IRS Grants Tax Relief to All Arkansas Residents Following April Storms

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced Monday that all individuals and businesses across Arkansas affected by severe storms, tornadoes, and flooding beginning April 2, 2025, now qualify for federal tax relief. As part of this relief, tax deadlines originally scheduled between April 2 and November 3, 2025, have been postponed until November 3, 2025.

The tax relief applies to all 75 counties in Arkansas, following the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) designation of the entire state as a disaster area. The IRS emphasized that the current list of eligible localities is maintained on the Tax Relief in Disaster Situations page at IRS.gov.

The postponed deadlines include:

• Individual income tax returns and payments originally due on April 15, 2025
• 2024 contributions to individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and health savings accounts
• Quarterly estimated tax payments due April 15, June 16, and September 15, 2025
• Quarterly payroll and excise tax returns due April 30, July 31, and October 31, 2025
• Calendar-year corporation and fiduciary returns due April 15, 2025
• Calendar-year tax-exempt organization returns due May 15, 2025

Penalties for failing to make payroll and excise tax deposits due on or after April 2 and before April 17, 2025, will be waived as long as the deposits are made by April 17.

Further details on qualifying returns, payments, and other tax-related actions are available on the IRS’s Disaster Assistance and Emergency Relief for Individuals and Businesses page.

The IRS will automatically apply filing and penalty relief to taxpayers whose IRS address of record is within the disaster area. These taxpayers do not need to take any additional action.

However, taxpayers who moved to Arkansas after filing their return or who receive a penalty notice for the postponement period should contact the IRS Special Services at 866-562-5227 to update their address and request relief.

Taxpayers living outside the disaster area but whose records are located in affected counties are also eligible for relief. This includes workers aiding in relief efforts who are affiliated with recognized government or philanthropic organizations. Tax preparers can also submit bulk requests for disaster relief through an option described on IRS.gov.

Affected individuals and businesses with uninsured or unreimbursed disaster-related losses can choose to claim those losses on their 2025 or 2024 tax returns. Taxpayers have until October 15, 2026, to make this election. Any return claiming such a loss must include FEMA declaration number 3627-EM. Additional guidance is available in IRS Publication 547.

Qualified disaster relief payments, such as funds received from government agencies for necessary personal or property-related expenses, are generally not considered taxable income. For details, taxpayers should refer to Publication 525.

The IRS also noted that individuals participating in retirement plans or IRAs may qualify for special disaster-related distributions. These include distributions exempt from the 10% early withdrawal penalty and options to spread the income over three years. Taxpayers may also qualify for hardship withdrawals, subject to their specific plan rules.

The agency said additional tax relief may be announced in the future. For those who do not qualify for disaster relief, penalty abatement for reasonable cause may still be available.