The IRS Pushed Tax Deadlines Into February 2027 for Hurricane Isaias Victims in 40 Alabama Counties and 27 Florida Counties

Hurricane Isaias came ashore in the Florida Panhandle on the night of Oct. 9 as a Category 2 storm, and for households across the Gulf Coast, the cleanup quickly ran into the tax calendar. Extended 2025 returns were due Oct. 15. A fourth-quarter estimated payment was due in January. Small businesses had payroll filings coming in November.

The Internal Revenue Service has now moved most of those dates. In two news releases issued Oct. 14, the agency postponed federal filing and payment deadlines to Feb. 4, 2027, for taxpayers in 40 Alabama counties and to Feb. 8, 2027, for taxpayers in 27 Florida counties.

The 40 Alabama counties and the Feb. 4 deadline

The Alabama relief, numbered AL-2026-01, covers deadlines falling on or after Oct. 7, 2026, the date the IRS says the hurricane began affecting the state, and runs through Feb. 4, 2027. The counties match the 40 that Gov. Kay Ivey placed under a state of emergency before landfall. In an Oct. 8 statement, Ivey said the 40-county emergency was meant to let the state act ahead of a likely landfall.

The covered Alabama counties are Autauga, Baldwin, Barbour, Bibb, Bullock, Butler, Chambers, Chilton, Clarke, Choctaw, Coffee, Conecuh, Coosa, Covington, Crenshaw, Dale, Dallas, Elmore, Escambia, Geneva, Greene, Hale, Henry, Houston, Lee, Lowndes, Macon, Marengo, Mobile, Monroe, Montgomery, Perry, Pickens, Pike, Russell, Sumter, Tallapoosa, Tuscaloosa, Washington and Wilcox.

The 27 Florida counties and the Feb. 8 deadline

The Florida relief, FL-2026-07, gives taxpayers until Feb. 8, 2027. The IRS updated the release on Oct. 22 to move the start of the relief period from Oct. 9 to Oct. 6, so that it matches the incident period in the federal emergency declaration for Florida.

The covered Florida counties are Baker, Bay, Calhoun, Citrus, Columbia, Dixie, Escambia, Franklin, Gadsden, Gilchrist, Gulf, Hamilton, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson, Lafayette, Leon, Levy, Liberty, Madison, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Suwannee, Taylor, Wakulla, Walton and Washington.

According to a Congressional Research Service insight dated Oct. 13, President Trump approved emergency declarations on Oct. 9 for parts of Florida and Alabama, along with Georgia. Isaias was the first hurricane of the 2026 Atlantic season to make landfall in the continental United States, the report said.

Which tax deadlines moved

Both releases cover most federal individual, business and tax-exempt returns whose original or extended due date falls inside the relief period. Among the deadlines that now shift to February:

Individuals who had a valid extension to file their 2025 return, normally due Oct. 15, 2026, now have until the February date for their state. The IRS notes that the tax payments for 2025 were due April 15, 2026, so those payments are not covered.

Estimated tax payments due inside the window, including the fourth-quarter payment normally due Jan. 15, 2027, can be made by the February deadline without a failure-to-pay estimated tax penalty.

Quarterly payroll and certain excise tax returns normally due Nov. 2, 2026, are postponed. The Florida release also covers returns due Feb. 1, 2027.

Payments under an existing installment agreement that fall in the window will not put the agreement into default, according to the Alabama release, though interest and late-payment penalties still build.

Information returns such as W-2s and the 1099 series are not covered, and neither are employment and excise tax deposits unless the release says so. The IRS is offering penalty abatement on payroll and excise deposits due in the first two weeks of the relief period if the deposits were made within the dates listed in each release.

Insurance, aid payments and retirement withdrawals

The Alabama release adds that qualified disaster relief payments are generally excluded from income, so help from a government agency or employer to cover storm-related expenses generally does not show up as taxable income. It also points storm victims to Form 8915-F, which covers disaster-related distributions from retirement plans.

The Congressional Research Service report notes that the emergency declarations issued so far allow narrower federal help than a major disaster declaration, such as evacuation support, emergency food and shelter. Individual Assistance for households, including housing aid, becomes available only if a major disaster is declared.

For homeowners, the same report draws a line that often decides how much a storm costs a family. Wind damage is generally covered by a standard homeowners policy, frequently with a separate hurricane deductible. Flood damage requires a separate policy through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private insurer, and those claims can be filed without any federal declaration.

How the relief reaches taxpayers

The IRS says it applies the relief automatically to any taxpayer whose address of record is in a covered county. No form or phone call is needed. Taxpayers who live outside the area but whose records are inside it, such as clients of an affected tax preparer, should call the IRS Special Services line at 866-562-5227.

Anyone who receives a late-filing or late-payment penalty notice for a due date inside the relief period should call the number on the notice to have it removed.

Florida taxpayers with uninsured losses from the storm can claim them on either their 2026 return or their 2025 return, according to the Florida release, and should write the FEMA declaration number, 3655-EM, on the return. Fees are waived for transcripts and copies of past returns requested on Form 4506 or 4506-T with that number. The Alabama release assigns declaration number AL-0017-DR for the same fee-waived requests.

Both Isaias releases are listed on the IRS page of tax relief in disaster situations, which the agency updates when more counties or states are added.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Carol M. Highsmith – Public domain/Wikimedia Commons