Form 990 Filing Deadline is Extended to July 15

By Nicholas Porto April 10, 2020

Yesterday, the IRS issued Notice 2020-23, automatically extending the filing and payment deadline to July 15, 2020 for almost all forms of tax returns that were slated to be due between April 1, 2020 and July 15, 2020. The notice included form filings and payments associated with tax-exempt organization returns for 990-PF, 990-T, and 4720. Conspicuously absent from the list of filings receiving due date relief was Form 990.

However, Notice 2020-23 appears to also pull in any “time sensitive” act identified in Revenue Procedure 2018-58 that would otherwise be due between April 1, 2020 and July 15, 2020 as well. Revenue Procedure 2018-58 identifies not only Form 990, but also many other tax-exempt organization filing requirements including preparation and adoption of CHNA and Implementation Plans required by state licensed hospitals under Section 501(r), Form 1023 and 1024 applications, and certain requirements with Form 8940 filings for organizations seeking to terminate their private foundation status and be treated as public charities.

Normally, Forms 990, 990-PF, 990-T, and 4720 are extended for six-months using Form 8868. With the shift in the deadline to July 15^th, the IRS has indicated that this will not push back the extended deadline of November 15. So, tax-exempt organizations receiving filing and payment deadline relief who were not already on extension (i.e. calendar year-end tax-exempt organizations) that will need additional time to file a complete and accurate return, will need to file Form 8868 by July 15^th to extend the filing deadline to the traditional November 15 date.

It would stand to reason, that the IRS would not extend the 990-T filing due date without also extending the Form 990 since information from the 990-T is reported on the 990 and vice versa. However, it would have been helpful for the IRS to include the Form 990 as one of the specified forms identified as being automatically extended in Notice 2020-23 rather than having to connect dots between that notice and the 2018 revenue procedure. However, it appears that the April, May, and June 15 deadlines for any Form 990 series filer, and any required payments connected with those forms, has been automatically extended to July 15, 2020.

To discuss this tax legislation, please contact Nick Porto or your BNN tax advisor at 800.244.7444.