Tax season is well under way, but like every year there are some territories that have been negatively impacted by weather phenomenon and natural disasters that impede residents from filing taxes on a timely fashion.
The latest tax relief announced by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) this year pertains to individuals and businesses in parts of West Virginia affected by severe storms, straight-line winds, flooding, landslides and mudslides that began on Feb. 15, 2025.
The counties affected are Greenbrier, Lincoln, Logan, McDowell, Mercer, Mingo, Monroe, Summers, Wayne and Wyoming, and residents and business owners in the area will receive an automatic extension to file their taxes until Nov. 3, 2025. These counties that receive the extension have been designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) based on the damages that have occurred until now, but other counties may be added later on as situations develop.
The IRS’s guidelines for the relief
Not all IRS filings have the same deadlines, and so there is a long list of tax filing and payment deadlines that have been postponed, starting with deadlines that were established to Feb. 15, 2025, through Nov. 3, 2025, which is the new due date for the returns. This deadline will now apply to:
- Individual income tax returns and payments normally due on April 15, 2025.
- 2024 contributions to IRAs and health savings accounts for eligible taxpayers.
- Quarterly estimated tax payments normally due on April 15, June 16 and Sept. 15, 2025.
- Quarterly payroll and excise tax returns normally due on April 30, July 31 and Oct. 31, 2025.
- Calendar-year partnership and S corporation returns normally due on March 17, 2025.
- Calendar-year corporation and fiduciary returns and payments normally due on April 15, 2025.
- Calendar-year tax-exempt organization returns normally due on May 15, 2025.
- In addition, penalties for failing to make payroll and excise tax deposits due on or after Feb. 15, 2025, and before March 3, 2025, will be abated as long as the deposits were made by March 3, 2025.
For those who are concerned about getting the extension, you should not be worried as long as you live in one of the aforementioned counties, as the IRS will automatically apply the new deadline to your filings without your needing to notify them. However, if you are in one of the neighboring counties and have been affected by the disaster as well, you will need to notify the authorities of your inability to file on time.
By doing so you will ensure that you do not incur in any extra fines or late penalties that may have applied under less dire circumstances, and because the more severe areas will have received automatic assistance, the rest of the affected areas will be able to file their extension requests a lot quicker as the system will not be too overwhelmed.
Those who believe that they qualify for relieve even if they are outside of the designated area should contact the IRS Special Services toll-free number at 866-562-5227. According to the IRS website this does not just include residents or businesses “This also includes workers assisting the relief activities who are affiliated with a recognized government”.
People and businesses affected by a federally declared disaster who have uninsured or unreimbursed losses can decide whether to claim them on their tax return for the year the disaster happened—filed the following year—or on the prior year’s return. In this case, losses from 2025 can be reported on either the 2025 tax return (filed in 2026) or the 2024 return.
Taxpayers have an extended window to make this decision, with up to six months beyond the standard filing deadline for the disaster year’s federal tax return (not counting any filing extensions). For individuals, that deadline falls on October 15, 2026.
When claiming a disaster-related loss, it’s essential to include the FEMA declaration number 4861-DR on the return. More information on handling casualty, disaster, and theft-related losses is available in Publication 547.
