Even though the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has extended the deadline to file federal income taxes from April 15th to May 17th, a local tax expert advises filing while more tax preparers are available.

H & R Block Area Manager for Washington, Sigourney and Columbus Junction Terri Bain says many offices like theirs operate with seasonal preparers, “Most of our staff, they have other jobs they do in the summertime. We’re going to run our full hours 9 to 5 Monday through Friday until April 30th and starting May 1st we’ll drop down to our summer hours which are Tuesdays-Thursdays and we reduce our staff at that time, but it’s just more staff available up until April 30th.”

Bain reminds self-employed individuals the deadline for estimated tax payments has not been extended and payments are still due April 15th. She adds if you have prior year refunds coming from a 2017 return, but have not filed yet, you will lose out on those refunds if your taxes are not filed by May 17, 2021. While stimulus payments are not taxable, they are entered on the tax form to verify you have received those payments. If the payments were not received, it will be indicated when submitting the return, which the IRS will verify the non-payment so the stimulus is included with your refund.

The deadline to file your Iowa state taxes has been extended from April 30th to June 1. The Iowa first quarter estimated tax payment deadline has also been extended to June 1.