — which desperately need cash — and would also threaten to make the 2021 tax season a disaster, he writes. Instead of another delay, the Treasury could keep July 15 as the tax filing deadline but defer tax payments for struggling taxpayers, Holtz-Eakin proposes.
An excerpt:
Another deferral would threaten to make the 2021 tax season a disaster. The IRS needs time to wrap up the 2020 filing, plan and implement the new programming needed for 2021. Being a sensible, low-tax conservative is not the same thing as being pro-administrative-mayhem….
Pushing back the July 15 deadline has – at least for me – a superficial appeal. But digging even a little bit into the issue reveals that this is not a step Treasury should take.