The IRS has postponed federal filing and payment deadlines to February 1, 2027 for twelve entries on its disaster-relief list, including wildfire-hit parts of Washington state and five separate Nebraska declarations. None of the twelve covers a whole state. Each is limited to named counties, islands or tribal governments, so a taxpayer’s address decides whether the later date applies.
The entries run from an earthquake on Hawaii’s largest island to a typhoon in the Northern Mariana Islands, and the individual IRS releases carry the coverage detail that the list’s shorthand leaves out. Payments, estimated tax installments and quarterly payroll returns all move with the filing dates, which makes the county line a question of dollars as well as paperwork.
The twelve entries on the February 1, 2027 list
The IRS page Tax Relief in Disaster Situations sorts current postponements by new deadline. Twelve entries sit under February 1, 2027, each backed by its own IRS release:
- Hawaii County, Hawaii, earthquake
- The Oglala Sioux Tribe, South Dakota, storms, straight-line winds and flooding
- Indiana, storms, tornadoes and flooding
- Washington, wildfires
- Douglas County, Washington, wildfires
- Nebraska, March wildfires
- Nebraska, April wildfire in central Nebraska
- Nebraska, severe storms
- Nebraska, May wildfires
- Nebraska, June wildfires
- The Northern Mariana Islands, Super Typhoon Bavi
- West Virginia, storms, tornadoes, flooding, landslides and mudslides
A separate group on the same page, covering Mississippi, Wisconsin, Michigan and the Northern Mariana Islands after Super Typhoon Sinlaku, carries an earlier date of November 2, 2026, and is not part of the twelve.
Washington wildfires: six counties and three tribal governments
The page’s shorthand for the largest Washington entry reads “Washington statewide,” but the IRS release behind it names a defined area. Relief covers Chelan, Ferry, Okanogan, Spokane, Stevens and Yakima counties, plus the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and the Spokane Tribe of Indians. The wildfires began July 31, 2026, under FEMA declaration 3650-EM, and the release is dated August 31.
Douglas County is a second, separate Washington entry for the same July 31 start date, also released August 31. It sits outside the six-county list and is covered only by its own declaration. A Washington taxpayer in a county on neither list is not covered by either of these two entries, however close the fires were.
Five Nebraska declarations, five different footprints
The five Nebraska entries are declarations, not disasters, and each carries its own counties and start date. All five releases are dated August 25, 2026.
The March wildfires, which began March 12, cover Morrill, Garden, Arthur, Keith, Grant, Lincoln, Dawson, Frontier, Saunders and Red Willow counties, with any counties added later. The April entry, for the Pressey Fire that began April 22, covers Custer County. The severe-storm entry, with storms beginning May 15, covers nine counties: Buffalo, Fillmore, Gage, Jefferson, Nemaha, Richardson, Thayer, Thurston and Howard. The May wildfire entry, with fires beginning May 16, covers Dawes County. The June wildfire entry, with fires beginning June 9, covers Sioux County.
The start dates matter because relief applies to deadlines falling on or after them. A Custer County business with an estimated payment due in late April has a different clock from a Sioux County one.
Indiana, West Virginia, Hawaii, the Oglala Sioux and the Marianas
Indiana’s relief, released September 2, 2026 for storms that began August 11, covers 21 counties: Carroll, Dearborn, Decatur, Delaware, Fayette, Franklin, Hamilton, Hancock, Henry, Lake, LaPorte, Madison, Marion, Morgan, Porter, Pulaski, Randolph, Rush, Tipton, Union and Wayne. West Virginia’s relief, released August 7 and updated August 11 and 21, covers four counties: Lewis, Pleasants, Ritchie and Upshur, for storms that began July 21.
Hawaii County’s earthquake relief, FEMA declaration 4936-DR, runs from a May 22 start and was released September 10. The Oglala Sioux Tribe’s relief, FEMA declaration 4941-DR, runs from a June 2 start and was released the same day. The Northern Mariana Islands entry for Super Typhoon Bavi, which began July 4, covers the islands of Rota, Saipan and Tinian rather than the whole Commonwealth, and was released August 7 with an August 21 clarification on quarterly payroll deadlines.
What moves to February 1, and what stays put
The releases extend individual, corporate, estate and trust income tax returns, partnership and S corporation returns, employment and excise tax returns, and estimated income tax payments with original or extended due dates between each disaster’s start date and February 1, 2027. The Washington release adds quarterly payroll and excise returns normally due July 31 and November 2, 2026.
Two exclusions recur. Payments for 2025 returns that were due April 15, 2026 do not qualify for the later date, a point stated in the Washington and Hawaii releases, and the later date applies to individuals holding a valid 2025 extension. The Douglas County and Custer County releases also exclude information returns such as Forms W-2 and 1099, and payroll and excise tax deposits, although deposit penalties are waived when the deposits were made by the date each release sets.
On how relief is applied, the Washington release states: “The IRS automatically identifies taxpayers located in the covered disaster area and applies filing and payment relief.” Taxpayers outside a covered area who believe they are affected are directed to IRS Special Services at 866-562-5227, the number the Washington and Hawaii releases give. The IRS list, not a state’s name, is the record of what is covered, and the IRS attributes each of these postponements to the agency as an institution rather than to a named official.
Late or missing IRS refunds, and the notices behind them
Refunds stall for reasons that differ from one taxpayer to the next, and an IRS notice often gives the cause in terms that are hard to read. Taxpayers who never filed also face a time limit on claiming a refund.
The IRS Refund Recovery Kit is for taxpayers with a late, reduced or missing refund, and it includes a notice decoder, the refund-trace steps for Form 3911, a refund status tracker spreadsheet and the 3-year refund deadline.
Click here to keep every IRS notice and deadline in one tracker →
Drafted with AI assistance; the counties, dates and release numbers above were checked against the IRS pages linked in the text.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
