The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced Monday that Maine taxpayers affected by Hurricane Lee will now have until Feb. 15, 2024, to file various individual and business tax returns and to make tax payments.
The extension follows the Sept. 15 disaster declaration issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and approved by President Joe Biden in response to the hurricane.
Under the declaration, residents or business owners in Androscoggin, Aroostook, Cumberland, Franklin, Hancock, Kennebec, Knox, Lincoln, Oxford, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Sagadahoc, Somerset, Waldo, Washington, and York counties in Maine qualify for the tax relief.
The disaster declaration allows the IRS to postpone certain tax-filing and payment deadlines for taxpayers in the affected disaster areas, such as certain deadlines that fall between Sept. 15 and Feb. 15.
The new Feb. 15 deadline includes 2022 individual income tax returns, normally due on Oct. 16, 2024, and also applies to quarterly estimated tax payments, normally due on Jan. 16, 2024.
Additionally, penalties on payroll and excise tax deposits due on or after Sept. 15, 2023, and before Oct. 2, 2023, will be abated as long as the tax deposits are made before Oct. 2.
Affected taxpayers within the federally declared disaster area also have the option of claiming disaster-related casualty losses on their federal income tax return for either 2023 or 2022.
Taxpayers choosing to claim disaster-related losses on their 2022 return have until Oct. 15, 2024 to make this election.
Though the IRS states that they automatically identify taxpayers located in the covered disaster area and applies the corresponding filing and payment relief, the agency requests that affected taxpayers living outside the covered disaster call the IRS disaster hotline at 866-562-5227 to request the tax relief.
A full list of the tax relief offered by the IRS in response to Hurricane Lee can be found here.
