The IRS Has Postponed Tax Deadlines in a Dozen States — Three of Them Run Out on September 28

When FEMA declares a disaster, the IRS postpones filing and payment deadlines for taxpayers whose address of record is in a covered locality. The relief is applied automatically — you do not apply for it, and in most cases you do not need to call.

It is not forgiveness. The tax is still owed; the date by which it must be filed and paid moves. But a postponed deadline also means no late-filing or late-payment penalty accrues for that period, which is the practical value of it.

As of September 1, 2026, these postponements are still running:

• September 28, 2026 — 27 days away. The Crow Tribe of Montana and the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes (severe winter storm and straight-line winds), and the San Carlos Apache Tribe in Arizona (severe storms and flooding).
• November 2, 2026. Mississippi (severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes and flooding), Wisconsin (severe storms, tornadoes and flooding), Michigan (severe storms, tornadoes and flooding), and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (Super Typhoon Sinlaku).
• February 1, 2027. Washington (wildfires, including Douglas County), Nebraska (five separate declarations covering storms and wildfires from March through June), West Virginia (severe storms, winds, tornadoes, flooding, landslides and mudslides), Mississippi (Tropical Storm Arthur), and the Northern Mariana Islands (Super Typhoon Bavi).

Louisiana also has relief running from Tropical Storm Arthur, which began June 17, 2026.

These postponements have passed, and the ordinary deadlines and penalties apply again: Georgia (Southeast Georgia wildfires, August 20, 2026), Hawaii (July 8, 2026), Mississippi (severe winter storm, June 8, 2026), Montana (storms and flooding, May 1, 2026) and Louisiana (severe winter storms, March 31, 2026).

If one of these applied to you and the return is still outstanding, penalties and interest have been running since the postponed date — that is the moment to look at penalty abatement rather than to wait.

A notice arrives anyway. The relief keys off the address the IRS holds for you. If you moved into a covered area after your last return, or your business address sits outside the county while you live inside it, the automatic relief can miss you and a late-filing notice will issue. The IRS asks that you call the number on the notice to have the penalty abated — this is a phone call, not an appeal.

Assuming your county is covered because your state is listed. None of these declarations covers a whole state by default; each names specific localities, and several here cover tribal lands rather than counties. The current list of eligible localities for each declaration is on the IRS's own Around the nation page, and that is the list that governs — not the state name in the headline of a news story, including this one.