The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced significant tax relief for victims of Hurricane Harvey. Those in Texas who have been affected by the storm have until January 31, 2018, to file certain individual and business tax returns and make certain tax payments. This includes an additional filing extension for taxpayers with valid extensions through October 16, and businesses with extensions through September 15.
Currently, the IRS said that affected taxpayers in Aransas, Bee, Brazoria, Calhoun, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Goliad, Harris, Jackson, Kleberg, Liberty, Matagorda, Nueces, Refugio, San Patricio, Victoria and Wharton counties would receive this and other special tax relief. Locations in other states are expected to be added in coming days, based on damage assessments by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). I’ll update the list of affected counties as information is made available.
“This has been a devastating storm, and the IRS will move quickly to provide tax relief to hurricane victims,” said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. “The IRS will continue to closely monitor the storm’s aftermath, and we anticipate providing additional relief for other affected areas in the near future.”
Here’s what the relief entails: tax filing and payment deadlines which began starting on August 23, 2017, will be pushed off until January 31, 2018. That means that returns and payments that were originally due during this period, including the September 15, 2017, and January 16, 2018, deadlines for making quarterly estimated tax payments, will now be January 31, 2018. This also includes returns on extension. Remember, however, that the extensions were an extension of the time to file, not the time to pay, so payments for 2016 tax returns are still keyed to the April 18, 2017, due date.
Relief also includes a waiver of late-deposit penalties for federal payroll and excise tax deposits normally due on or after October 31, 2017. The IRS is waiving late-deposit penalties for federal payroll and excise tax deposits normally due on or after August 23 and before September 7 so long as those deposits are made by September 7, 2017.
The IRS automatically provides filing and penalty relief to any taxpayer with an IRS address of record located in the disaster area. That means that taxpayers do not need to contact the IRS to get this relief. However, if you receive a late filing or late payment penalty notice from the IRS and were entitled to relief, you should call the number on the notice to have the penalty abated.
The IRS will work with any taxpayer who lives outside the disaster area but whose records are located in the affected area. Taxpayers qualifying for relief who live outside the disaster area need to contact the IRS at 1.866.562.5227. This includes those workers assisting the relief activities who are affiliated with a recognized government or charitable organization.
Individuals and businesses who suffered uninsured or unreimbursed disaster-related losses can choose to claim them on either the return for the year the loss occurred – in this instance, the 2017 return normally filed next year – or the return for the prior year (2016). (I’ll have more details on casualty losses later today.)
For more details on available tax relief, you can also check out the disaster relief page on IRS.gov. For information on government-wide efforts related to Hurricane Harvey, please visit https://www.usa.gov/hurricane-harvey.
