Special tax law provisions may help taxpayers recover financially from the impact of a disaster, especially when the President declares their location to be a major disaster area. Depending on the circumstances, the IRS may grant additional time to file returns and pay taxes. Both individuals and businesses in a presidentially-declared disaster area can get a faster refund by claiming losses related to the disaster on the tax return for the previous year, usually by filing an amended return.

Tax Topic 515 gives an overview of tax relief for presidentially-declared disaster areas.

Our state news links have local news releases announcing tax relief for specific disasters.

Relief Related to Terrorist Actions features links for individuals, businesses, the New York Liberty Zone and other matters pertaining to the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Publication 547, Casualties, Disasters and Thefts, has details on how to figure and claim a disaster loss. Download it (PDF 125K), or read Pub. 547 online.

Publications 2194, Disaster Losses Kit for Individuals (PDF 1982K), and 2194B, Disaster Losses Kit for Businesses (PDF 1885K), contain various IRS publications and forms related to claiming disaster losses.

Publication 3833, Disaster Relief: Providing Assistance through Charitable Organizations, explains how the public can use charitable organizations to help victims of disasters, and how new organizations may obtain tax-exempt status (PDF 507K).