IRS: California wildfire victims qualify for tax relief; various deadlines postponed to Oct. 15
R-2025-10, Jan. 10, 2025
WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service announced today tax relief for individuals and businesses in southern California affected by wildfires and straight-line winds that began on Jan. 7, 2025.
These taxpayers now have until Oct. 15, 2025, to file various federal individual and business tax returns and make tax payments.
The IRS is offering relief to any area designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Currently, individuals and households that reside or have a business in Los Angeles County qualify for tax relief.
The same relief will be available to any other counties added later to the disaster area. 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 from Jan. 7, 2025, through Oct. 15, 2025 (postponement period). As a result, affected individuals and businesses will have until Oct. 15, 2025, to file returns and pay any taxes that were originally due during this period.
This means, for example, that the Oct. 15, 2025, 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.
- 2024 quarterly estimated income tax payments normally due on Jan. 15, 2025, and estimated tax payments normally due on April 15, June 16 and Sept. 15, 2025.
- Quarterly payroll and excise tax returns normally due on Jan. 31, April 30 and July 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 Jan. 7, 2025, and before Jan. 22, 2025, will be abated as long as the deposits are made by Jan. 22, 2025.
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.
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 kinds of 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 2025 return normally filed next year), or the return for the prior year (2024). 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, 2026. Be sure to write the FEMA declaration number – 4856-DR − 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 these storms and is based on local damage assessments by FEMA. For information on disaster recovery, visit DisasterAssistance.gov.
Reminder about tax return preparation options
- Eligible individuals or families can get free help preparing their tax return at Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) or Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) sites. To find the closest free tax help site, use the VITA Locator Tool or call 800-906-9887. Note that normally, VITA sites cannot help claim disaster losses.
- To find an AARP Tax-Aide site, use the AARP Site Locator Tool or call 888-227-7669.
- Any individual or family whose adjusted gross income (AGI) was $84,000 or less in 2024 can use IRS Free File’s Guided Tax Software at no cost. There are products in English and Spanish.
