IRS Extends Tax Deadline in for Millions of People After FEMA Disaster Declarations

A copy of an IRS 1040 tax form is seen at an H&R Block office in Miami, Fla., on Dec. 22, 2017. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said that some New York residents who were impacted by storms that slammed the western and upstate portions of the state qualify for tax relief and don’t have to file their federal taxes for another month.

Residents who live in any New York county that was “designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as a result of storms that occurred between Dec. 23 and Dec. 28, 2022,” can receive relief, said the tax agency on Friday in a news release.

It applies to individuals, households, or businesses in Erie, Genesee, Niagara, St. Lawrence, and Suffolk counties, according to the agency. In all, more than 2.5 million people live in those counties.

“The tax relief postpones various tax filing and payment deadlines that occurred starting on Dec. 23, 2022. As a result, affected individuals and businesses will have until May 15, 2023, to file returns and pay any taxes that were originally due during this period,” the IRS said.

The agency’s current list of eligible localities is available on the disaster relief page on the IRS’s website.

“This includes 2022 individual income tax returns due on April 18, as well as various 2022 business returns normally due on March 15 and April 18,” the release said. “Among other things, this means that eligible taxpayers will have until May 15 to make 2022 contributions to their IRAs and health savings accounts.”

Also, farmers who opt to forgo making estimated tax payments and who normally file tax returns by March 1 will have until May 15 to do so to file their 2022 return and pay their taxes that may be due. The May deadline applies to the quarterly estimated payments that are normally due on Jan. 17, 2023, and April 18, 2023, said the release.

Starting Dec. 23, a strong storm system brought heavy lake-effect snow with blizzard conditions to the Buffalo area, leaving dozens of people dead. Reports indicated that some places in Erie County, where Buffalo is located, received more than four and a half feet of snow in a several-day span.

Authorities confirmed to media outlets that more than 39 people died in the blizzard, ranked as one of the most severe to hit Buffalo and other parts of western New York in decades. “This will go down in history as the most devastating storm in Buffalo’s long storied history of having battled … many, many major storms,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said late last year.

“We knew that this was going to be a significant high-impact storm,” Heather Kenyon, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Buffalo office, told ABC News at the time. “We saw the combination of lake-effect snow and very strong winds, and so we were expecting blizzard conditions and really messaged that this was going to be a once-in-a-generation-type storm.”

An abandoned vehicle sits along Southwestern Boulevard in West Seneca, outside Buffalo, New York on Dec. 26, 2022. (John Normile/Getty Images)

Other Delays

Several weeks ago, meanwhile, the IRS delayed the tax filing deadline for individuals who live in certain areas in California, Alabama, and Georgia due to recent natural disasters that occurred in those states.

A series of tornadoes tore through swaths of Alabama and Georgia in January and February. Since December, large swaths of California have been dealing with widespread flooding sparked by an “atmospheric river” system that dumped heavy rain and snow on the state.

“The IRS is offering relief to any area designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in these three states,” according to an IRS news release issued in February. “There are four different eligible FEMA declarations, and the start dates and other details vary for each of these disasters.”

Under the new guidance issued by the agency, taxpayers in parts of Alabama, California, and Georgia won’t have to file their taxes until Oct. 16.

“The declaration permits the IRS to postpone certain tax-filing and tax-payment deadlines for taxpayers who reside or have a business in the disaster area. For instance, certain deadlines falling on or after December 27, 2022, and before October 16, 2023, are granted additional time to file through October 16, 2023,” the release reads.

But for everyone else, April 18 is the deadline to file taxes. The federal tax-filing deadline is normally April 15, but the date falls on a Saturday while the following Monday, April 17, is recognized as Emancipation Day in Washington, D.C.