(NETWORK INDIANA) When George Harrison complained about the tax man, he was being forced to pay a lot of money under a strict deadline. The deadline in Indiana has been moved by two months this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, and that’s giving the tax man a reason to complain.
“As you can imagine with the announcement of the extension to July 15, we have seen lower volume than we would expect during these two weeks, although it is still pretty busy right now,” said Bob Grennes, the commissioner of the Indiana Dept. of Revenue.
The lower volume means less tax money is being collected. But, Grennes said in an interview on Indiana Issues, that they have processed two million tax returns and issued one and a half million refunds.
Grennes said one advantage of having less to do is that they can get your refund processed quickly.
“We’re also making sure that all of our systems are now applying the due dates and calculating interest and penalties for late filings, those all have to be updated to the new date.”
Grennes said even though the dates have changed, if you know you owe, you still have to pay by July 15.
What has not changed, even though some businesses may have trouble paying, are sales taxes. They are due on the 20th of each month. Food and beverage and innkeeper and other “trust taxes” are due on that date.
“The key thing is for them to file and contact us if they need assistance with payments,” said Grennes. But, he said business owners know better than to spend sales tax money they collect on something else because they collect that money on behalf of the state. They are supposed to put it aside until the payment is due.
So theoretically, the pandemic and any financial trouble they might be having, shouldn’t make an impact on those payments.