- Another Free File option is Free File Fillable Forms. These are electronic federal tax forms, equivalent to a paper 1040 and are designed for taxpayers who are comfortable filling out IRS tax forms. Anyone, regardless of income, can use this option.
- MilTax, a Department of Defense program, offers free return preparation software and electronic filing for federal tax returns and up to three state income tax returns. It’s available for all military members and some veterans, with no income limit.
国税局：加州野火受害者有资格获得税收减免;
各种截止日期推迟到 10 月 15 日 R-2025-10,2025 年 1 月 10 日 华府 — 美国国税局今天宣布，为南加州受 2025 年 1 月 7 日开始的野火和直线风影响的个人和企业提供税收减免。 这些纳税人现在可以在 2025 年 10 月 15 日之前提交各种联邦个人和企业税表并缴纳税款。 美国国税局正在为联邦紧急事务管理局 （FEMA） 指定的任何区域提供宽减。目前，在洛杉矶县居住或开展业务的个人和家庭有资格获得税收减免。 稍后添加到灾区的任何其他县都将获得相同的救济。当前符合条件的地区列表始终位于 IRS.gov 上的灾难情况下的税收宽减页面上。 申报和付款减免 税收宽减推迟了从 2025 年 1 月 7 日至 2025 年 10 月 15 日（推迟期）的各种纳税申报和付款截止日期。因此，受影响的个人和企业必须在 2025 年 10 月 15 日之前提交申报表并支付在此期间原定应缴的任何税款。 这意味着，
例如，2025 年 10 月 15 日的截止日期现在将适用于：
* 个人所得税申报表和付款通常于 2025 年 4 月 15 日到期。
* 2024 年为符合条件的纳税人向 IRA 和健康储蓄账户供款。
* 2024 年季度预估所得税通常于 2025 年 1 月 15 日到期，
* 预估税款通常于 2025 年 4 月 15 日、6 月 16 日和 9 月 15 日到期。
* 季度工资税和工商税申报表通常于 2025 年 1 月 31 日、4 月 30 日和 7 月 31 日到期。
* 日历年合伙企业和 S 公司申报表通常于 2025 年 3 月 17 日到期。
* 日历年公司和受托人申报表和付款通常于 2025 年 4 月 15 日到期。
* 日历年免税组织申报表通常于 2025 年 5 月 15 日到期。
此外，只要在 2025 年 1 月 22 日之前缴纳，未能在 2025 年 1 月 7 日或之后以及 2025 年 1 月 22 日之前缴纳工资税和工商税的罚款将被宽减。 适用于个人和企业的灾难援助和紧急救济金页面详细介绍了在延期期间有资格获得救济的其他申报表、付款和税务相关行动。
国税局会自动向国税局记录地址位于灾区的任何纳税人提供报税和罚款宽减。这些纳税人无需联系国税局即可获得这项宽减。 受影响的纳税人可能没有位于灾区的国税局记录地址，例如，因为他们在提交税表后搬到了灾区。在这种特殊情况下，受影响的纳税人可能会收到国税局关于延期期的逾期申报或逾期付款罚款通知。纳税人应拨打通知上的电话号码以减轻罚款。
此外，国税局将与居住在灾区以外但满足延期期间截止日期所需的记录位于受灾地区的任何纳税人合作。居住在灾区以外的有资格获得宽减的纳税人需要致电 866-562-5227 联系国税局。这还包括隶属于公认的政府或慈善组织的协助救灾活动的工作人员。客户位于灾区以外的灾区代报税人可以选择使用从业人员的救灾请求选项，如 IRS.gov 中所述。
额外税收减免
在联邦宣布的灾区遭受未投保或未报销的灾害相关损失的个人和企业可以选择在损失发生当年的纳税申报表（在这种情况下，通常明年提交的 2025 年纳税申报表）或上一年（2024 年）的纳税申报表上申报。纳税人有额外的时间 – 在纳税人的灾难年度联邦所得税申报截止日期后的六个月内 （不考虑任何延期的申报时间） – 进行选择。对于个人纳税人，这意味着 2026 年 10 月 15 日。请务必在任何索赔损失的申报表上写下 FEMA 申报编号 – 4856-DR。有关详细信息，请参阅第 547 号出版物《伤亡、灾难和盗窃》（英文）。 合格的救灾款项通常不包括在总收入中。一般来说，这意味着受影响的纳税人可以从其从政府机构收到的总收入中扣除合理和必要的个人、家庭、生活或丧葬费用，以及用于维修或修复其房屋，或修理或更换其物品的金额。有关详细信息，请参阅第 525 号出版物《应税和非应税收入》（英文）。
参加退休计划或个人退休安排 （IRA） 的受影响纳税人可获得额外减免。例如，纳税人可能有资格进行特殊灾害分配，无需缴纳额外的 10% 提前分配税，并允许纳税人将收入分摊到三年内。纳税人也可能有资格进行困难提款。每个计划或 IRA 都有特定的规则和指导供其参与者遵循。 国税局将来可能会提供额外的救灾宽减。 税收减免是联邦政府对这些风暴造成的损害的协调应对措施的一部分，并基于 FEMA 的当地损失评估。有关灾难恢复的信息，请访问 DisasterAssistance.gov。
关于纳税申报表准备选项的提醒
符合条件的个人或家庭可以在免费报税服务 （VITA） 或老年人税务咨询 （TCE） 站点获得免费帮助来准备纳税申报表。要查找最近的免费税务帮助网站，请使用 VITA 定位工具或致电 800-906-9887。请注意，通常 VITA 站点无法帮助索赔灾难损失。 要查找 AARP Tax-Aide 站点，请使用 AARP 站点定位工具或致电 888-227-7669。 任何在 2024 年调整后总收入 （AGI） 为 84,000 美元或以下的个人或家庭都可以免费使用国税局免费报税的引导式税务软件。有英语和西班牙语的产品。 另一个“免费报税”选项是“免费报税可填写表单”。这些是电子联邦税表，相当于纸质 1040，专为擅长填写 IRS 税表的纳税人而设计。任何人，无论收入如何，都可以使用此选项。MilTax 是国防部的一项计划，为联邦纳税申报表和最多三个州所得税申报表提供免费的申报软件和电子申报。它适用于所有军人和一些退伍军人，没有收入限制。
