IRS Provides Hurricane Milton Relief

In the wake of Hurricane Milton, the IRS expanded previously announced taxpayer relief for impacted taxpayers living in Florida.  In IR-2024-264, the IRS amplified and expanded the relief granted in IR-2024-253 to individuals and businesses in Broward, Indian River, Martin, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and St. Lucie counties.  The relief from the IRS includes automatic extensions of time for filing tax returns and making payments that were due between October 5, 2024, and ending on May 1, 2025.  The due date for such items is now May 1, 2025. 

Additionally, individuals and businesses in Baker, Brevard, Clay, Desoto, Duval, Flagler, Glades, Hardee, Hendry, Highlands, Lake, Nassau, Okeechobee, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Putnam, Seminole, St. Johns, and Volusia counties will receive disaster tax relief beginning August 1, 2024, and ending on May 1, 2025.  Taxpayers in those counties were eligible for relief as a result of being impacted by Hurricane Debby.

Hurricane Milton related tax relief postpones various filing and payment deadlines beginning on October 5, 2024 and ending on May 1, 2025.  Under section 7508A, the IRS gives affected taxpayers until May 1, 2025, to file most tax returns (including individual, corporate, and estate and trust income tax returns; partnership returns, S corporation returns, and trust returns; estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax returns; annual information returns of tax-exempt organizations; and employment and certain excise tax returns), that have either an original or extended due date occurring on or after Oct. 5, 2024, and before May 1, 2025, are granted additional time to file through May 1, 2025.

As a result, taxpayers throughout most of Florida now have until May 1, 2025, to file various federal individual and business tax returns and make tax payments.  This includes 2024 returns for individuals and businesses normally due in March and April 2025, as well as 2023 individual and corporate returns that received valid extensions.  Additionally, quarterly estimated tax payments are covered under this extension.

The extension of time is automatic; taxpayers are not required to file for extensions to file or make payments by May 1, 2025.  For extensions beyond that date, the appropriate extension form needs to be filed by May 1, 2025, but the extension may not go beyond the original statutory or regulatory extension date.