The IRS has pushed the federal tax deadline for Indiana storm victims to February 1, 2027, and the same release spells out a limit that is easy to miss: the payments that were due on April 15, 2026 are not covered. Filing relief and payment relief are not the same thing here, and the agency says so itself.

The September 2 announcement, release IN-2026-01

The IRS announcement, numbered IN-2026-01 and dated September 2, 2026, follows a federal disaster declaration, FEMA 4933-DR, for severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes and flooding that began August 11, 2026. It covers 21 Indiana counties: Carroll, Dearborn, Decatur, Delaware, Fayette, Franklin, Hamilton, Hancock, Henry, Lake, LaPorte, Madison, Marion, Morgan, Porter, Pulaski, Randolph, Rush, Tipton, Union and Wayne.

Within those counties, most federal returns and tax payments that were originally due between August 11, 2026 and February 1, 2027 are postponed to February 1, 2027. The IRS lists individual income tax, corporate, estate and trust, partnership, S corporation, employment and excise returns among them. Estimated income tax payments that were due on or after August 11, 2026 get the same postponement.

The question for a household in those counties is simple: what is still due, and by when? A taxpayer in one of the 21 counties who has a 2025 return on extension has until February 1, 2027 to file it. Estimated payments due on or after August 11 are also postponed to that date. A payment that was due April 15, 2026 is not part of the relief, so anything unpaid from that date is a separate item to settle with the IRS.

Telling which date an IRS letter refers to is often the hard part, and The IRS Refund Recovery Kit includes a notice decoder and a refund status tracker spreadsheet.

Open the IRS notice decoder for Indiana storm deadlines →

Where the postponement stops

The release carries one sentence that matters for any household that owed tax with a 2025 return: “Because tax payments related to these 2025 returns were due on April 15, 2026, those payments are not eligible for this relief.” The timing appears to explain the line. The disaster began on August 11, and the April 15 payment date was months earlier, outside the postponement window that runs from August 11 forward.

That produces a split for taxpayers who put 2025 returns on extension. The extension to file ran to October 15, 2026, a date inside the window, so the filing of that return is covered by the new February 1, 2027 date. The balance due on that return was still due April 15, and the IRS says that payment is not eligible. The release does not describe any new penalty or interest treatment for it, so the practical reading is that the original payment date still stands.

The postponement also reaches people who do not live in the 21 counties, if their tax records are there. The IRS says relief extends to taxpayers who reside or operate a business in the covered area, and to individuals whose records needed to meet a deadline are located in the area. Relief workers from recognized organizations are included.

Automatic relief and what the IRS asks of those outside the area

The IRS says it “automatically identifies taxpayers located in the covered disaster area and applies filing and payment relief.” Taxpayers in the area do not need to request it. The agency’s guidance for those whose address is outside the covered counties is different: “Affected taxpayers who reside or have a business located outside the covered disaster area should call the IRS Special Services toll-free number at 866-562-5227.”

Penalty treatment is narrower than the headline date suggests. Penalties on payroll and excise tax deposits due between August 11 and August 26, 2026 are abated if the deposits were made by August 26. Late-filing or late-payment penalties tied to original deadlines inside the postponement period may be abated when the taxpayer contacts the IRS.

A choice on casualty losses

Disaster losses to a home or belongings can be claimed on the return for the year of the event or the prior year, and the IRS allows six months after the original due date of the return to make that election. A taxpayer weighing the two years would compare the refund each produces. The release also notes that under Public Law 119-64, the Disaster Related Extension of Deadlines Act, the postponement of a federal return deadline due to a federally declared disaster is treated as an extension for the limit on a tax refund.

Reading the IRS page against the records at hand

The route that costs nothing is the IRS release itself, which carries the county list, the postponed deadlines and the payment carve-out in the agency’s own words. The IRS also keeps an index of all current disaster postponements at irs.gov/newsroom/tax-relief-in-disaster-situations, last updated September 16, 2026, which lists Indiana alongside seven other jurisdictions whose deadline is also February 1, 2027: Hawaii County, the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Washington, Nebraska, the Northern Mariana Islands, West Virginia and Mississippi.

A household can start by finding the county on the list of 21, then gathering the 2025 return or extension confirmation, any record of the April 15 payment, and any IRS letter received since. Matching each letter’s tax year and due date to the release shows whether the postponement applies. The toll-free number for those outside the area is 866-562-5227. The release is numbered IN-2026-01 and is dated September 2, 2026.

The IRS Refund Recovery Kit pairs its notice decoder with the refund-trace steps (Form 3911), a set of steps useful when a payment or refund cannot be located.

Click here to get The IRS Refund Recovery Kit →

This piece was drafted with AI assistance; the figures and dates were checked against the IRS announcement IN-2026-01 and the IRS disaster relief index linked above.