WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service announced today tax relief for individuals and businesses in parts of California affected by severe storms and flooding that began on Jan. 21.

 

These taxpayers now have until June 17, 2024, to file various federal individual and business tax returns and make tax payments.

The IRS is offering relief to any area designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Currently, this includes San Diego County. Individuals and households that reside or have a business in this locality qualify for tax relief.

 

The same relief will be available to any other California localities added later to the disaster area. The current list of eligible localities is always available on the disaster relief page on IRS.gov.

 

Filing and payment relief
The tax relief postpones various tax filing and payment deadlines that occurred from Jan. 21, 2024, through June 17, 2024 (postponement period). As a result, affected individuals and businesses will have until June 17, 2024, to file returns and pay any taxes that were originally due during this period.

 

This means, for example, that the June 17, 2024, deadline will now apply to:

 

  • Individual income tax returns and payments normally due on April 15, 2024.

 

  • 2023 contributions to IRAs and health savings accounts for eligible taxpayers.

 

  • 2024 estimated tax payments normally due on April 15, 2024.

 

  • Quarterly payroll and excise tax returns normally due on Jan. 31 and April 30, 2024.

 

  • Calendar-year partnership and S corporation returns normally due on March 15, 2024.

 

  • Calendar-year corporation and fiduciary returns and payments normally due on April 15, 2024.

 

  • Calendar-year tax-exempt organization returns normally due on May 15, 2024.

 

 

Also, penalties for failing to make payroll and excise tax deposits due on or after Jan. 21, 2024, and before Feb. 5, 2024, will be abated as long as the deposits were made by Feb. 5, 2024.

 

The IRS disaster relief page has details on other returns, payments and tax-related actions qualifying for relief during the postponement period.

 

The IRS automatically provides filing and penalty relief to any taxpayer with an IRS address of record located in the disaster area. These taxpayers do not need to contact the agency to get this relief.

 

It is possible an affected taxpayer may not have an IRS address of record located in the disaster area, for example, because they moved to the disaster area after filing their return. In these kinds of unique circumstances, the affected taxpayer could receive a late filing or late payment penalty notice from the IRS for the postponement period. The taxpayer should call the number on the notice to have the penalty abated.

 

In addition, the IRS will work with any taxpayer who lives outside the disaster area but whose records necessary to meet a deadline occurring during the postponement period are located in the affected area. Taxpayers qualifying for relief who live outside the disaster area need to contact the IRS at 866-562-5227. This also includes workers assisting the relief activities who are affiliated with a recognized government or philanthropic organization.

 

Reminder about extensions
The IRS urges anyone who needs an additional tax-filing extension, beyond June 17, 2024, for their 2023 federal income tax return to request it electronically by April 15, 2024. Though a disaster-area taxpayer qualifies to request an extension between April 15, 2024, and June 17, 2024, a request filed during this period can only be submitted on paper. Whether requested electronically or on paper, the taxpayer will then have until Oct. 15, 2024, to file, though payments are still due on June 17, 2024. Visit IRS.gov/Extensions for details.

 

Additional tax relief
Individuals and businesses in a federally declared disaster area 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 2024 return normally filed next year), or the return for the prior year (2023, normally filed this year). Taxpayers have extra time – up to six months after the due date of the taxpayer’s federal income tax return for the disaster year (without regard to any extension of time to file) – to make the election. For individual taxpayers, this means Oct. 15, 2025. Be sure to write the FEMA declaration number – 4758-DR − on any return claiming a loss. See Publication 547, Casualties, Disasters, and Thefts, for details.

 

Qualified disaster relief payments are generally excluded from gross income. In general, this means that affected 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 for the repair or replacement of its contents. See Publication 525, Taxable and Nontaxable Income, for details.