The IRS has offered relief to any area designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). It said the list includes all of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, as well as 41 counties in Florida, eight counties in Tennessee, and six counties and one city in Virginia. The current list of eligible localities can be found on IRS.gov’s Tax relief in disaster situations page.
Taxpayers in these areas have until May 1, 2025, to file various federal individual and business tax returns and make tax payments. These include 2024 individual and business returns normally due during March and April 2025, 2023 individual and corporate returns with valid extensions and quarterly estimated tax payments.
According to the IRS, the tax relief postpones various tax filing and payment deadlines starting Sept. 22 in Alabama; Sept. 23 in Florida; Sept. 24 in Georgia; Sept. 25 in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia; and Sept. 26 in Tennessee.
The relief period ends on May 1, 2025 in all these states. As a result, impacted individuals and businesses will have until that date to file returns and pay any taxes that were originally due during this period.
The relief postponement means, for example, that the May 1, 2025 deadline now applies to the following:
• Any individual or business that has a 2024 return usually due during March or April 2025.
• Any individual, business or tax-exempt organization that has a valid extension can file their 2023 federal return. However, payments on these returns are not eligible for the extra time since they were due last spring, prior to the hurricane.
• 2024 quarterly estimated income tax payments normally due on Jan. 15, 2025, and 2025 estimated tax payments normally due on April 15, 2025.
• Quarterly payroll and excise tax returns normally due on Oct. 31, 2024, and Jan. 31 and April 30, 2025.
The IRS is also providing penalty relief to businesses that make payroll and excise tax deposits. Relief periods vary by state. The Around the Nation page provides the details.
The Disaster assistance and emergency relief for individuals and businesses page covers the details on other returns, payments, and tax-related actions qualifying for relief during the postponement period. The delay means that, among other things, any of these areas that previously received relief after Tropical Storm Debby will now have those deadlines further postponed to May 1, 2025.
The IRS automatically offers filing and penalty relief to taxpayers with an IRS address of record in the disaster area. These taxpayers do not need to contact the agency to get this relief.
Impacted taxpayers may need an IRS address of record in the disaster area because they moved to the disaster area after filing their return. In these instances, the taxpayer could receive a late filing or payment penalty notice from the IRS for the postponement period. The taxpayer should call the number on the notice to have the penalty abated.
The IRS will also work with any taxpayer who lives outside the disaster area but whose records are necessary to meet a deadline during the postponement period and are located in the affected area. Taxpayers qualifying for relief living outside the disaster area must contact the IRS at 866-562-5227.
The coverage also includes workers affiliated with a recognized government or philanthropic organization who assist in relief activities. Disaster area tax preparers with clients outside the disaster area can use IRS.gov's Bulk Requests from Practitioners for Disaster Relief option.
Individuals and businesses in a federally declared disaster area who suffered uninsured or unreimbursed disaster-related losses can claim them on either the return for the year the loss happened or the return for the previous year, which is the 2023 return filed this year. Taxpayers have extra time—up to six months after the due date of their federal income tax return for the disaster year (disregarding any extension of the filing time)—to make the election. For individual taxpayers, this means Oct. 15, 2025. They should write the FEMA declaration number on any return claiming a loss. Details are located in Publication 547, Casualties, Disasters, and Thefts.
Qualified disaster relief payments are usually excluded from gross income. Generally, the exclusion means that impacted taxpayers can exclude from their gross income amounts received from a government agency for reasonable and necessary personal, family, living or funeral expenses, as well as for the repair or rehabilitation of their home or the repair or replacement of its contents. Details are available at Publication 525, Taxable and Nontaxable Income.
Additional relief might be available to affected taxpayers with retirement plans or individual retirement arrangements. For instance, taxpayers may be eligible to take a special disaster distribution that would not be subject to the added 10% early distribution tax and would let them spread the income over three years. They may also be eligible to make hardship withdrawals. Each plan or IRA has specific rules and guidance for its participants to follow.
The tax relief is part of a coordinated federal response to the damage caused by this storm and is based on FEMA's local damage assessments.
The IRS new release also includes information about several tax return preparation options for eligible taxpayers.