Individuals and businesses in seven states affected by Hurricane Helene will have until May 1, 2025, to file returns and make payments. The relief is offered to all taxpayers of Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina. This also applies to 41 counties in Florida, 8 counties in Tennessee, in six counties and 1 city in Virginia,

The IRS reminds individuals and businesses in a federal declared disaster area who suffered uninsured or unreimbursed disaster related losses that they can claim the losses on their return for the year the loss occurred, or the return filed the prior year. Taxpayers have up to six months after the due date of their federal return for the disaster year to make the election without regard to any extension of time to file.

Qualified disaster relief payments are generally excluded from gross income. This generally means that affected taxpayers can exclude from gross income amounts received from a government agency for reasonable and necessary personal, family living or funeral expenses, as well as the repair or rehabilitation of their home, or the repair or replacement of its contents. Additional relief may be available to affected taxpayers who participate in a retirement plan or IRA. A taxpayer may be eligible to take a special disaster distribution that would not be subject to the 10% early distribution penalty and allows the taxpayer to spread the income over three years. As part of the agency’s efforts to assist the victims of Hurricane Helene, the IRS is providing more than 500 employees to assist FEMA with taking initial information form disaster victims to help them get federal relief.