In the wake of the devastating hurricanes that have ravaged Florida and the Southeast in recent weeks, the Internal Revenue Service today reassured victims that it stands ready to provide the tax-related assistance they need to recover from these storms.

IRS.gov has a variety of information to help disaster victims navigate common situations in the aftermath of disasters. The IRS also has a special hotline specifically dedicated to taxpayers with disaster-related tax questions; disaster victims can call the agency’s disaster hotline at 866-562-5227.

Here is a rundown on tax help available from the IRS.

More time to file and pay

The IRS automatically gives taxpayers whose address of record is in a disaster-area locality more time to file returns and pay taxes. Taxpayers get the extra time without having to ask for it.

• Currently, taxpayers in the entire states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, and parts of Tennessee and Virginia, who received extensions to file their 2023 returns have until May 1, 2025, to file. Tax-year 2023 tax payments are not eligible for this extension. In addition, May 1 is also the deadline for filing 2024 returns and paying any tax due.

The IRS is offering relief to any area designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The current list of eligible localities is always available on the Tax relief in disaster situations page on IRS.gov.

This page also provides disaster updates and links to resources, and information is usually available on the IRS Twitter (now X) account as well.

Disaster payments usually tax-free

Qualified disaster relief payments are generally excluded from gross income. In general, this means that affected taxpayers can exclude from their gross income amounts received from a government agency for reasonable and necessary personal, family, living or funeral expenses, as well as for the repair or rehabilitation of their home, or for the repair or replacement of its contents. See Publication 525, Taxable and Nontaxable Income, for details.

Retirement plan help

Additional relief may be available to affected taxpayers who participate in a retirement plan or individual retirement arrangement (IRA). For example, a taxpayer may be eligible to take a special disaster distribution that would not be subject to the additional 10% early distribution tax and allows the taxpayer to spread the income over three years. Taxpayers may also be eligible to make a hardship withdrawal. Each plan or IRA has specific rules and guidance for their participants to follow.

Disaster loss deduction may be available

In some instances, individuals and businesses in a federally-declared disaster area can qualify for a casualty loss tax deduction. The deduction is available for damaged or destroyed property not covered by insurance or other reimbursement and can result in a larger refund.

A unique feature of this deduction is that taxpayers can choose to claim it on either the return for the year the loss occurred (in this instance, the 2024 return normally filed next year), or the return for the prior year

(the 2023 return filed this year). For individual taxpayers, the deadline for making this election is Oct. 15, 2025.

If deductions exceed a taxpayer’s income, it can result in a net operating loss (NOL). A taxpayer need not have a business to have a NOL from a casualty. A NOL can normally be carried forward and deducted in a future tax year. See Publication 547, Casualties, Disasters, and Thefts and Publication 536, Net Operating Losses (NOLs) for Individuals, Estates, and Trusts, for details.

Free tax transcripts available

The IRS reminds anyone whose tax records were lost or destroyed, or who needs tax records to apply for disaster assistance that they can get a free transcript of their returns from the IRS. Immediate access to these transcripts is available through the Get Transcript link on IRS.gov. Alternatively, taxpayers can use Get Transcript to request that transcripts be mailed to them. They can also call 800-908-9946 to request mail delivery or submit Form 4506-T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return.

As a reminder, taxpayers must have filed all required tax returns in order to qualify for disaster loans or grants for business owners, homeowners and renters from the Small Business Administration.

Free copy of tax return

Disaster-area taxpayers can get a free copy of their tax return by filing Form 4506, Request for Copy of Tax Return. The IRS waives the usual fees and expedites requests for copies of returns for people who need them to apply for disaster-related benefits or to file amended returns claiming disaster-related losses. To speed processing, be sure to notate that this is a disaster-related request and list the state and type of event.

Address change

After a disaster, people might need to temporarily relocate. Those who move should notify the IRS of their new address by submitting Form 8822, Change of Address.

Disaster hotline

Taxpayers with disaster-related tax questions can call the agency’s disaster hotline at 866-562-5227.

Taxpayers should also call this number if they live outside the disaster area but believe they qualify for a disaster-related extension or deadline postponement. This might be true, for example, if their records necessary to meet a deadline occurring during the postponement period are located in the affected area. This also includes workers assisting the relief activities who are affiliated with a recognized government or philanthropic organization.

More information

The IRS encourages affected taxpayers to review all federal disaster relief at DisasterAssistance.gov.

