The IRS provides taxpayer relief for victims of weather disasters in certain CA, GA, and AL counties

The IRS announced it is postponing many tax deadlines for taxpayers living in certain counties of California, Georgia, and Alabama that experienced severe damage from weather events in 2022.

Which deadlines are impacted?

This tax relief provides that certain tax filings and payments whose original deadlines fall on or after December 27, 2022, and before October 16, 2023, are now due on October 16. More specifically, here are the tax returns and estimated tax payments that are deferred to October:

Tax returns
No filing extensions are required

• 2022 federal and California individual tax returns
• 2022 federal and California trust tax returns
• 2022 federal and California partnership or LLC tax returns
• 2022 federal and California S-Corporation tax returns
• 2022 federal and California corporate tax returns
• 1^st–3^rd quarter 2023 quarterly payroll and excise tax returns

Estimated tax payments

• 4^th quarter 2022 estimated tax payments – if not already paid
• 1^st quarter 2023 federal and California estimated tax payments
• 2^nd quarter 2023 federal and California estimated tax payments
• 3^rd quarter 2023 federal and California estimated tax payments

In addition to the above, the following may also be deferred until October 16, 2023

• 2022 IRA contributions
• 2022 HSA contributions

Which taxpayers are impacted?

In California, the provisions apply to individuals residing and businesses located in designated counties in California. The counties covered are Alameda, Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Contra Costa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Humboldt, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Lake, Los Angeles, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Merced, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Orange, Placer, Plumas, Riverside, Sacramento, San Benito, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tulare, Tuolumne, Ventura, Yolo and Yuba.

In Georgia, the counties covered are Butts, Crisp, Henry, Jasper, Meriwether, Newton, Pike, Spalding, and Troup.

In Alabama, the counties covered are Autauga, Barbour, Chambers, Conecuh, Coosa, Dallas, Elmore, Greene, Hale, Mobile, Morgan, Sumter, and Tallapoosa

Will GA and AL conform with the new IRS deadlines? Please note that so far, Georgia and Alabama have not yet adopted the postponed filing deadline of October 16, 2023. While we anticipate they will eventually conform to this date, in these states, the postponed filing deadline, established under initial disaster relief provisions issued previously, is May 15, 2023. Check your state’s tax website or consult with your tax preparer for updates on this front.

With the postponed filing deadlines, and because no tax return extensions are required to be filed, taxpayers covered by this relief will not experience the normal flurry of activity around the traditional March 15 and April 15 deadlines. Instead, the tax filing experience will be reminiscent of the first year of COVID 19, when deadlines for tax returns and estimated tax payments were postponed until July of 2020. Impacted taxpayers should be mindful to plan for the delayed payments and build an appropriate cash reserve to cover payments for 2022 and 2023 taxes as the year continues. Taxpayers who benefit from quarterly tax planning may want to prepare estimates in the August to September period, with a plan of paying 2023 Q1 – Q3 estimated tax payments with a single tax payment at 10/16/23.

More disaster relief

Individuals who suffered property damage as the result of these severe weather events have the option of claiming disaster-related casualty losses on their federal income tax returns for either the year in which the event occurred, or the prior year.