IRS offers relief to fishing and archery equipment makers

The Internal Revenue Service is giving extra time to companies that make and sell sport fishing and archery equipment to file and pay their excise taxes due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

In Notice 2020-55, the IRS said Friday it’s providing expanded disaster relief, in the form of a postponement until Oct. 31, 2020, of some of the federal excise tax filing and payment deadlines, along with the associated interest, penalties and additions to tax, for taxpayers who owe a federal excise tax for sales of sport fishing or archery equipment for the first quarter of 2020.

Manufacturers and importers pay an excise tax on archery and fishing equipment. In an earlier notice from last month, Notice 2020-48, the IRS already postponed some federal tax filing and payment deadlines related to those excise taxes for the second quarter of 2020.

Federal sporting goods excise taxes apply to sport fishing equipment and bows and arrows. The taxes are reported on Form 720, Part II, for items such as fishing rods, fishing poles, electric outboard motors, fishing tackle boxes, bows, quivers, broadheads, points and arrow shafts on different line numbers on the form. An entry for each IRS line number on Form 720 constitutes a separate return. The Form 720 that’s due on April 30, 2020, covers the first calendar quarter of 2020. With the relief, the due date is now on Oct. 31, 2020.

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