California extends Bay Area tax deadlines

Bay Area residents and business owners now have until Oct. 16 to file their state and federal income taxes, after California on Thursday matched a postponement granted at the federal level by the Internal Revenue Service.

The IRS last month extended its deadline, for the second time, for California counties affected by severe winter storms. All Bay Area counties — Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano, San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, Napa and Santa Cruz — are included in the delay until mid-October.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that California would follow suit, with residents and business owners in the same counties, including all those in the Bay Area, qualifying for the extension.

“As communities across the state continue recovering from the damage caused by the winter storms, California is working swiftly to help recovering Californians get back on their feet,” Newsom said in a statement.

The extension for California tax filing and payments applies to deadlines falling between Jan. 8 and Oct. 16, and covers 2022 individual income tax returns that had been due April 18 and quarterly estimated tax payments that had been due Jan. 17 and April 18.

Separate deadlines at the state and federal levels would have made tax filing more complicated for many people, and boosted costs for taxpayers using accountants working on two filing schedules, Oakland accountant Jong Lee of The Lee Accountancy said. If California had failed to conform to the new IRS filing deadline, Newsom's popularity might have suffered a blow among taxpayers, he speculated. “They may not like it,” Lee said.

Earlier extensions at the federal and California level had set a now-obsolete deadline of May 15 for residents of storm-affected counties.

Residents and business owners of storm-affected counties qualify for the extension even if they were not directly affected by the inclement weather, which caused widespread landslides and flooding as well as damage from ocean waves crashing ashore.

At the federal level, the Oct. 16 deadline applies to 2022 individual income tax returns that had been due

April 18 and to 2022 business returns typically due March 15 and April 18. The Oct. 16 deadline also applies to quarterly estimated tax payments previously due on Jan. 17 and April 18. Individual taxpayers paying quarterly estimated taxes can skip making the fourth-quarter payment previously due Jan. 17, and instead include it with their 2022 return due Oct. 16, the IRS said.

Lee recommended that people entitled to tax refunds file their state and federal returns soon, to get the money, while those who owe money could wait until closer to the deadline but make sure they get their returns in at least a week in advance. Taxpayers using accountants should begin working with their CPAs far ahead of the deadline, Lee added.