IRS announced today a 6-month grace period aiming to help unemployed and underemployed taxpayers. Under this rule, workers who have been unemployed for at least 30 consecutive days during 2011 or through April 17, 2012 may have their payment deadline moved to Oct 15 without penalty. The same rule applies to self-employed individuals who experienced a drop in business income of at least 25% due to the economy. The income limitations are $200k for taxpayers filing jointly or $100k for taxpayers filing single or as the head of household.The IRS also raised the maximum installment term to 72 months, up from 60 months. Taxpayers entering these new installment agreements are will need to set up a monthly debit plan in order to get the process going. For more news and updates, keep it right here at the Financial News Network. I’m Julia Sun.