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IRS to delay tax filing deadline to mid-May after chaotic pandemic year

The Internal Revenue Service is planning to delay the April 15 tax filing deadline by about one month, giving taxpayers additional time to file returns and pay any outstanding levies, according to three people familiar with the discussions.

The IRS is still figuring out what the final deadline will be. The agency is considering setting the filing deadline either on May 15 or May 17, according to two of the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly because the decision had not been finalized. May 15 is a Saturday and the IRS typically delays filing deadlines that fall on a weekend or holiday to the next business day.

By Allyson Versprille, Laura Davison and Saleha Mohsin | Bloomberg

The Internal Revenue Service is planning to delay the April 15 tax filing deadline by about one month, giving taxpayers additional time to file returns and pay any outstanding levies, according to three people familiar with the discussions.

The IRS is still figuring out what the final deadline will be. The agency is considering setting the filing deadline either on May 15 or May 17, according to two of the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly because the decision had not been finalized. May 15 is a Saturday and the IRS typically delays filing deadlines that fall on a weekend or holiday to the next business day.

The IRS and Treasury didn’t respond to requests to comment on the delay.

The filing extension would give taxpayers additional breathing room to meet their tax obligations in what is becoming one of the most complicated tax seasons in decades. The change would come after calls from accountants and leaders in Congress to delay the due date as new legislation and pandemic-related work changes disrupt taxpayer plans.

Among the changes this tax season are last-minute amendments to the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill signed into law earlier this month that give filers a new tax exemption on up to $10,200 of jobless benefits. The individual tax return, Form 1040, is also the mechanism for people to claim any missing $1,200 or $600 stimulus payments from last year.

Besides the disruptions from the pandemic, the changes in tax law will mean some filers will have to wait for updated forms, resubmit their returns, and some will need to consult a tax adviser on how to proceed if they’ve already filed.

House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, Representative Bill Pascrell, and Mike Crapo, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, have asked IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig to delay the filing deadline, citing the importance of this tax season because of all the tax changes and coronavirus aid administered through the tax code.

The IRS, which has the administrative authority to delay tax deadlines without Congress, also extended the filing season last year at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of early March, the IRS has been behind last year’s metrics in the number of tax returns filed and processed and the number of refunds issued. The filing season, which began Feb. 12, started about two weeks later than usual, and has contributed to the slump.

The tax extension also comes as the IRS has been handed another big task: processing a third round of direct payments to households, this time for $1,400 each. The IRS said it has so far sent about 90 million payments totaling $242 billion.

(Updates with changes for this filing season starting in the fifth paragraph.)

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ASIA/MYANMAR – New appeal from the Pope, Sister Ann Nu Twang: “He is close to our suffering people” – Agenzia Fides

Yangon (Agenzia fide) – “The words of Pope Francis comfort us at this time when we see our hearts broken by so much violence and suffering of innocent people. We even feel powerless and helpless in the face of the evil that continues. Our hope is placed in God and we ask for the help of the international community”. This is what a Catholic priest from the diocese of Yangon said to Agenzia Fides, preferring to remain anonymous for security reasons, after the new appeal from Pope Francis who, at the end of the General Audience on March 17, , mentioned Myanmar: “Once again, and with great sorrow – said the Pontiff – I feel it is urgent to mention the dramatic situation in Myanmar, where many people, especially the young, are losing their lives to offer hope to their country”. He continued, ideally referring to the gesture of Sister Ann Nu Tawng, a Catholic nun working in the city of Myitkyina, whose photos have been published in the media all over the world: “I too kneel in the streets of Myanmar and say: End the violence! I too reach out my arms and say: may dialogue prevail!”. Source: ASIA/MYANMAR – New appeal from the Pope, Sister Ann Nu Twang: “He is close to our suffering people” – Agenzia Fides

Some Long Covid-19 Patients Feel Better After Vaccine Doses – The New York Times

Judy Dodd began struggling with long Covid symptoms last spring — shortness of breath, headaches, exhaustion. Then she got the vaccine.

After her first Pfizer-BioNTech shot in late January, she felt so physically miserable that she had to be persuaded to get the second. For three days after that one, she also felt awful. But the fourth day, everything changed.

“I woke up and it was like ‘Oh what a beautiful morning,’” said Ms. Dodd, a middle-school teacher who is also an actor and director. “It was like I’d been directing ‘Sweeney Todd’ for months, and now I’m directing Oklahoma.”

Ms. Dodd, who continues to feel good, is among a number of people who are reporting that the post-Covid symptoms they’ve experienced for months have begun improving, sometimes significantly, after they got the vaccine. It’s a phenomenon that doctors and scientists are watching closely, but as with much about the yearlong coronavirus pandemic, there are many uncertainties.

Sperm whales in 19th century shared ship attack information | Whales | The Guardian

Using newly digitised logbooks detailing the hunting of sperm whales in the north Pacific, the authors discovered that within just a few years, the strike rate of the whalers’ harpoons fell by 58%. This simple fact leads to an astonishing conclusion: that information about what was happening to them was being collectively shared among the whales, who made vital changes to their behaviour. As their culture made fatal first contact with ours, they learned quickly from their mistakes.

The hunters themselves realised the whales’ efforts to escape. They saw that the animals appeared to communicate the threat within their attacked groups. Abandoning their usual defensive formations, the whales swam upwind to escape the hunters’ ships, themselves wind-powered. ‘This was cultural evolution, much too fast for genetic evolution,’ says Whitehead.

And in turn, it evokes another irony. Now, just as whales are beginning to recover from the industrial destruction by 20th-century whaling fleets – whose steamships and grenade harpoons no whale could evade – they face new threats created by our technology. ‘They’re having to learn not to get hit by ships, cope with the depredations of longline fishing, the changing source of their food due to climate change,’ says Whitehead. Perhaps the greatest modern peril is noise pollution, one they can do nothing to evade.

Source: Sperm whales in 19th century shared ship attack information | Whales | The Guardian

Bolsonaro’s handling of Brazil’s rolling coronavirus disaster is a threat to the world – The Washington Post

Part of the problem is the emergence of a more virulent coronavirus variant in Brazil, one whose rapid spread since January has raised global alarm. “If Brazil is not serious, then it will continue to affect all of the neighborhood there — and beyond,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, warned earlier this month. “This is not just about Brazil. It’s about the whole Latin America, and even beyond.”

Source: Bolsonaro’s handling of Brazil’s rolling coronavirus disaster is a threat to the world – The Washington Post

Virginia bans cosmetic testing on animals, joining three other states | TheHill

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) has signed the Humane Cosmetics Act, banning cosmetics animal testing and the sale of animal-tested cosmetics.

The method involves testing household products on animals for safety before they are sold on the market for human use.

Virginia is the fourth state to adopt the law, which will go into effect beginning on Jan. 1, 2022, according to ABC News.

Source: Virginia bans cosmetic testing on animals, joining three other states | TheHill

Kentucky moves to expand voting access in rare bipartisan push | TheHill

The state Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would create three days of early voting, including the Saturday before an election. It would let counties set up locations where any registered state voter could cast a ballot, and it would create an online portal that voters could use to make sure their ballots are counted. “We indeed are transforming the way in which we will elect our public officials, and we will ensure the integrity of the ballot to eliminate things like voter fraud, cheating, ballot harvesting and the like,” state Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer (R) said Tuesday.

Source: Kentucky moves to expand voting access in rare bipartisan push | TheHill