Irs Gives Victims Of Hurricane Katrina More Relief

The IRS has announced further tax relief for victims of
Hurricane Katrina due to slow clean up efforts and obviously
devastated areas
The IRS is giving relief to both businesses and individual
taxpayers in certain areas that have been absolutely wiped out
Instead of being required to file in March or April, depending
on whether the payer is a business or individual, all taxpayers
in certain regions will have till August 28, 2006 Further, the
IRS is waiving all late filing penalties on people in the
impacted areas even if they don’t file by the August 28, 2006
deadline
This automatic extension represents a very positive move by the
IRS, but readers should keep in mind it doesn’t apply to all
areas Only the most severely damaged areas get to take
advantage of the extension Those areas are in Louisiana:
Cameron, Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St Bernard, St
Charles, and St Tammany The automatic extension is also
applied to individuals living in the Mississippi counties of
Hancock, Harrison and Jackson
For impacted taxpayers who live outside of these areas, the IRS
is willing to grant more time to file taxes Said taxpayers,
however, must contact the IRS to identify themselves To do so,
taxpayers must contact the IRS by calling 1-866-562-5227, a
disaster relief hotline or writing Hurricane Katrina on their
tax returns when filing
Importantly, none of these extensions applies to any ongoing
business tax requirements for entities which are functioning
Ongoing business tax requirements include items such as filing
employment tax deposits for employee wages if your business is
still functioning You can file your annual tax return late, but
not monthly or quarterly items if you are up and running
Without doubt, the Internal Revenue Service is the most maligned
agency in the government It is ironic that the agency has made
positive step after positive step to grant relief of all sorts
to victims in the disaster zone The IRS has even published
articles and press releases telling victims how to file amended
taxes to claim the losses on previous tax returns and get
refunds
Compared to the rest of the federal government, the IRS is
clearly the only agency that has stepped up and delivered for
the victims of Hurricane Katrina For once, the IRS deserves a
standing ovation

Tags | business, counties, deposits, disaster, employment, hancock, katrina, plaquemines, result, tax, taxpayers