Individuals and businesses in Ohio affected by tornados that began on March 14 now have until early September 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. Individuals and households that reside or have a business in Auglaize, Crawford, Darke, Delaware, Hancock, Licking, Logan, Mercer, Miami, Richland and Union Counties 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 on the
The relief postpones various tax filing and payment deadlines that occurred from March 14 through Sept. 3. Affected individuals and businesses will have until Sept. 3, 2024, to file returns and pay any taxes that were originally due during this period.
The Sept. 3 deadline now applies to:
- Individual income tax returns and payments due on April 15, 2024;
- 2023 contributions to IRAs and health savings accounts for eligible taxpayers;
- Quarterly estimated income tax payments due on April 15 and June 17, 2024;
- Quarterly payroll and excise tax returns due on April 30, 2024, and July 31, 2024;
- Calendar-year partnership and S corporation returns due on March 15, 2024;
- Calendar-year corporation and fiduciary returns and payments due on April 15, 2024; and
- Calendar-year tax-exempt organization returns due on May 15, 2024.
Penalties for failing to make payroll and excise tax deposits due on or after March 14, 2024, and before March 29, 2024, will be abated if the deposits were made by March 29.
Anyone who needs a tax-filing extension beyond Sept. 3 should file with the IRS. Because the agency can't accept e-filed extension requests made after April 15, these requests must be submitted on paper. The taxpayer will then have until Oct. 15, 2024, to file, though payments are still due on Sept. 3.
The IRS automatically provides filing and penalty relief to any taxpayer with an address of record in the disaster area. If an affected taxpayer does not have an address of record in the disaster area (because, for example, they moved to the disaster area after filing their return), and they receive a late-filing or late-payment penalty notice from the service for the postponement period, they should call the number on the notice to have the penalty abated.
The IRS will work with any taxpayer who lives outside the disaster area but has records necessary to meet a deadline occurring during the postponement period in the affected area. Qualifying taxpayers who live outside the disaster area should call the IRS at (866) 562-5227, including workers assisting the relief activities who are with a recognized government or philanthropic organization.
Disaster area tax preparers with clients located outside the disaster area can choose to use the
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. Write the FEMA declaration number — 4777-DR — on any return claiming a loss.
