Hurricane Florence is battering North and South Carolina. News reports indicate “biblical” amounts of rain will fall, with catastrophic flooding probable throughout the Carolinas. Today, the IRS announced that they are extending deadlines for those in the federal disaster zone to January 31, 2019.
Hurricane Florence victims in parts of North Carolina and elsewhere have until Jan. 31, 2019, to file certain individual and business tax returns and make certain tax payments, the Internal Revenue Service announced today.
The IRS is offering this relief to any area designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as qualifying for individual assistance. Currently, this only includes parts of North Carolina, but taxpayers in localities added later to the disaster area, including those in other states, will automatically receive the same filing and payment relief. The current list of eligible localities is always available on the disaster relief page on IRS.gov.
While the list of impacted areas is a ‘work in progress’ right now (the IRS’s “Hurricane Florence” webpage doesn’t list them yet), FEMA has noted President Trump’s declaration of a disaster: Beaufort, Brunswick, Carteret, Craven, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico, and Pender Counties. As the rains continue to fall, I would expect this list to (unfortunately) lengthen.
The North Carolina Department of Revenue will almost certainly conform to the extensions. (The South Carolina Department of Revenue will, too, as impacted regions are declared a federal disaster area.)
The extension impacts all tax filings for those in the federal disaster zone:
The tax relief postpones various tax filing and payment deadlines that occurred starting on Sept. 7, 2018 in North Carolina. As a result, affected individuals and businesses will have until Jan. 31, 2019, to file returns and pay any taxes that were originally due during this period.
This includes quarterly estimated income tax payments due on Sept. 17, 2018, and the quarterly payroll and excise tax returns normally due on Sept. 30, 2018. Businesses with extensions also have the additional time including, among others, calendar-year partnerships whose 2017 extensions run out on Sept. 17, 2018. Taxpayers who had a valid extension to file their 2017 return due to run out on Oct. 15, 2018 will also have more time to file.
In addition, penalties on payroll and excise tax deposits due on or after Sept. 7, 2018, and before Sept. 24, 2018, will be abated as long as the deposits are made by Sept. 24, 2018.
