IRS extends tax deadline for Hoosiers impacted by tornado outbreak
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Tuesday is Tax Day for most people, but the IRS is pushing back the tax deadline for some people in Indiana because of last month’s tornado outbreak.
The IRS says storm victims in Indiana now have until July 31 to file and pay their taxes. This applies to people and businesses that were impacted by the tornadoes, severe storms, and straight-line winds that tore through the state on March 31.
“This includes 2022 individual income tax returns due on April 18, as well as various 2022 business returns normally due on April 18,” the IRS said. “This means that eligible taxpayers will have until July 31 to make 2022 contributions to their IRAs and health savings accounts.”
The deadline change comes several days after President Biden approved a major disaster declaration providing FEMA money to Hoosier storm victims.
The July 31 deadline only applies to people living in certain hard-hit Indiana counties:
- Allen
- Benton
- Clinton
- Grant
- Howard
- Johnson
- Lake
- Monroe
- Morgan
- Owen
- Sullivan
- White
The IRS says it automatically identifies taxpayers in the covered disaster areas and applies for the tax relief.
People who live or have a business outside these counties and were impacted the severe storms can call the IRS Disaster Hotline at 866-562-5227 and request tax relief.
For most other Americans, taxes are still due Tuesday.
According to the IRS, the most common mistakes on returns are missing or inaccurate social security numbers, misspelled names, and wrong wages and income numbers.
Thomas Godwin, an assistant professor of accounting at Purdue University, says now is a good time to start thinking about next year.
“Plan the year prior. Make sure you are collecting your receipts, collecting all your relevant information you will need to complete your tax return and keep it in a central place. Because the hardest thing — the thing that holds most people up at tax time — is they know they have something running around but they don’t have it organized,” Godwin said.
For people who need help filing their taxes or need an extension, there is some good news. The IRS is touting improved customer service, crediting the change to a boost in funding from Congress to revamp the agency.
On Monday, it said taxpayers who called the IRS had an average wait time of 4 minutes this tax season compared to 27 minutes last year. Plus , IRS employees answered 2 million more calls and served 100,000 more people in person than it had by this point in 2022.
If you need some help with your taxes or more information on tax relief for storm victims, this can be done for free using IRS Free File. If you want details about this and other electronic options, visit the IRS Extension website.
Find out more from the Indiana Department of Revenue.
More information from the IRS on storm victim relief
Affected taxpayers in a federally declared disaster area have the option of claiming disaster-related casualty losses on their federal income tax return for either the year in which the event occurred, or the prior year. See Publication 547 for details.
Individuals may deduct personal property losses that are not covered by insurance or other reimbursements. For details, see Form 4684, Casualties and Thefts and its instructions.
Affected taxpayers claiming the disaster loss on their return should put the Disaster Designation, “Indiana, severe storms, straight-line winds and tornadoes”, in bold letters at the top of the form. Be sure to include the FEMA disaster declaration number, FEMA-4704-DR, on any return. See Publication 547 for details.
The IRS will waive the usual fees and requests for copies of previously filed tax returns for affected taxpayers.
Taxpayers should put the assigned Disaster Designation, Indiana, severe storms, straight-line winds and tornadoes in bold letters at the top of Form 4506, Request for Copy of Tax Return, or Form 4506-T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return, as appropriate, and submit it to the IRS.
Affected taxpayers who are contacted by the IRS on a collection or examination matter should explain how the disaster impacts them so that the IRS can provide appropriate consideration to their case. Taxpayers may download forms and publications from the official IRS website.