Virginia Beach Commissioner of the Revenue Phillip Kellam announced today that victims of the jet crash at the Mayfair Mews apartments last Friday will be granted extensions for filing and paying their state income taxes.
Kellam said that he had made the request on behalf of a number of victims who had contacted him for assistance.
In a memo to Craig Burns, Tax Commissioner for the Commonwealth, Kellam said that: “It may take the folks affected by this terrible occurrence some time to obtain replacement documents to file their taxes. Therefore, I am asking for an extension for the filing and payment of state income taxes by these taxpayers.”
In his response to Kellam today, Burns agreed and said that: “To request the special extension, taxpayers should write “Mayfair Mews” at the top of their paper returns. Generally, only taxpayers with a tax due need to apply for the extension. Taxpayers who do not owe any taxes and file within the six-month automatic extension period will not be penalized.”
Taxpayers who request the extension will be allowed an additional thirty days to file individual income tax returns and make tax payments that have a due date of May 1, 2012. The Department will then abate interest and any late filing or late payment penalties that would otherwise apply.
Kellam also requested the same consideration from the Internal Revenue Service. The response from the IRS was that: “The IRS is not able to offer Individual Tax Relief unless the President invokes the Stafford Act and FEMA identifies counties for their Individual Assistance Program. As yet, there has been no declaration. However, these affected taxpayers would qualify for penalty abatement based upon reasonable cause should they not be able to timely file or pay this year’s tax return. I would recommend that the affected taxpayers file extensions for Tax year 2011.”
Kellam said that his office will have additional information, as well as web site links and phone numbers for both the Internal Revenue Service and the Virginia Department of Taxation posted on the Commissioner of the Revenue site by close of business today. The link to that site is: http://www.vbgov.com/government/departments/commissioner-of-the-revenue/Pages/default.aspx.
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Tax Extension Fact Sheet.doc