I have been reading about the income tax filing extension to October 16 for locations experiencing destructive storms this past winter. I live in the part of California that was affected. I’m looking for some of the details. Where is the official information about which zip codes are affected by the extension? Do I need to put something in my tax return to indicate I’m taking advantage of the extension? Does TurboTax support using the extension? Anything else I need to know?
If you file form 4868 for an extension, it automatically extends the filing time until Oct. 15 (depending on the date that falls on). It doesn't extend the time for payments as interest will begin on the amount owed on April
17th this year. For us in Mass. & Maine, it's the 18th, as Monday is Patriots Day for us. Nothing to do with football. ;)
Two strikes. The disaster declarations extend the payment dates as well. You don't need to look up your zip code. The declaration is on a countywide basis. If your county in any one of the three CA disaster declarations, you should be covered.
Official information can be found by search the IRS website for CA-2023-01, CA-2023-02, and CA-2023-03.
The IRS will automatically know that you are in a disaster area if your zip code is within one of the affected counties. There has been some discussion among tax professionals that filing for an extension is still a good idea. There are certain future deadlines (such as the last date you can file a claim for a refund) that may not be extended by the disaster relief.
The filing deadline, NATIONWIDE, is April 18 this year. April 17 is Emancipation Day in Washington DC.
You'll have to contact TT to see what, if anything, they are doing with regard to the disaster relief provisions.
Federal disasters are declared by county, not ZIP code. You must live in the affected county.
Taxpayers eligible are automatically identified. You don't do anything other than make absolutely sure that your address and city-state-ZIP Code are correct. If you receive a notice from IRS, it will have a telephone number to call to request abatement of any penalties.
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More than you need to know:
The federal government began using encoding to describe geography for all sorts of purposes. In the '80s, to better improve distribution and data entry of the 1990 census, the census block, the smallest unit of census geography, was encoded to the postal block. ZIP+4 was designed to make this possible. Eventually, lat-long was added to the census block's encoding. Note that a "block" means the same thing in the census and post office, at least in an area with street addressing in effect. It's one side of the street between intersections and it's broken up further at important points, like the hundreds of a street address changes, or there is a significant political subdivision boundary like a municipality, township, or county.
There is a massive translation table called TIGER/ZIP to translate census blocks into postal blocks.
In mid and high density areas, there is both a ZIP+4 code assigned to the block and to a smaller set of addresses, like a high-rise building (one street address with at least four apartments or offices) or a business receiving a lot of mail, but there is always a block designated with its own ZIP+4 code.
There is plenty of weirdness in rural areas and places without street addressing or without a rural carrier. On a rural route, the carrier serves one side of a through street only and mailboxes are erected on that side of the street, not on the property. Someone whose street isn't served by a rural carrier erects the box on the nearby street served by the rural carrier. If there is no rural free delivery, then one establishes a PO Box with no fees at a nearby post office.
In locations without street addresses, the post office doesn't know where the property being served is and I have no idea how that gets translated into census geography.
Over the years with laws consolidating election administration at the county level rather than having special districts hold their own elections, and with E-911 service, more and more areas were forced to accept street addressing to ease administration of government services, but there are still plenty of areas not yet described by street addresses.
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