Some business taxpayers—who must file for a federal extension using Form 7004—missed relief earlier. For instance, partnerships and S corporations that had returns due a month ago never got a postponement, Richards said.

Questions for business clients during the postponement include depreciation methods for various classes of assets, amending the 2018 return after recent tax legislation such as the SECURE Act and investigating interest-expense deduction limitations and global intangible low-taxed income taxes.

Other business filers may benefit from the extra weeks to leverage tax reform’s qualified business income (QBI) deduction. “Because the QBI deduction continues to be among the most complicated of the changes under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, filers must devote considerable attention to the calculation and reporting requirements,” Smith said.

“The rules are still new and the IRS continues to issue guidance,” McGrory added. “Many wealthy clients are investors in pass-through business entities, which themselves are investors in underlying entities. It’s taking much longer to prepare business tax returns, which in turn, impacts the timing of preparing and filing the personal tax returns of the business owners.”

The requirements can challenge businesses that are invested in many other businesses, where layers of QBI data may need to be reported to many owners. “This could involve hundreds or even thousands of separate QBI calculations,” Smith said. “The pandemic only exacerbates these challenges.”

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