Taxpayers in Guam now have until Thursday, February 4, 2027, to file and pay a wide range of federal taxes that came due after Super Typhoon Bavi struck the territory. The IRS announced the postponement on October 14, 2026, in release GU-2026-01. The relief follows the federal disaster declaration number 4946-DR, which covers Guam.
The postponement reaches back to July 4, 2026, the date the IRS gives for the start of the disaster, and covers deadlines that fall on or after that date and before February 4, 2027. The window takes in returns, tax payments and payment plan installments, and the release spells out which are included and which are not.
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Who gets the Guam postponement?
The IRS lists five groups. Individuals who live in the covered area are first, followed by businesses, including tax-exempt organizations, whose principal place of business is there. The relief also reaches taxpayers outside Guam whose records needed to meet a deadline are inside it, relief workers affiliated with recognized government or philanthropic organizations, and visitors to Guam who were killed or injured by the disaster.
Taxpayers outside the area who believe they qualify because their records are in Guam can call the IRS Special Services toll-free line at 866-562-5227. Practitioners in the covered area can contact the same office.
Which deadlines moved to February 4?
Most federal returns with an original or extended due date before February 4, 2027, are covered. The IRS names individual, corporate, estate and trust, partnership, S corporation, gift and generation-skipping transfer, tax-exempt information, employment and certain excise returns.
Estimated income tax payments originally due on or after July 4, 2026, are covered too. The IRS says no failure-to-pay penalty applies to them if they are paid by February 4, 2027. Quarterly payroll and certain excise returns normally due July 31, November 2, 2026, and February 1, 2027, move as well.
People with a valid extension for their 2025 individual return also get until February 4, 2027. Their 2025 tax payments, however, were due April 15, 2026, and the IRS says those payments are not eligible for this relief.
What is not postponed?
Information returns in the W-2, 1094, 1095, 1097, 1098 and 1099 series keep their original dates, as do Forms 1042-S, 3921, 3922 and 8027. Employment and excise tax deposits are not postponed either. For deposits due between July 4 and July 20, 2026, the IRS abates penalties if the deposits were made by July 20, 2026.
What happens to penalties and payment plans?
Someone who gets a late filing or late payment penalty notice for a due date inside the postponement period should call the number printed on the notice and ask for the penalty to be removed, the IRS says. Taxpayers who do not qualify for disaster relief can still ask for reasonable-cause penalty relief.
Installment agreements get their own protection. Missed payments due from July 4, 2026, through February 4, 2027, will not cause an agreement to default if they are paid by February 4, 2027. Interest and late-payment penalties still build up, and direct debits continue unless the taxpayer asks the IRS or a bank to stop them.
Are there rules for storm losses and retirement accounts?
Affected taxpayers may deduct a casualty loss on the return for the disaster year or the year before, and the election can be made up to six months after the due date of the disaster-year return. Personal property losses not covered by insurance may be deductible. The IRS asks filers to write 4946-DR on any return that claims the loss, and to put it in bold at the top of Form 4506 or 4506-T to waive the fee for copies of returns.
Eligible taxpayers may also take a special disaster distribution from a retirement plan or IRA that avoids the additional 10% early-distribution tax and can be reported over three years on Form 8915-F. Free help is available through VITA and Tax Counseling for the Elderly sites at 800-906-9887 and AARP Tax-Aide at 888-227-7669, although the IRS notes that VITA sites normally cannot help with disaster losses.
The IRS runs its disaster relief pages at IRS.gov. The open question for many Guam households is which of their deadlines the release covers, and which, like the information-return dates, still stand.
Penalty notice arriving before the February 4 deadline?
A postponement does not rule out a letter. The release says a late-filing or late-payment penalty notice for a due date inside the window should be answered by calling the number printed on it, and a notice that is misread or set aside can cost a household time and money.
The IRS Refund Recovery Kit includes a notice decoder (Part 4, “Why It Stalled: The Notice Decoder”) and a refund status tracker spreadsheet for keeping each letter, each call and each date in one place.
Open the IRS Refund Recovery Kit’s notice decoder for a Guam penalty letter →
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- The New $6,000 Senior Deduction and 14 More Tax Moves for Retirees
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
