Forget April 15th — Trump Extends Tax Deadline to July 15th

Steven Mnuchin (Secretary of Treasury) tweeted out this morning that on the “direction” of the President, the tax date typically set for April 15th will now be moved to July 15th. He wrote that “all taxpayers and businesses will have this additional time to file and make payments without interest or penalties.”

At @realDonaldTrump’s direction, we are moving Tax Day from April 15 to July 15. All taxpayers and businesses will have this additional time to file and make payments without interest or penalties.

— Steven Mnuchin (@stevenmnuchin1) March 20, 2020

Mnuchin also advised those wanting to file a tax refund with the IRS. His advice states that “all taxpayers who may have tax refunds to file now to get your money.”

I encourage all taxpayers who may have tax refunds to file now to get your money.

— Steven Mnuchin (@stevenmnuchin1) March 20, 2020

Steven Mnuchin has been a part of the coronavirus task force since the beginning. As Secretary of Treasury, he is responsible for making sure that the United States has financial security. He is responsible for advising the President on matters of economic importance.

A couple of important tasks designed for the Secretary of Treasury:

• Production of coin and currency
• Disbursement of payment to Americans
• Revenue collection
• Borrowing money to run the government
• Predict and prevent an economic and financial crisis

If he is suggesting that you need to get your refund requests in now, the government is probably expecting a halt on non-essential services. The IRS processing your refunds would definitely fall under non-essential services.

With the government in the stages of approving bills that will send American’s monetary relief, the Secretary of Treasury’s job will be of the utmost importance. Not only do we need to survive the pandemic plaguing our health, but we also must be able to withstand the economic downfall that can come after these packages are implemented.

We can’t put ourselves into an economic crisis after surviving a pandemic. I am not an economic expert, and nor do I claim to be. But we need to be asking whether or not this short-term gain is going to bring long term pain for our economy.