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Law360 (May 28, 2020, 7:44 PM EDT) -- The Internal Revenue Service provided added deadline relief to some employers and employee plans Thursday because of the COVID-19 pandemic, including granting certified professional employer organizations a temporary reprieve from electronically filing some returns.
The agency temporarily waived the mandate that certified professional employer organizations, or CPEOs, file certain employment tax returns and accompanying schedules electronically through the end of the year. The waiver applies to the organizations' quarterly federal tax returns for the second, third and fourth quarters of 2020.
CPEOs can, but don't have to, file Forms 941 and accompanying schedules on paper for the second, third and fourth quarters, the guidance said. CPEOs handle assorted payroll administration and tax reporting duties for clients and are usually paid fees based on payroll costs.
The filing break for CPEOs was just one part of the relief the IRS provided in the notice issued Thursday, which follows earlier moves by the agency to grant administrative relief amid the global outbreak of the novel coronavirus, the cause of COVID-19, a respiratory disease.
On Thursday the IRS also postponed the deadline for several other time-sensitive actions. Employers now have until July 15 to correct employment tax reporting errors using the tax code's interest-free adjustment process, the agency said.
The IRS said it will also disregard the period from March 30 to July 15 in calculations of any interest or penalty for employee benefit plans' failure to file excise tax returns or to pay the excise tax postponed by the notice. However, interest and penalties regarding those delayed filing and payment obligations will start to accrue July 16, the agency said.
The IRS has delayed several tax return and payment deadlines due to the pandemic. The agency postponed the April 15 deadline for tax returns and payments until July 15, which is also the new deadline for second-quarter estimated tax payments and several other returns and payments, including those for Americans living abroad.
The agency has also extended gift and generation-skipping transfer tax and return deadlines to July 15.
The IRS did not immediately comment on Thursday's notice.
--Editing by Vincent Sherry.
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