Senator Grassley Wants Extension of March 1 Filing Deadline

Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa released a letter yesterday to both Timothy Geithner, Secretary of the Treasury and Steven Miller, Acting Commissioner of the IRS urging prompt attention by the IRS to extend the March 1, 2013 filing deadline.  As many farmers know, they can file and pay by March 1 without having to make any estimated tax payments on January 15.

Due to the passage of the new tax law, the ability of the IRS to accept most farmers tax returns by March 1 is very uncertain.  Senator Grassley’s letter indicates that the IRS has granted an extension in the past, most recently last year when the MF Global mess occurred.  In that case, the IRS did not actually extend the filing date, but granted waivers of the penalty for any estimated tax penalty caused by MF Global untimely mailing of form 1099.

This year, the possible delay is not caused by simply one organization going bankrupt, but rather by the complete lack of appropriate timing by Congress in passing the new law.  This has caused the IRS to delay acceptance of any tax returns until January 30 and most farmers until late February at the earliest.

We hope that Senator Grassley’s letter will have the weight needed to get the IRS to issue a notice timely that will allow farmers to (1) know when their returns are due and (2) give them enough time to properly prepare the return based upon the final release of the IRS forms.

We will keep you posted.

Paul Neiffer