Employers and taxpayers on the islands of Rota, Saipan and Tinian, in the Northern Mariana Islands, have until February 1, 2027, to meet certain quarterly payroll deadlines under IRS disaster relief for Super Typhoon Bavi. The relief covers the quarterly payroll returns that were originally due July 31, 2026, and November 2, 2026.
The IRS issued the relief on August 7 as release NMI-2026-02, then posted an update on August 21 that narrowed how far the February 1 date reaches. The release is the IRS announcement of tax relief for the Northern Mariana Islands.
Which payroll returns got the extra time
The IRS update says the February 1, 2027 extension in the release’s paragraph 6 applies only to the quarterly payroll deadlines originally due on July 31, 2026, and November 2, 2026. The first is the filing date for the April-through-June quarter. The second is the filing date for July through September, which landed on November 2 because October 31 is a Saturday, according to the instructions for Form 941.
Form 941 is the Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return, the form businesses use to report income tax, Social Security tax and Medicare tax withheld from employees’ paychecks, plus the employer’s own share of Social Security and Medicare tax, the IRS explains. Any employer on the three islands who has not yet filed a return for either quarter now has until February 1.
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Where the relief stops
The extension does not cover everything a payroll department handles. Employment and excise tax deposits are not postponed, the IRS says in the release, so money withheld from paychecks still has to move on the regular deposit schedule. The only deposit relief is penalty abatement: penalties on payroll and excise deposits due on or after July 4, 2026, and before July 19, 2026, are waived if the deposits were made by July 19.
Information returns in the W-2, 1094, 1095, 1097, 1098 and 1099 series are not covered, nor are Forms 1042-S, 3921, 3922 and 8027, unless an IRS revenue procedure lists the act. Tax payments tied to 2025 returns that were due April 15, 2026, are also outside the relief.
What the original release said, and what the update changed
The August 7 text was broader. It said affected individuals and businesses had until February 1, 2027, to file various federal individual and business returns and make payments, including estimated income tax payments originally due on or after July 21, 2026, and 2025 Form 1040 returns on a valid extension. It also listed corporate, partnership, S corporation, estate, trust and exempt-organization returns.
The August 21 update is attached to paragraph 6 only, and it limits that paragraph’s extension to the two payroll dates. The IRS has not published a rewrite of the other paragraphs. Anyone who relied on the wider list, such as a sole proprietor with an estimated payment, should confirm the treatment with the IRS before counting on February 1.
The IRS’s own disaster relief index lists the Bavi relief for the Northern Mariana Islands under its 2026 announcements as various deadlines postponed to February 1, 2027. The same index has a separate entry for Guam, number GU-2026-01, with deadlines postponed to February 4, 2027, so the two territories have different dates.
How the relief reaches a business on the three islands
Relief applies to individuals and businesses on Rota, Saipan and Tinian, under FEMA disaster declaration 4931-DR. Super Typhoon Bavi began on July 4, 2026. The IRS says affected taxpayers who claim disaster losses on a return should write the declaration number, 4931-DR, at the top of the form.
The IRS says a taxpayer who receives a late filing or late payment penalty notice with a due date inside the postponement period should call the number on the notice to ask for abatement. That step matters for payroll offices, because automated notices can go out while a return sits in the postponed window.
Help for employees and owners with their own returns
Workers whose payroll is handled by an employer have no payroll form of their own to file, but their own income tax returns are a separate matter. IRS Free File guided tax software is available to anyone with adjusted gross income of $89,000 or less, and Free File Fillable Forms are open to everyone, the IRS says.
The release also lists free return help through VITA and Tax Counseling for the Elderly sites at 800-906-9887 and through AARP Tax-Aide at 888-227-7669. For copies of prior-year returns, the usual fee is waived when 4931-DR is written in bold at the top of Form 4506 or 4506-T. For casualty losses, the IRS points to Publication 547 and Form 4684.
The February 1 date is still more than three months away, but it is the only fixed date for the two payroll returns. Employers who file in the next few weeks still have to keep depositing withheld tax on schedule, and a filed return does not erase a penalty notice that arrives before the relief is applied.
Got an IRS notice about a payroll return from the typhoon months?
A payroll return that is postponed on paper can still produce an automated IRS notice with a penalty on it. For a business owner or bookkeeper on Saipan, Tinian or Rota, the hard part is telling which letters the August relief covers, which ones need a response, and by what date.
The IRS Refund Recovery Kit includes a notice decoder for reading IRS letters, and a refund status tracker spreadsheet that keeps each notice, its date and the response in one place. The turn here is from the payroll deadline to the paperwork it can set off: the kit covers an IRS notice or timing question, not the payroll filing itself.
Get the IRS notice decoder and status tracker for the payroll relief period →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
