NEW Tax Relief after Hurricane Matthew

tax-releif

tax-releif

On October 8, 2016, President Obama declared a “Major Disaster” for certain counties in Florida and Georgia. If you live in the affected areas (there’s a list below), you may be eligible for extended due dates for filing and paying your tax. This means that you can take a breath and focus on the cleanup behind Hurricane Matthew instead of the looming due date of October 17 for individual income tax returns on extension. NORTH CAROLINA JUST ADDED (UPDATE 10/13) I’ve already seen firsthand how such a declaration impacts taxpayers…

A client dropped by my office this morning on our first post hurricane workday. We had just gotten our electricity and internet service restored, computers and printers up and running and opened the door.  She was crying. She has no electricity, no hot water, no A/C, a huge mess to clean up at her property, and 4 children to deal with. But she wasn’t crying about just those issues. No, she was all stressed out over her tax return due date next Monday. I told her not to worry. That she should focus on the immediate important issues and we’ll deal with the rest later.

Tax Relief for businesses after a hurricane

There’s relief for businesses too! We don’t have the specifics yet but there will be an “Extension Period” and a “Federal Tax Deposit Penalty Waiver Period” available to all eligible taxpayers.

Florida Counties affected:

  • Brevard

  • Duval

  • Flagler

  • Indian River

  • Nassau

  • Johns

  • Lucie

  • Volusia

Georgia Counties affected:

  • Bryan

  • Camden

  • Chatham

  • Glynn

  • Liberty

  • McIntosh

 North Carolina Counties affected:

  • Beaufort

  • Bladen

  • Columbus

  • Cumberland

  • Edgecombe

  • Hoke

  • Lenoir

  • Nash

  • Pitt

  • Robeson

Casualty losses - This is where you may be able to recover funds quickly!

More good news! Presidential Disaster Area declaration allows affected taxpayers the option of claiming disaster-related casualty losses on their federal income tax return for the year preceding the year of the loss. This is accomplished by filing an amended tax return and can get you a refund much sooner or provide tax savings. There are obviously conditions to be met, but this can potentially work for you.

Ask your tax professional about your options during this difficult time.

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Accounting, IRS SolutionEdith DuranCatastrophe relief, IRS, Tax extension, Taxes2 Comments