Here are other helpful IRS resources:

• FAQs for disaster victims
• Publication 584, Casualty, Disaster, and Theft Loss Workbook (Personal-Use Property) 
• Publication 584-B, Business Casualty, Disaster, and Theft Loss Workbook
• Publication 547, Casualties, Disasters, and Thefts

Source: IRS-2024-266, Oct. 11, 2024

In response to disruptions resulting from Hurricane Helene, the Internal Revenue Service will not impose a penalty when dyed diesel fuel with a sulfur content that does not exceed 15 parts-per-million is sold for use or used on the highway throughout Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina and in the following counties in Florida, Tennessee and Virginia:

Florida: Alachua, Bay, Bradford, Calhoun, Charlotte, Citrus, Collier, Columbia, Dixie, Escambia, Franklin, Gadsden, Gilchrist, Gulf, Hamilton, Hernando, Hillsborough, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson, Lafayette, Lee, Leon, Levy, Liberty, Madison, Manatee, Marion, Monroe, Okaloosa, Pasco, Pinellas, Santa Rosa, Sarasota, Sumter, Suwannee, Taylor, Union, Wakulla, Walton and Washington counties.

Tennessee: Carter, Cocke, Greene, Hamblen, Hawkins, Johnson, Unicoi and Washington counties.

Virginia: City of Galax, Grayson, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, Wise and Wythe counties.

This relief is retroactive to Sept. 26, 2024, and will remain in effect through Oct. 15, 2024.

This penalty relief is available to any person that sells or uses dyed diesel fuel for highway use. In the case of the operator of the vehicle in which the dyed diesel fuel is used, the relief is available only if the operator or the person selling such fuel pays the tax of 24.4 cents per gallon that is normally applied to diesel fuel for highway use.

The IRS will not impose penalties for failure to make semimonthly deposits of tax for dyed diesel fuel sold for use or used in diesel powered vehicles on the highway in these areas during the relief period. IRS Publication 510, Excise Taxes, has information on the proper method for reporting and paying the tax.

Ordinarily, dyed diesel fuel is not taxed, because it is sold for uses exempt from excise tax, such as to farmers for farming purposes, for home heating use and to local governments.

The IRS is closely monitoring the situation and will provide additional relief as needed.

Source: IRS-2024-254, Oct. 1, 2024

The Internal Revenue Service today announced disaster tax relief for all individuals and businesses affected by Hurricane Helene, including the entire states of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina and parts of Florida, Tennessee and Virginia.

Taxpayers in these areas now have until May 1, 2025, to file various federal individual and business tax returns and make tax payments. Among other things, this includes 2024 individual and business returns normally due during March and April 2025, 2023 individual and corporate returns with valid extensions and quarterly estimated tax payments.

The IRS is offering relief to any area designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Besides all of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, this currently includes 41 counties in Florida, eight counties in Tennessee and six counties and one city in Virginia.

Individuals and households that reside or have a business in any one of these localities qualify for tax relief. The same relief will be available to other states and localities that receive FEMA disaster declarations related to Hurricane Helene. The current list of eligible localities is always available on the Tax relief in disaster situations page on IRS.gov.

Filing and payment relief

The tax relief postpones various tax filing and payment deadlines that occurred beginning on Sept. 22, 2024, in Alabama; Sept. 23 in Florida; Sept. 24 in Georgia; Sept. 25 in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia; and Sept. 26 in Tennessee. In all of these states, the relief period ends on May 1, 2025 (postponement period). As a result, affected individuals and businesses will have until May 1, 2025, to file returns and pay any taxes that were originally due during this period.

This means, for example, that the May 1, 2025, deadline will now apply to:

• Any individual or business that has a 2024 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. The IRS noted, however, that payments on these returns are not eligible for the extra time because they were due last spring before the hurricane occurred.
• 2024 quarterly estimated income tax payments normally due on Jan. 15, 2025, and 2025 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.

In addition, the IRS is also providing penalty relief to businesses that make payroll and excise tax deposits. Relief periods vary by state. Visit the Around the Nation page for details.

The 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. Among other things, this means that any of these areas that previously received relief following Tropical Storm Debby will now have those deadlines further postponed to May 1, 2025.

The IRS automatically provides filing and penalty relief to any taxpayer with an IRS address of record located in the disaster area. These taxpayers do not need to contact the agency to get this relief.

It is possible an affected taxpayer may not have an IRS address of record located in the disaster area, for example, because they moved to the disaster area after filing their return. In these unique circumstances, the affected taxpayer could receive a late filing or late payment penalty notice from the IRS for the postponement period. The taxpayer should call the number on the notice to have the penalty abated.

