Postponed deadlines for disaster-affected taxpayers in California.

The Internal Revenue Service has announced that the postponement of various tax deadlines due to the disaster declaration in some areas of California has been extended—all filings and payments originally due between December 27, 2022 and May 15, 2023 are now due on October 16, 2023. The Governor’s office has announced that California will conform with the postponed deadlines.

The announcement comes after much of the state was impacted by severe winter storms in December and January, with the move bringing California into alignment with the federal Biden Administration—which also extended the tax deadline to October 16, 2023. 

Some deadlines that impact taxpayers within these dates include:

• Payment of 2022 4th quarter estimated taxes due January 17, 2023, and the payment of 2023 1st, 2nd, and 3rd quarter estimated taxes;
• Filing individual and business income tax returns normally due in March and April;
• Payment of income taxes normally due in March and April;
• Filing individual and business income tax return extensions;
• Payment of income tax with extensions;
• IRA and health savings account contributions; and
• Other deadlines listed in Rev. Proc. 2018-58.

Payment and reporting of quarterly payroll and excise taxes can also be deferred to various dates, depending on additional circumstances.

The impacted areas designated in California at this time are: Alameda, Alpine, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Contra Costa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Humboldt, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Lake, Lassen, Los Angeles, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Merced, Modoc, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Orange, Placer, Plumas, Riverside, Sacramento, San Benito, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tulare, Tuolumne, Ventura, Yolo and Yuba counties.

This relief is also extended to taxpayers who do not live or work within a designated area but whose records are located in the affected area. 

The relief measures are expected to be automatic; however, taxpayers may receive notices assessing penalties for postponing. These penalties can be abated by contacting the IRS.

Taxpayers within the disaster areas also have the ability to claim disaster-related casualty losses on their 2022 or 2023 federal income tax returns. This provides taxpayers with the opportunity to receive the tax benefit more quickly, and applies to uninsured or unreimbursed disaster losses.

For more on the IRS announcements, please click here.

More on California’s announcement to conform to the IRS deadlines can be found here.

Please reach out to the team at Grobstein Teeple if you have any questions about how the new deadlines affect you.