Alaska flood victims get IRS tax relief

Individuals and businesses in the Juneau, Alaska, area affected by flooding from last Aug. 5 now have until May 1, 2025, to file various federal individual and business returns and make tax payments.   

The IRS offers relief to any area designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and this currently includes the City and Borough of Juneau. Individuals and households that reside or have a business in this locality qualify for tax relief.

The same relief will apply to other localities later added to the disaster area. The current list of eligible localities is on the Tax Relief in Disaster Situations page on IRS.gov. 

The relief postpones various filing and payment deadlines from last Aug. 5 through next May 1. Affected individuals and businesses will have until May 1, 2025, to file returns and pay any taxes originally due during this period.

This means, for example, that the May deadline now applies to: 

• Any 2024 individual or business tax return normally due during March or April 2025.
• Any individual, business or tax-exempt organization that has a valid extension to file their 2023 federal return. Payments on these returns are not eligible for the extra time because they were due last spring, before the flooding. 
• 2024 quarterly estimated income tax payments normally due on Sept. 16, 2024, and Jan. 15, 2025, and 2025 quarterly estimated tax payments normally due on April 15, 2025.
• Quarterly payroll and excise tax returns normally due on Oct. 31, 2024, and Jan. 31 and April 30, 2025. 

Penalties for failing to make payroll and excise tax deposits due on or after Aug. 5, 2024, and before Aug. 20, 2024, will also be abated if the deposits were made by Aug. 20, 2024. 

The IRS disaster assistance and emergency relief for individuals and businesses page has details on other returns, payments and tax-related actions qualifying for relief during the postponement period.  

The IRS automatically provides filing and penalty relief to any taxpayer with an address of record in the disaster area. If an affected taxpayer does not have an address in the area (because, for example, they moved to the area after filing their return), and they receive a late-filing or late-payment penalty notice from the IRS for the postponement period, they should call the number on the notice to have the penalty abated.

The agency will work with any taxpayer who lives outside the disaster area but has records necessary to meet a deadline occurring during the postponement period in the affected area. Qualifying taxpayers who live outside the disaster area should call the IRS at (866) 562-5227, including workers assisting the relief activities who are with a recognized government or philanthropic organization.

Tax preparers in the disaster area with clients who are outside the disaster area can use the Bulk Requests From Practitioners for Disaster Relief option described on IRS.gov.

Individuals and businesses in a federally declared disaster area who suffered uninsured or unreimbursed disaster-related losses can choose to claim them on either the tax return for the year the loss occurred (in this instance, the 2024 return normally filed next year), or the return for the prior year (2023, filed this year). 

Taxpayers have up to six months after the due date of the taxpayer’s federal income tax return for the disaster year (without regard to any extension of time to file) to make the election. For individual taxpayers, this means Oct. 15, 2025. 

Taxpayers and tax preparers should write the FEMA declaration number, 4836-DR, on any return claiming a loss.