Don't Mess With Taxes

The third estimated tax payment deadline is tomorrow, Sept. 15. But this year, some usual 1040-ES filers in 10 states get more time.

Don't be jealous. Their apparent tax good fortune is due to unfortunate circumstances.

These individuals and business owners live in parts of Alabama, Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawai'i, Illinois, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Vermont that have been declared major disaster areas.

Because Mother Nature can be fickle, some states endured her wrath multiple times, meaning different disaster areas with different deadlines.

I've listed the affected areas below where taxpayers have more time to make their third estimated tax payments. But since the disasters and federal follow-up happened throughout the year, other tax deadlines also are revised.

In some cases, these new deadlines apply to original 2022 tax return filings, extension requests, earlier estimated tax deadlines, and a variety of business tax due dates.

The overview below of the new estimated tax deadlines, as well as lists of affected counties where Mother Nature wreaked havoc earlier this year, will get you through this week. The links in the state names will take you to my prior posts with more details on all the postponed tax deadlines.

You also should double check with your tax advisor or the specific Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) declarations and corresponding Internal Revenue Service announcements carefully to make sure you know all tax situations that are delayed.

Oct. 16, 2023, deadline for Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi areas hit by tornadoes, as well as severe storms in California.

The affected Alabama counties are Autauga, Barbour, Chambers, Conecuh, Coosa, Dallas, Elmore, Greene, Hale, Mobile, Morgan, Sumter, and Tallapoosa.

The affected California counties are Alameda, Colusa, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Humboldt, Kings, Lake, Los Angeles, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Merced, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Orange, Placer, Riverside, Sacramento, San Benito, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Tulare, Ventura, Yolo, and Yuba.

The affected Georgia counties are Butts, Crisp, Henry, Jasper, Meriwether, Newton, Pike, Spalding, and Troup.

The affected Mississippi counties are Adams, Amite, Attala, Claiborne, Copiah, Covington, Franklin, Greene, Holmes, Humphreys, Itawamba, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Jefferson Davis, Jones, Lawrence, Leake, Neshoba, Newton, Perry, Rankin, Scott, Simpson, Smith, Warren, Wayne, and Yazoo.

Oct. 31, 2023, deadline for those hit by storms and flooding in Alaska and Illinois.

The affected taxpayers in Alaska are in the regional educational attendance areas of Bering Strait, Copper River, Kuspuk, Lower Kuskokwim, Lower Yukon, and Yukon Flats.

The affected Illinois taxpayers reside or have a business in Cook County, which includes Chicago and several of its suburbs.

Nov. 15, 2023, deadline for Vermont taxpayers in flooded areas.

FEMA declared the entire Green Mountain State a major disaster after the historic flooding. The IRS therefore has granted all Vermont taxpayers the new mid-November tax deadline.

Feb. 15, 2024, deadline for Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina taxpayers in the path of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Idalia, as well as those who suffered damages due to the wild fires on Hawai'i's Big Island and Maui.

The Hurricane Idalia-affected Florida counties are Alachua, Baker, Bay, Bradford, Brevard, Calhoun, Charlotte, Citrus, Clay, Collier, Columbia, DeSoto, Dixie, Duval, Flagler, Franklin, Gadsden, Gilchrist, Gulf, Hamilton, Hardee, Hernando, Hillsborough, Jefferson, Lafayette, Lake, Lee, Leon, Levy, Liberty, Madison, Manatee, Marion, Nassau, Orange, Osceola, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Putnam, Sarasota, Seminole, St. Johns, Sumter, Suwannee, Taylor, Union, Volusia, and Wakulla.

Tropical Storm Idalia damages delayed filing and payments in the Georgia counties of Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Berrien, Brantley, Brooks, Bulloch, Camden, Candler, Charlton, Clinch, Coffee, Colquitt, Cook, Echols, Emanuel, Glynn, Jeff Davis, Jenkins, Lanier, Lowndes, Pierce, Screven, Tattnall, Thomas, Tift, Ware, and Wayne.

Tropical Storms Idalia's disastrous effects also were felt, and FEMA and IRS relief granted, to residents and businesses in all of South Carolina's 46 counties.

The wildfires in the United States' 50th state mean tax relief for the residents of the Hawai'ian counties, also known as the islands, of Maui and Hawai'i.

Extensions for forms only: If you live in one of these disaster areas, the filing and payment deadline for most applicable tax situations has been moved. But be careful here.

Where a new, later deadline applies to 2022 tax year filing extension requests, the payment rules still apply.

Your original extension was only for the filing of 1040 forms. You should have paid any tax you expect to owe when you got the extension to Oct. 16, which for some is now later.

The further extended filing deadline for 2022 returns does not delay any payments. If you didn't pay enough when you got the extension by April 18, 2023, any additional due tax is subject to penalty and interest charges.

Mistaken tax notice steps: The cliché nobody's perfect is still uttered because it's true. It also applies to the IRS.

While IRS relies on its taxpayer database for disaster relief, meaning it automatically provides filing and penalty relief to any taxpayer whose address of record is in the disaster area, sometimes deadline changes aren't noted agency-wide.

In some cases, taxpayers who have more time might get an IRS notice that they missed the original deadline and are facing late-filing or late-payment penalties. That happened this summer to some California taxpayers.

If this happens to disaster area delayed deadline taxpayers, don't panic. Call the number on the IRS notice to clear up your disaster-related circumstances and have the penalty abated.

State estimated taxes, too: Finally, if you also must pay estimated taxes to your state's revenue office, double check that agency's deadline.

Most states tend to follow Uncle Sam's lead when their tax deadlines are the same as the federal ones. But not always.

You can contact your state's tax department to make sure it's allowing disaster area taxpayers more time, too.

You also might find these items of interest:

• Picking up the pieces after a major disaster
• Document your property for tax, insurance claims before storms hit
• Storm Warnings: Preparing for, recovering from, and helping those affected by natural disasters

Advertisements

🌟 Search Amazon Weather Products 🌟
The text link above and image links below are affiliate ads. If you click through and then buy a product, I receive a commission.