LA Disaster Tax Extensions

Those who live in parishes that had a FEMA declared disaster this spring get an automatic extension until July 15th to file anything due and pay anything due between the date of the disaster and July 15th.

Some of you (and certainly some of our clients) were planning to just wait until July 15th to file and pay, and felt (correctly) that no extension needed to be filed. This is fine with the IRS.

Although LDR will honor the extension, they just said in an e-mail to practitioners about an hour ago that their systems basically can't handle disaster extensions. If you don't file an extension today and file by July 15th, you will be assessed late filing penalties and late payment penalties and will have to go and call them or mail them to get them removed. An absolute mess.

Apparently if you do file an extension and then file a return before July 15th, they will realize this and not assess late payment penalties. I'll believe it when I see it.

Point being: You probably ought to file an extension today for LA taxes, even if you owe, just don't pay, if you were planning on taking until July 15th. And hope for the best.