Government Argues Court in Kwong Misread COVID Relief Law

The government's opening brief in its appeal of the Kwong case interpreting COVID-era deadline extensions argued that the Court of Federal Claims misread the law. The lower court had argued that the taxpayer's deadline for filing a refund law was automatically postponed, beginning January 20, 2020 and ending July 10, 2023. The government argues that the court improperly relied on the FEMA "incident period" rather than the "incident date" specified in the presidential disaster declaration. The government argued that the relevant incident date was January 20, 2020 and that the postponement period ended 60 days later, on March 20, 2020. Congress used the term "incident date" in the relevant statute (IRC Section 7508A(d))--and that it used "incident period" in other provisions contained in the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Relief Act of 2019. The Kwong case is important because it could impact refund claim deadlines for millions of Americans who may be entitled to rely on COVID-era extensions and postponements impacting billions of dollars worth of claims. For more information on the rules governing COVID-era relief, visit Tax Facts Online. Read More: Link to Q8555.