Conservative groups urge Mnuchin to extend tax payment deadlines into 2021

A group of conservative organizations is urging Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to extend the July 15 tax deadlines into next year, arguing that this should be an “immediate priority.”

“We ask that you use your authority under the law to defer these tax payment deadlines into 2021,” the groups wrote in a letter to Mnuchin on Thursday. “Doing so would not reduce a penny of tax owed, but would give the economy some much-needed breathing room to recover cash flow, transition to hiring unemployed workers, and rebuild shattered small businesses.”

More than 20 groups signed the letter, including the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, Americans for Tax Reform and FreedomWorks.

The IRS has already extended a number of tax deadlines to July 15 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Deadlines that were extended include the due date for individuals to file their 2019 tax returns and pay their 2019 taxes, which were previously set for April 15.

The right-leaning groups also noted that deadlines for estimated tax payments for the first and second quarter of this year were also extended to July 15, and that a number of federal excise taxes need to be paid next month.

They called the impending tax deadlines “a fiscal cliff endangering our economic recovery,” one that they said could potentially result in more than $1 trillion “transferred from the private economy to the Treasury.”

The groups praised Mnuchin for extending tax deadlines to July, and said that the Treasury secretary’s leadership is now needed “to help the economy move back to full prosperity, by shifting payments further into 2021.”