Climate change is extending tax season, according to The Washington Post.
Natural disasters have pushed back tax deadlines all around the country, prompting an overall "migration of fiscal deadlines," explains Rob Moore at the Natural Resources Defense Council to the Post. Climate change has been proven to worsen natural disasters by making them more frequent and intense.
Since 2021, the Internal Revenue Service has postponed the tax filing deadline for areas in 15 different states due to natural disasters. "If you had a tornado tear through a county a few weeks before the filing deadline, you do not want people to choose between the extremely important decisions they have to make for their family in that moment and timely tax filing," remarks Jared Walczak of the think tank Tax Foundation.
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Average global temperatures have been steadily rising, inching towards the United Nations threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. With each added bit of warmth, the climate effects become more pronounced and dangerous. "Things are kind of tilted more and more in favor of weather events that we would have once considered improbable," Moore continues. Scientist Katharine Hayhoe of the Nature Conservancy adds, "The risks are increasing no matter where we live."
"We have to talk about how climate change is affecting our taxes, our vacations, our homes, our jobs, our kids, our health," comments Hayhoe. "Every aspect of our lives is being affected." Though next year may bring natural disasters that affect different states or regions, the trend of a longer and more complicated tax season for some Americans is likely here to stay.
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