New formal guidance from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) extends the deadline for providers of individual retirement accounts and individual retirement annuities (IRAs) to file Form 5498 in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Last week we provided an overview of important relief that the IRS issued for IRA owners and beneficiaries and IRA providers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This relief included deadline extensions until July 15, 2020 for certain actions that were or are otherwise due on or after April 1, 2020 and before July 15, 2020.

The IRS recently issued new guidance in Notice 2020-35 that further extends the July 15, 2020 deadline until August 31, 2020 for IRA trustees, custodians, and issuers to file Form 5498 (IRA Contribution Information) for 2019 with the IRS and provide a copy to IRA owners and beneficiaries. This extension also applies to Form 5498-ESA (Coverdell Contribution Information) and Form 5498-SA (HSA, Archer MSA, or Medicare Advantage MSA Information). The Notice further explains that the penalty for failure to file Form 5498 will not begin to accrue until September 1, 2020.

This is welcome news for IRA providers as this gives them more time to capture 2019 IRA contributions and recharacterizations completed by the extended July 15, 2020 deadline.

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