Nearly 176,000 military members are among the residents of Texas who have received a two-month extension for filing their federal income tax returns and making tax payments, because of the recent winter storm that slammed many areas of the state.
The April 15 deadline has been moved to June 15.
The Internal Revenue Service announced Feb. 22 that the tax relief applies to the entire state. Taxpayers in other states that receive similar disaster declarations from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will also get the same filing and payment extensions, according to the IRS announcement. The current list of eligible locations is available at IRS.gov.
As of December, there were 119,598 active duty members stationed in Texas, and 56,210 Guard and Reserve members, according to the Defense Manpower Data Center. Those numbers don’t include the spouses.
There are also thousands of other service members who claim Texas as their home state, but aren’t living there. This tax extension doesn’t apply to them, said Susan Mitchell, Department of Defense Tax Counsel and executive director of the Armed Forces Tax Council. “It’s only for service members who are residing in Texas, as opposed to having a Texas domicile or home of record,” she said.
Service members who are deployed to Texas from other states during this period should contact the IRS at 866-562-5227 for clarification about how this will affect their particular situation.
The IRS will automatically provide the extension to any taxpayer with an IRS address of record located in Texas, according to the announcement.
Taxpayers who suffered uninsured or unreimbursed disaster-related losses can claim them on either the 2020 tax return, or the 2021 tax return. When claiming these losses on a tax return, enter the Federal Emergency Management Agency declaration number —4586— on the return.
The extension applies to various tax filing and payment deadlines as of Feb. 11, including the individual and business tax returns normally due on April 15. The affected individuals and business will have until June 15 to file returns and pay taxes due during that period.
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book "A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families." She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.
