IRS provides Hurricane Irene tax relief

The IRS is providing tax relief to individual and business taxpayers impacted by Hurricane Irene.

Certain taxpayers in North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Vermont and Puerto Rico will receive tax relief, and other locations are expected to be added in coming days following additional damage assessments by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

The tax relief postpones certain tax filing and payment deadlines to Oct. 31, 2011. It includes corporations and businesses that previously obtained an extension until Sept. 15, 2011, to file their 2010 returns and individuals and businesses that received a similar extension until Oct. 17. It also includes the estimated tax payment for the third quarter of 2011, which would normally be due Sept. 15.

Full details, including the start date for the relief in various locations and information on how to claim a disaster loss by amending a prior-year tax return, can be found in tax relief announcements for individual states at  www.irs.gov.

The tax relief is part of a coordinated federal response to the damage caused by the hurricane and is based on local damage assessments by FEMA. For information on disaster recovery, individuals should visit disasterassistance.gov.

So far, IRS filing and payment relief applies to the following counties and municipalities:

In Vermont: Chittenden, Rutland, Washington and Windsor;

In North Carolina: Beaufort, Carteret, Craven, Currituck, Dare, Halifax, Hyde, Lenoir, Onslow, Pamlico, Pitt, Tyrrell and Washington and;

In New Jersey: Bergen, Essex, Morris, Passaic and Somerset;

In New York: Albany, Delaware, Dutchess, Essex, Greene, Nassau, Rensselaer, Schenectady, Schoharie, Ulster and Westchester; and

In Puerto Rico: Caguas, Canovanas, Carolina, Cayey, Loiza, Luquillo and San Juan.