In addition, the IRS will work with any taxpayer who lives outside the disaster area but whose records necessary to meet a deadline occurring during the postponement period are located in the affected area. Taxpayers qualifying for relief who live outside the disaster area need to contact the IRS at 866-562-5227. This also includes workers assisting the relief activities who are affiliated with a recognized government or philanthropic organization. Disaster area tax preparers with clients located outside the disaster area can choose to use the Bulk Requests from Practitioners for Disaster Relief option, described on IRS.gov.

Additional tax relief

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 return for the year the loss occurred (in this instance, the 2024 return normally filed next year), or the return for the prior year (the 2023 return filed this year). Taxpayers have extra time – 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. Be sure to write the FEMA declaration number on any return claiming a loss. See Publication 547, Casualties, Disasters, and Thefts, for details.

Qualified disaster relief payments are generally excluded from gross income. In general, this means that affected taxpayers can exclude from their gross income amounts received from a government agency for reasonable and necessary personal, family, living or funeral expenses, as well as for the repair or rehabilitation of their home, or for the repair or replacement of its contents. See Publication 525, Taxable and Nontaxable Income, for details.

Additional relief may be available to affected taxpayers who participate in a retirement plan or individual retirement arrangement (IRA). For example, a taxpayer may be eligible to take a special disaster distribution that would not be subject to the additional 10% early distribution tax and allows the taxpayer to spread the income over three years. Taxpayers may also be eligible to make a hardship withdrawal. Each plan or IRA has specific rules and guidance for their participants to follow.

The IRS may provide additional disaster relief in the future.

The tax relief is part of a coordinated federal response to the damage caused by this storm and is based on local damage assessments by FEMA. For information on disaster recovery, visit disasterassistance.gov.

Source: IRS-2024-253, Oct. 1, 2024

In the fourth part of a special summer series, the Security Summit partners today reminded tax professionals and taxpayers about the special IRS Identity Protection PIN program and the IRS online accounts that can help protect against tax-related identity theft.

These two tools help protect against the threat of tax-related identity theft, both for the taxpayers who sign up and the tax professionals who hold their sensitive tax information.

Identity Protection PINs, also referred to as IP PINs, serve as a critical defense against identity thieves. The IRS is encouraging all tax pros and taxpayers to establish their IRS Online Account that allows access to IRS account information online, but it also guards against fraudsters trying to trick tax pros and taxpayers into creating such an account.

“To protect against continuing and evolving threats from identity thieves, these two special tools provide an extra layer of security for taxpayers and tax professionals,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said. “The IRS and the Security Summit urge people to sign up for both IP PINs and the Online Account to help protect their valuable information as well as avoid tax problems down the road.”

The IRS, state tax agencies and the nation’s tax industry – working together as the Security Summit – need assistance from tax professionals to let their clients know that IP PINs and the IRS Online Account are available to anyone who can verify their identity.

In addition to enrolling in the IP PIN program, the IRS is encouraging all people to establish their IRS Online Account. Doing so not only provides access to IRS account information that’s now available online, but it also guards against fraudsters trying to trick tax pros and taxpayers into creating such an account. Tax pros also have access to the Tax Pro Account.

This is the fourth week of an eight-part Protect Your Clients, Protect Yourself summer series, part of an annual education effort by the Security Summit, a group that includes tax professionals, industry partners, state tax agencies and the IRS. The public-private partnership has worked since 2015 to protect the tax system against tax-related identity theft and fraud.

Security is a key focus of the Nationwide Tax Forum, being held in five cities this summer throughout the U.S. In addition to the series of eight news releases, the tax professional security component will be featured at the forums, which are three-day continuing education events. The forums continue today in Orlando, Florida, though the event is already sold out, and carry on the week of August 13 in Baltimore, August 20 in Dallas and September 10 in San Diego. The IRS reminds tax pros that registration deadlines are quickly approaching for the Baltimore and Dallas forums, as San Diego has also sold out.

More than 10.4 million taxpayers have taken the steps to obtain an IP PIN, a six-digit number that once issued to a taxpayer must be included on their tax return prior to filing electronically. Many, many more taxpayers should consider getting one to add another layer of protection against identity theft.

To do so, taxpayers should visit the IRS Get an IP PIN online tool. Doing that will establish a taxpayer’s access to their IRS Online Account, making themselves less likely to fall victim to social engineering schemes that trick taxpayers into setting up an IRS Online Account controlled by a bad actor.

Beginning this summer, taxpayers who enroll in the program will have the ability to unenroll if for some reason they decide they no longer want to participate in the future.

