IRS Gives Extra Time To Californians & Others In Disaster Areas

If you live in California or certain other disaster areas, watch your mail. The IRS is sending a special follow-up mailing to taxpayers in several states affected by disasters to let them know that they have additional time to pay their taxes. The IRS is taking this special step to help reassure taxpayers affected by disasters that they do have extra time to file and pay their taxes. This new mailing is going to residents in California and seven other states in designated disaster areas that received a CP14 notice from the IRS in late May and June.

The earlier mailings are for taxpayers who have a balance due, and they are sent out as a legal requirement. While the notice received by taxpayers says they need to pay in 21 days, these taxpayers actually have until later this year to timely pay under the disaster declaration. In short, the new notices are good news, intended to make sure that these taxpayers have more time. The mailings (in English and Spanish), known as a CP14CL, will occur during the next few weeks.

The notice is going to affected people in eight states includes additional information to help taxpayers understand the disaster relief they’ve received. The new notice includes the following: “Since your address of record is located in a federally declared disaster area, the IRS has automatically granted you disaster relief. This gives you an extension of time to file your tax returns as well as make your tax payment listed on the CP14 Notices. You do not need to contact us to get this extra time to pay.”

The vast majority of letter recipients are in California, with smaller numbers of taxpayers scheduled to receive the follow-up letter in disaster areas in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.

The IRS has also updated the insert that will accompany upcoming CP14 balance-due notices to make it clearer that the payment date listed in the letter does not apply to those covered by a disaster declaration, and the disaster dates remain in effect. The IRS is also including a special QR code that takes people to the IRS.gov disaster page.