What happened to the April 15 income tax deadline in Florida? There's a reprieve

The deadline to file your taxes is April 15. Unless you live in Florida.

The Internal Revenue Service has announced it's extending the deadline date to May 1 because of a series of hurricanes that slammed the state -- Debbie in August and then the two-fer Helene and Milton two weeks apart in September and October.

MORE: FEMA to Florida cities hit by hurricanes: Rebuild higher or lose your flood insurance

Who does the tax filing date apply to?

The new May 1, 2025, tax filing deadline date, rather than the traditional April date this year, applies to people and businesses who live or are based anywhere in Florida, not just the counties that got hit from the 2024 storms. So that includes Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties in South Florida.

The reprieve covers the following entities who traditionally must file by April 15: individual, corporate and estate and trust income tax returns. Also, partnership returns, S corporation returns, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax returns; annual information returns of tax-exempt organizations and employment and certain excise tax returns.

What about the post office?

In past years, the Postal Service has held a "drive through" in the parking lot of the Miami General Mail Facility at 2200 NW 72nd Ave., west of Miami, to hand collect mail-in tax returns from people getting their mail out just under the wire on the April 15 deadline. This year that drive through will not happen on either date, said spokeswoman Debbie Fetterly in an email to the Miami Herald.

Visit usps.com for regular business hours of post offices in South Florida. There are no plans for extended hours on either date -- April 15 or May 1, but some post offices regularly are open after 5 p.m., she said.

Fetterly has another tip: "Customers who deposit their income tax returns in blue collection boxes should check the pickup times to ensure their deposit is prior to the last pickup for that day. We also encourage our customers to drop off their returns inside post offices."

Is Florida alone in new deadline?

Nine states have extended the tax filing deadlines until May 1 for various disaster-related reasons, but in some cases only those living in certain counties get the deadline extension.

All counties:In addition to Florida, the other four states with a May 1 deadline for all of its residents are Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Select counties: Alaska, New Mexico, Tennessee and Virginia have until May 1, too, but not for everyone -- just selected counties that saw disasters. For example, there's just Juneau in Alaska because of severe flooding. But numerous counties in Tennessee (14) and Virginia (37) qualify.

Other deadline extensions

The IRS has extended disaster deadlines even beyond May 1 for some special circumstances.

The California wildfires in January led the IRS to extend tax-filing deadline from April 15 to Oct. 15 for residents of Los Angeles County.

Special relief for terrorist attacks in Israel. Taxpayers who live or have a business in Israel, Gaza or the West Bank, and certain other taxpayers affected by the terrorist attacks in Israel, have until Sept. 30 to file and pay.

More information

Eligible individuals or families can get free help preparing their tax return at Volunteer Income Tax Assistance or Tax Counseling for the Elderly sites, according to the IRS. To find the closest free tax help site, use the VITA Locator Tool or call 800-906-9887.

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