Tax deadlines in 40 Alabama counties moved to February 4, 2027, after Hurricane Isaias struck on October 7. The Internal Revenue Service announced the relief on October 14, in release AL-2026-01. It is the newest of 21 disaster postponements on the agency’s list that now stretch into the new year.
The IRS says the delay applies to most federal individual and business returns and payments that would otherwise fall between October 7 and February 4. People in the covered counties do not have to request it or file a form.
The question for anyone in those counties is what February 4 actually covers. It covers returns and payments that came due after the storm began, including estimated tax payments. It does not cover the balance on a 2025 return, which was due April 15, 2026. If part of that bill is still unpaid, the IRS says the payment is not eligible for this relief.
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The 40 counties on the list
The IRS names the counties in its release: Autauga, Baldwin, Barbour, Bibb, Bullock, Butler, Chambers, Chilton, Choctaw, Clarke, 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 relief rests on a disaster declaration issued by the State of Alabama. The IRS gives the declaration number as AL-0017-DR. Alabama counties not on that list are not covered.
People who live outside the area can still qualify. The IRS says taxpayers whose records are in a covered county are also entitled to relief, and anyone outside the area who thinks they qualify can call IRS Special Services at 866-562-5227.
Tax preparers who hold records for ten or more affected clients are pointed to separate IRS guidance on bulk requests.
What moves to February 4 and what stays put
For individuals and businesses, the IRS says the new date applies to returns and payments with an original or extended due date before February 4. That includes individual, corporate, partnership, S corporation, trust and estate returns.
Several other items shift as well:
- Estimated tax payments that were due on or after October 7 are now due February 4, with no failure-to-pay penalty if paid by then.
- Quarterly payroll and certain excise returns normally due November 2 move to February 4.
- People with a valid extension on their 2025 individual return have until February 7, 2027.
- Penalties on payroll and excise deposits due October 7 through October 22 are waived if the deposits are made by October 22.
Some filings are left out. The IRS says information returns in the W-2, 1095, 1098 and 1099 series are not covered, nor are Forms 1042-S, 3921, 3922 and 8027. Anyone who wants to stop an automatic bank debit during the window has to contact the IRS or their bank. Installment agreements stay in place if a payment due in the window is made late, but the IRS says interest and late-payment penalties keep accruing.
If a penalty notice arrives anyway
The IRS says it identifies taxpayers in the covered area on its own. If a late-filing or late-payment penalty notice still lands with a date inside the postponement period, the release tells people to call the number printed on the notice and have the penalty abated.
The release is numbered AL-2026-01 and dated October 14. It says Hurricane Isaias began on October 7, which is why that date opens the postponement period. The window covers any deadline falling on or after October 7, 2026, and before February 4, 2027. It also says the delay is treated as an extension when the IRS calculates the time limit for claiming a refund or credit, citing Public Law 119-64.
The agency adds a few smaller points. It waives the fee for copies of earlier returns if “AL-0017-DR” is written at the top of Form 4506 or 4506-T. Qualified disaster relief payments are generally not counted as income. People with retirement plans or IRAs may qualify for special disaster distributions reported on Form 8915-F, or for hardship withdrawals, and those who do not qualify for the postponement can still ask for penalty relief for reasonable cause.
Twenty-one postponements run into 2027
Alabama is the top entry on the IRS’s disaster relief index. Counting the index, 21 current 2026 postponements have deadlines in 2027. One falls on January 7, for Nebraska storm victims.
Fifteen land on February 1. They cover Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Hawaii County, the Oglala Sioux Tribe, the Northern Mariana Islands, Mississippi and Washington, along with Douglas County, Washington. Five Nebraska wildfire and storm declarations and an earlier West Virginia declaration sit on the same date.
Four land on February 4: Alabama, Guam, the Pueblo of Zuni in New Mexico and a West Virginia flooding declaration. Florida, also hit by Isaias, gets until February 8.
Free help while the clock is paused
The IRS points filers to free options. IRS Free File Guided Software is open to people whose 2025 adjusted gross income was $89,000 or less, and Free File Fillable Forms has no income limit. Volunteer tax sites can be found at 800-906-9887, and AARP Tax-Aide answers at 888-227-7669.
The agency warns that volunteer sites normally cannot help claim disaster losses. The release lists Publication 525 for the rules on disaster relief payments, and Form 8915-F for the special retirement-plan distributions, so those two documents are the place to start for storm-related money questions.
Is your Alabama county on the IRS list?
A storm delay reaches only the 40 counties and the items the IRS lists. A payment that was never postponed, such as the 2025 balance due last April, still carries penalties and interest, and the letter that follows has a response date on it.
The IRS Refund Recovery Kit includes a notice decoder that explains what each IRS letter is asking for, and a refund status tracker spreadsheet. It also covers the steps to trace a refund that never came, through Form 3911, and the three-year refund deadline.
Decode an IRS penalty letter and chase the refund with the IRS Refund Recovery Kit →
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This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
