Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced at the daily White House coronavirus briefing on Tuesday that the April 15 deadline for Americans to file their income taxes will now allow individuals who owe money to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to defer payment up to one million dollars with no interest or penalty fee for 90 days.

“We previously talked about deferring IRS payments,” Mnuchin said. “The president earlier this morning authorized me to announce this program.”

“I announced we would defer to one hundred billion dollars and the president suggested we increase that to $300 billion,” Mnuchin said.

Mnuchin, at the same time, encouraged people to file their taxes by the usual deadline if they can.

“We encourage the American who can file their taxes [by April 15] to continue to file their taxes because you will get tax refunds and we don’t want you to lose out,” Mnuchin said.

“Many people do this electronically, which is easy for them and the IRS,” Mnuchin said. “If you owe a payment to the IRS, you can defer up to a million dollars as an individual and the reason we are doing a million dollars is because that covers pass-throughs and businesses, and $10 million for corporations, interest free and penalty free for 90 days.”

“All you have to do is file your taxes,” Mnuchin said. “Any American has the right to extend their taxes.”

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