Don't Mess With Taxes

Image courtesy IRS

It's Thanksgiving week! Nov. 25 is circled in green for go by families across the United States. They finally will see their COVID vaccinated families and friends in person for the first time in almost two years.

But folks in parts of California and all of Mississippi need to mark another calendar date a bit farther down the road. Jan. 3, 2022, is the new 2020 tax year deadline for them.

UPDATE, Dec. 22, 2021: Victims of Hurricane Ida in six states — including Mississippi — who were looking at Jan. 3, 2022, deadlines now have until Feb. 15, 2022, to file various individual and business tax returns and make tax payments.

Yep, we're well past October's extended filing deadline and other Internal Revenue Service due dates, but the tax ramifications of major disasters continue to be felt.

Jan. 3, 2022, new tax deadline: Last week, the IRS announced that more wildfire victims in parts of California have until Jan. 3, 2022, to file various individual and business tax returns and make tax payments. This new extension applies to wildfire-affected individual and business taxpayers in the Golden State counties of Lassen, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Tehama, and Trinity.

That same early next year deadline also now applies to all taxpayers in Mississippi, a state hard hit by major Hurricane Ida.

The IRS due date extensions were prompted by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) additional declarations of major disasters due to California fires that started back in July … 

… and Hurricane Ida, which made landfall in Louisiana in late August and then moved, as a diminishing hurricane then tropical storm and then remnants, east-northeast across the country.

Back in October, the IRS extended the relief to more Magnolia State filers, then this past week decided it was available to all Mississippians.

And, as noted in the Dec. 22 update earlier in this post, this Ida-related relief to all Mississippi residents now is pushed to Feb. 15, 2022.

What's extended: Long-time readers, and even though who are new (welcome!) to the ol' blog, know the drill here.

If you live in the newly designated disaster areas, got an extension to file your 2020 tax returns, and missed that Oct. 15 due date, you now have until Jan. 3, 2022, to get Form 1040 etc. to the IRS without incurring any late-filing penalty.

The January deadline also applies to quarterly estimated income tax payments that were due on Sept. 15, and, for affected businesses, the quarterly payroll and excise tax returns normally due on Nov. 1 (and the Aug. 2 deadline, too, for California firms).

There's no need to call the IRS or make special notes on your filed-even-later paperwork. Tax filing and penalty relief is automatically applied by the tax agency to all taxpayers whose IRS address of record is in the disaster areas.

Time shifting disaster claims: Finally, these new FEMA declarations and IRS tax relief mean that more taxpayers in California and Mississippi now can claim uninsured losses related to the fires and hurricane.

You also have the choice to claim the allowable disaster-related losses on either the return for the year the loss occurred — in these instances, that's your 2021 return normally filed next year — or the return for the prior tax year — which is 2020, either the extended one you now have until Jan. 3, 2022, to file or an amended one using Form 1040-X.

You can find the details on filing a major disaster loss claim in my earlier post on what to consider when making a major disaster tax claim.

If you do file a disaster loss claim, be sure to write the FEMA declaration number on the return. That will alert the IRS that you need the provided tax relief as soon as possible. For Mississippi filers that's EM-4626 for this latest relief; for Californians, it's DR-4610.

Just the latest January filers: The California and Mississippi taxpayers who now have until Jan. 3, 2022, to file are just the latest to get more time to meet some 2020 tax year deadlines.

Jan. 3, 2022, also is due date for certain taxpayers in Tennessee who were affected by severe storms and flooding, as well as other Hurricane Ida victims in Louisiana, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

That's why Jan. 3, 2022, is this week's By the Numbers figure. So, as noted at the top of this post, mark your New Year calendar. And don't worry. I'll remind you again before that first Monday in 2022 arrives.

You also might find these items of interest:

• Tracking down tax records to file a disaster claim
• IRS and other government resources can help you deal with a natural disaster
• Storm Warnings: Preparing for, recovering from & helping those affected by natural disasters

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