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C. · Joined: 04 Mar 2006 Posts: 37 Location: NOLA

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The Times Picayune
Local taxpayers get more time
IRS filing deadline moved to Oct. 16
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
By Mary Judice

Taxpayers in parishes hard hit by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita will have additional time to file their federal individual returns for 2004 and 2005, the Internal Revenue Service announced Monday.

The IRS has pushed back the deadline back to Oct. 16, 2006, for 2005 returns that were originally due April 17, 2006, and for 2004 returns that were due in April 2005 and for which a taxpayer had applied for an extension prior to the storms.

The tax service said it was aware that some taxpayers needed additional time to prepare returns. In the Katrina area, many taxpayers lost the financial paperwork needed to prepare their tax returns and many have more complicated returns due to property losses.

Previously the IRS had extended the due date for individual and business returns to Aug. 28, 2006.

The new extension does not apply to business returns or to estimated tax payments and employment payroll taxes.

It also does not suspend interest and failure-to-pay penalties for 2004 returns, according to Bruce Prendergast, tax director at the accounting firm of LaPorte, Sehrt, Romig and Hand in Metairie. Taxpayers will have to pay the taxes owed by Aug. 28, as well as penalties and interest that may have accrued earlier in 2005.

For those who have not filed their 2005 return, the Oct. 16 deadline can be postponed to April 15, 2007, by requesting an extension.

"We're swamped right now," said Lonnie Stockwell, managing partner of the New Orleans office of Postlethwaite & Netterville LLC. "We're still doing a fair number of 2004 tax returns."

He said these extensions allow taxpayers to pay penalties and interest on a 2004 tax bill in 2007, just a few months before their 2006 tax bills will be due.

Stockwell said the situation is different for those who have not finished their 2005 returns. He said these taxpayers have been distracted with disaster issues and have been late in delivering their tax files to the firm.

The extension applies to 31 parishes in Louisiana and to counties in Mississippi and Alabama affected by Hurricane Katrina. In Louisiana, the area includes hard-hit Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. Tammany and Cameron parishes and 24 additional parishes affected by the two storms.

The IRS urges taxpayers to mark "Hurricane Katrina" or "Hurricane Rita" in red ink on the top of their returns.

Al Suffrin, spokesman for the Louisiana Society of CPAs, said most tax preparers had been holding their 2004 and 2005 returns for guidance on handling casualty losses.

Prendergast said that with the extensions, he expected returns to continue coming in, but not a big crush. The firm will have to finish business returns and file extensions by the end of August.

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Mary Judice can be reached at

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