Taxpayers in 40 Alabama counties hit by Hurricane Isaias have until Feb. 4, 2027 to file most federal returns and make tax payments that would otherwise come due in the months ahead, the Internal Revenue Service announced Oct. 14, 2026. The storm began Oct. 7, and the relief is logged as release AL-2026-01. Retirees, small landlords and self-employed workers in the covered area get the extra time without filing anything.
The IRS names the counties one by one: Autauga, Baldwin, Barbour, Bibb, Bullock, Butler, Chambers, Chilton, Choctaw, Clarke, Coffee, Conecuh, Coosa, Covington, Crenshaw, Dale, Dallas, Elmore, Escambia, Geneva, Greene, Hale, Henry, Houston, Lee, Lowndes, Macon, Marengo, Mobile, Monroe, Montgomery, Perry, Pickens, Pike, Russell, Sumter, Tallapoosa, Tuscaloosa, Washington and Wilcox. A household outside that list is not covered, even if the same storm system reached it.
Which Alabama deadlines moved to Feb. 4
The IRS postponement reaches individual, corporate, estate, trust, partnership, S corporation and tax-exempt organization returns, along with employment and certain excise returns, as long as the original or extended due date falls before Feb. 4, 2027. Estimated tax payments originally due on or after Oct. 7, 2026 also move to Feb. 4, 2027, with no failure-to-pay penalty if the payment lands by then.
Quarterly payroll and certain excise returns normally due Nov. 2, 2026 are pushed to the same Feb. 4 date. That matters for anyone who pays a part-time caregiver or a household worker and files quarterly, because the Nov. 2 date has already passed on the calendar but is covered by the postponement in the affected counties.
Individuals holding a valid extension for their 2025 Form 1040 get until Feb. 7, 2027 to file, according to the release. The IRS adds that 2025 tax payments that were due April 15, 2026 are not eligible for this relief, so an extension does not erase an unpaid 2025 balance or the interest running on it.
What a homeowner in Mobile or Montgomery should sort out first
Most people in the covered counties will not owe anything on Feb. 4 that they did not already owe, because wage earners have tax withheld all year. The people who gain the most are those who make quarterly estimated payments, including retirees with pension, annuity or IRA income that does not have enough withholding. Their next estimated payment can wait until Feb. 4 without a penalty for paying late.
The deadline relief does not shrink the bill. Interest and late-payment penalties still accrue on any balance that was already past due before the postponement, and the IRS says installment agreements will not default over payments missed during the postponement period, though interest and late-payment penalties keep running. Households on a payment plan should still pay what they can.
The reader question in the counties is plain: does the household sit inside one of the 40 counties, and does it have an estimated payment, a quarterly payroll return or an extension that the new date changes? Anyone who can answer yes to either should write Feb. 4 on the calendar now and then gather the records a storm loss will require, since damage claims depend on proof.
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Penalty notices and the phone number for taxpayers outside the map
Taxpayers who receive a late filing or late payment penalty notice with a due date inside the postponement period should call the number printed on the notice and ask for abatement, the release says. Payroll and excise tax deposits due on or after Oct. 7, 2026 and before Oct. 22, 2026 are abated if the deposits were made by Oct. 22, 2026.
The relief has limits. W-2, 1094, 1095, 1097, 1098 and 1099 series information returns, along with Forms 1042-S, 3921, 3922 and 8027, are not postponed, and employment and excise tax deposits are generally excluded apart from that penalty abatement. A landlord or small business owner who sends 1099s to contractors cannot count on extra time for them.
Taxpayers outside the covered area who still need relief, for example because their records are in an affected county, can call the IRS at 866-562-5227. The agency keeps the full list of declared areas and dates on its tax relief in disaster situations page, which also shows the Alabama release alongside every other 2026 declaration.
Retirement money, transcripts and storm-loss deductions
The release also points to other help. Fees are waived for copies of previously filed returns when the disaster designation is written on Form 4506 or Form 4506-T, which helps a homeowner who lost paper files to water damage and needs an old return for a loan or an insurance claim. Qualified disaster relief payments are generally excludable from gross income.
Special disaster distributions from retirement plans and IRAs may be available, and hardship withdrawals may also be possible, according to the IRS. Any such distribution is reported on Form 8915-F, the form the IRS says covers qualified disaster retirement plan distributions and repayments for 2020 and later disasters. Anyone considering one should read the form instructions first, because a withdrawal comes out of savings that were meant to last.
Storm losses to a home or car can be claimed for the disaster year or the prior year, and the filing window for that election is extended. The IRS describes casualty losses in Publication 547, and the practical rule is the same for every storm: photographs, receipts, insurance correspondence and contractor estimates are what turn a loss into a deduction.
Why the paper trail matters before the Feb. 4 date
A postponed deadline is a long runway, and long runways are easy to waste. The relief runs more than three months from the Oct. 14 announcement, and the households that struggle in February are usually the ones who cannot find the insurance declarations page, the 2025 return or the last estimated payment confirmation when the preparer asks for it.
For storm victims, the order that tends to work is simple. Photograph the damage and keep every repair receipt, request copies of lost returns using the disaster fee waiver, note which payments are covered by the postponement, and set a reminder for early January rather than Feb. 4 itself. Preparers in Alabama are likely to be busiest in the last week before the new date, and that is a poor week to start looking for papers.
The IRS has used the same Feb. 4 date, with its own disaster numbers, for several other 2026 declarations, but each has its own area, start date and covered filings. The Alabama date applies only to the 40 counties above, and a taxpayer who moved or who owns property in more than one state should confirm which declaration covers each location before assuming one date fits everything.
Are the storm papers in one place before Feb. 4?
The Alabama date is generous, but it only helps a household that can find what the return and the insurance claim require. A flooded filing cabinet, a missing declarations page or an unrecorded account number is what turns three extra months into a scramble in late January.
The Family Emergency Binder is a fill-in binder with 14 sections, filled in one at a time, including a page for insurance policies and another for legal papers and wishes, so the family knows exactly where everything sits if the next storm hits. It takes an afternoon.
Each account gets its own page, with bank and retirement accounts recorded by last four digits only, and the binder ends with a yearly review date so the information stays current.
Get the fill-in binder for insurance policies and storm-season papers →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
