The IRS took action quickly after Hurricane Helene traveled 400+ miles, claiming lives and wreaking havoc in the Southeast. This article summarizes important information about deadline extension and penalty relief. 

Filing Deadline Extensions for Hurricane Helene

Disaster relief currently applies to individuals and businesses in all of Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina, and parts of Florida, Tennessee and Virginia. (Any updates to the list of eligible locations can be found HERE.)

Taxpayers in these areas now have until May 1, 2025, to file various federal individual and business tax returns and make tax payments. [1] That date is particularly noteworthy as it’s after the traditional 2024 tax return filing deadline of April 15, 2025.

According to the IRS, this extension includes:

  • 2024 individual and business tax returns normally due during March and April 2025
  • 2023 individual and corporate tax returns with valid extensions, including those returns already granted an extension of time to file until February 3, 2025 under previous IRS disaster relief for Hurricane Debby 2024 quarterly estimated income tax payments normally due on January 15, 2025 and December 16, 2024
  • 2025 quarterly estimated income tax payments normally due on April 15, 2025
  • Other 2024 and 2025 business tax filings, including tax-exempt organizations, with deadlines that occurred beginning September 22 through September 26th, 2024 (depends on particular state, refer to IRS link below for more detail) and before May 1, 2025 

This disaster tax relief applies to individual, corporate, estate, and trust income tax returns; partnership returns, S-corporation returns, and trust returns; estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax returns; annual information returns of tax-exempt organizations; Form 5500 series returns, and employment and certain excise tax returns.

Unless revised later by the IRS, this postponement of time to file and pay does not apply to information returns in the W-2, 1094, 1095, 1097, 1098 or 1099 series; Forms 1042-S, 3921, 3922 or 8027; or employment and excise tax deposits. 

Automatic & Manual Relief Requests

The IRS will automatically identify and apply relief to taxpayers located in the disaster area.

Those who have been affected, but reside or conduct business outside the designated area, should call the IRS disaster hotline at 866-562-5227 to request relief. Tax preparers with clients outside the disaster area can use bulk requests for disaster relief as outlined on the IRS website.

Relief for Retirement Plan Participants

Additional relief may be available for retirement plan or IRA participants, including special disaster distributions and hardship withdrawals. Each plan has specific rules and guidance.

Taxpayers contacted by the IRS for collection or examination should inform the IRS of how the disaster impacts them to receive appropriate consideration.

Other Tax Relief for Hurricane Helene

Uninsured or Unreimbursed Losses

Disaster-related losses in this category can be claimed by individuals and businesses in official disaster areas in the following ways:

  • Claim losses on your 2024 return that will be filed next year
  • Claim losses on your 2023 return (filed this year)

Special Disaster Distributions from Retirement Accounts 

Taxpayers impacted by Hurricane Helene who participate in a retirement plan or an IRA may be eligible to take a special disaster distribution or make a hardship withdrawal. 

Such a distribution is not subject to the 10% early distribution tax. See the specific rules of your retirement plan for more details.

What About Areas Also Impacted by Hurricane Debby?

Any FEMA-designated area impacted by Hurricane Helene that received relief earlier this year following Hurricane  Debby will now have those deadlines further postponed until May 1, 2025. Please refer to our earlier article from August 13 on Hurricane Debby tax relief.

State tax relief in the impacted areas

The majority of the state Departments of Revenue in the impacted areas have also adopted similar Hurricane Helene tax relief in their jurisdictions or are in the process of finalizing their plans.  

Most of these states will eventually follow the IRS extended May 1, 2025 tax deadline. There may be some variations with regard to how the penalties and interest are calculated on late tax payments originally due during or before the eligible period.  

Please refer to the various state Department of Revenue websites for the latest Hurricane Helene tax relief updates.   

Learn More

Eligible individuals can get free tax help:

For more details, taxpayers can visit IRS.gov or contact the tax team at PBMares. 

References

[1] irs.gov