ETAAC notes IP PIN “effectively locks out” many fraudsters

The Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee, or ETAAC, is again this year highlighting the importance of the IP PIN to taxpayers and tax professionals, echoing past endorsements from the same independent IRS advisory group.

“The IP PIN method provides strong protection against stolen identity tax refund fraud and effectively locks out many fraudsters from e-filing using that taxpayer’s social security number,” said ETAAC’s annual report to Congress.

But the report added that IP PINS should be more widely used, calling it an overlooked tool in the fight against fraud. Underscoring the point, the ETAAC report said only 525,000 taxpayers opted into the IP PIN program in 2022, even though the Federal Trade Commission received more than 1.1 million reports of identity theft that same year.

The importance of someone’s IP PIN can be a tempting target for identity thieves, given the IP PINs’ inherent strength. Summit partners urged taxpayers and tax professionals to be careful and protect the IP PIN from identity thieves, and noted these key tips:

• Taxpayers should share their IP PIN only with their trusted tax provider.
• Tax professionals should never store clients’ IP PINs on computer systems. This reduces taxpayer risk if a tax pro’s system is compromised by an identity thief or cyberattack.
• The IRS will never call, email or text either taxpayers or tax professionals to request the IP PIN. This is a sign of a scam.

Tax professionals who experience a data theft can assist clients by urging them to quickly obtain an IP PIN. Even if a thief already has filed a fraudulent return, an IP PIN would still offer protections for later years and prevent taxpayers from being repeat victims of tax-related identity theft.

Key facts about IP PINs

Here are a few other things taxpayers and tax professionals should know about the IP PIN:

• It’s a six-digit number known only to the taxpayer and the IRS.
• The opt-in program is voluntary, though strongly encouraged.
• In cases of proven identity theft, an IP PIN is assigned to a taxpayer to use for future filings.
• The IP PIN should be entered on the electronic tax return when prompted by the software product or on a paper return next to the signature line.
• The IP PIN is valid for one calendar year; a new IP PIN is generated each year.
• Only taxpayers who can verify their identities may obtain an IP PIN.
• IP PIN users should never share their number with anyone but the IRS and their trusted tax preparation provider. The IRS will never call, email or text a request for the IP PIN.
• Tax professionals cannot obtain an IP PIN on behalf of clients. Taxpayers must obtain their own IP PIN.

Taxpayers have the opportunity to opt out if they previously opted into the program. Taxpayers who are confirmed victims of identity theft will not have the option to opt out of the program.

How to get an IP PIN

To obtain an IP PIN, the best option is to start at Get an IP PIN. Taxpayers need to validate their identities through ID.me to access the tool and their IP PIN. Before attempting this thorough process, the IRS recommends taxpayers first check out How to register for IRS online self-help tools.

If taxpayers are unable to validate their identity online and if their income is less than $79,000 for individuals or $158,000 for married couples, they may file Form 15227, Application for an Identity Protection Personal Identification Number PDF. The IRS will call the telephone number provided on Form 15227 to validate their identity. Once verified, the taxpayer will receive an IP PIN via the U.S. Postal Service within four to six weeks.

Taxpayers who cannot validate their identities online or on the phone with an IRS employee after submitting a Form 15227, or who are ineligible to file a Form 15227, may call the IRS to make an appointment at a Taxpayer Assistance Center. They’ll need to bring one picture identification document and another identification document to prove their identity. Once verified, the taxpayer will receive an IP PIN via U.S. Postal Service within three weeks.

The IP PIN process for confirmed victims of identity theft remains unchanged. These victims will automatically receive an IP PIN each year.

Additional resources

If a tax pro or their firm are the victim of data theft, they should:

• Report the incident to their local IRS stakeholder liaison. Speed is critical. IRS stakeholder liaisons will ensure all the appropriate IRS offices are alerted. If reported quickly, the IRS can take steps to block fraudulent returns in the clients’ names and will assist tax pros through the process.
• Visit the Federation of Tax Administrators to find state contact information. Tax professionals can share information with the appropriate state tax agency by visiting the special Report a Data Breach.
• Review Publication 5293, Data Security Resource Guide for Tax Professionals PDF, which provides an overview and resources about how to avoid data theft.
• Tax professionals can also get help with security recommendations by reviewing IRS Publication 4557, Safeguarding Taxpayer Data PDF, and the IRS’ Identity theft information page for tax pros.
• Read Small business information security: The fundamentals PDF, by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Tax professionals should also stay connected to the IRS through subscriptions to e-News for tax professionals and its social media sites.

Source: IRS-2024-200, July 30, 2024