Despite federal extension, state says it won’t budge on its tax filing deadline

HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - The state says it won’t change the tax filing deadline, even though the IRS has given taxpayers an additional month to prepare their taxes.

The state Department of Taxation said Tuesday that the filing deadline for 2020 remains April 20.

Federal taxes are due May 17.

Taxpayers can get an automatic six-month extension if:

The taxpayer is due a refund;
or the taxpayer pays the “properly estimated tax” by April 20

Taxpayers who can’t pay the properly estimated tax amount are being told to pay as much as they can.

A Taxation Department spokesperson said there were “many factors” that went into the agency’s decision not to extend the tax deadline to match the federal extension.

“Most importantly,” the spokesperson said, “the department believes that since Hawaii already has an automatic six-month extension, following the IRS 30-day postponement was unwarranted.”