September 15 Deadline Relief - Mixed Blessing

Originally Published on forbes.com on September 8th,2011

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This from the IRS

IR-2011-88, Sept. 1, 2011

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today announced it is granting taxpayers whose preparers were affected by Hurricane Irene until Sept. 22 to file returns normally due Sept. 15. The taxpayer’s preparer must be located in an area that was under an evacuation order or a severe weather warning because of Hurricane Irene, even if the preparer is located outside of the federally declared disaster areas.

This relief, which primarily applies to corporations, partnerships and trusts that previously obtained a tax filing extension, is available to taxpayers regardless of their location.

This relief does not apply to any tax payment requirements.

The announcement doesn’t include a specific list of counties like the disaster area announcements, but I guess they figure we know who we were.  It seems like it would include Manhattan.  The reason I am thinking it might be a mixed blessing is that since it includes partnerships, some but not all partnerships in the country have an extra seven days to issue K-1′s.  Since partnerships often own interests in other partnerships some of them will be getting K-1′s after their unextended due dates.  Will they risk the late file penalties which can be nasty or will they file with possibly non-final numbers ?  Either way it is going to be a mess.