Tom Talks Taxes - April 13, 2023

An explanation of how Notice 2023-21 impacts 2019 refund claims

A prior edition of the newsletter explained how the COVID-19 tax return postponements had an unusual effect on when 2019 and 2020 refund claims must be filed to get a refund of withholding or estimated tax payments. For many taxpayers, the 2019 refund claim deadline was April 18, 2023, or five days from today.

On March 17, 2023, the IRS issued Notice 2023-21 to disregard the April 15, 2020 to July 15, 2020 period from the §6511(b)(2)(A) three-year lookback period for any 2019 tax return whose due date was postponed to July 15, 2020. This action gives taxpayers additional time to file timely 2019 refund claims. Similar relief was provided for 2020 tax returns whose due date was postponed to May 15, 2021.

Below I'm going to walk through several examples of how this notice applies to various 2019 refund scenarios.