Final Regulations for Deadline Postponements Related to Disasters

The IRS has released final regulations regarding the mandatory 60-day postponement of deadlines for certain time-sensitive, tax-related acts in circumstances of federally declared disasters, implemented under the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020.

The tax-related acts covered by this guidance are defined in Internal Revenue Code Section 7508A. This is the authority cited for postponement of deadlines in cases of localized disaster declarations. Such localized relief is announced by the IRS in news release form, describing the area affected—generally on a county-by-county basis—and describing the length of the deadline postponements.

The final regulations clarify the definition of “federally declared disaster” for purposes of deadline extensions to include both a major disaster declared under section 401 of the Stafford Act and an emergency declared under section 501 of the Stafford Act.

Additionally, the guidance provides details of the 60-day mandatory postponement period.

• If the Treasury Secretary does not exercise her discretion to postpone a time-sensitive act, it cannot be postponed under the mandatory extension.
• Time-sensitive acts specifically postponed include making contributions to a qualified retirement plan or IRA, withdrawing excess IRA contributions, recharacterizing IRA contributions, and completing rollovers.
• The mandatory 60-day postponement period begins on the earliest incident date specified in a disaster declaration and ends on the date that is 60 days after the latest incident date.
• In no event will the mandatory 60-day postponement period exceed one year.
• The extension will not apply when there is no specified initial incident date.

The definition of “federally declared disaster” is applicable today with final publication in the Federal Register. The clarifications to the mandatory 60-day postponement period apply to disasters declared on or after December 21, 2019.