Dawes County, Nebraska, is the only county named so far in an IRS notice that pushes federal tax deadlines to February 1, 2027, for people and businesses hit by wildfires that began on May 16, 2026. The relief arrived in release NE-2026-06 on August 25 under declaration SD-0013-DR. It also forgives payroll deposit penalties for deposits made by June 1, 2026.
Dawes County and the May 16 fires
Treasury’s tax agency issued NE-2026-06 for a single locality, Dawes County, after the wildfires that began May 16. The IRS says other counties could be added later. The disaster is separate from the severe storms and the June wildfires, which have their own notices.
The May 16 start date is what counts. The relief runs forward from that day, not from the August release date. A return or payment that was due before May 16, 2026, is outside the postponement, and one due on or after that day is inside it.
A resident or business owner in Dawes County who has a federal return unfiled or a tax payment still open from the stretch after May 16 has until February 1, 2027. The question to settle is which of the obligations on that list actually sit in the covered period. The next sections sort them.
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Returns and payments due from May 16 forward
Individual income tax returns and payments normally due on or after May 16, 2026, move to February 1, 2027. So do estimated tax payments due from the same date. Affected taxpayers avoid failure-to-pay estimated tax penalties if they pay by February 1.
Most returns with original or extended due dates between May 16, 2026, and January 31, 2027, are covered. The IRS lists individual, corporate, estate, trust, partnership, S corporation, gift, generation-skipping transfer and exempt organization returns, plus employment and certain excise returns.
A Dawes County business with staff is in the same postponement as its owner. The two quarterly payroll filings that would have landed on July 31 and November 2 both carry to February 1, and the catch-all in Treasury Regulation 301.7508A-1(c)(1) and Revenue Procedure 2018-58 pulls in the other time-sensitive acts that fell inside the window.
Partnerships, S corporations and estates get the same February 1 date for returns that fall in the window. Gift tax and generation-skipping transfer tax returns are listed as well. A family that files a gift tax return for money given to children can hold that filing until the new date if it comes due in the covered stretch.
The postponement also counts as an extension when the refund claim limit is calculated. The IRS cites H.R. 1491, the Disaster Related Extension of Deadlines Act, for that point. For someone owed money, the three-year window to claim a refund is therefore measured with the longer date.
Payroll deposits and information returns keep their old dates
Not everything slides to February 1. Information returns in the W-2, 1094, 1095, 1097, 1098 and 1099 series are left out, as are Forms 1042-S, 3921, 3922 and 8027. Employment and excise tax deposits are also outside the postponement.
One narrow break applies to deposits. Penalties on payroll and excise deposits due on or after May 16 and before June 1, 2026, are abated as long as the deposits were made by June 1. That fixes a short stretch around the fires and nothing later.
Take a Dawes County employer with a quarterly payroll return due July 31. The return itself moves to February 1, 2027. The tax deposits made during the quarter did not move, and only those due before June 1 and made by that date earn penalty abatement. Deposits outside that stretch run on their normal schedule.
For an employer, the practical split is clear. Quarterly payroll returns move to February 1. The deposits that fund them, and the W-2 and 1099 forms that report wages and payments, stay on their regular calendar.
Hotline, free copies and penalty notices
People whose records were destroyed can request copies of earlier returns without the usual fee. The IRS says to write SD-0013-DR in bold at the top of Form 4506 or Form 4506-T. Practitioners holding records for ten or more clients are pointed to separate bulk-request guidance.
Taxpayers outside the disaster area whose records are inside it can call IRS Special Services at 866-562-5227. Free help is also listed through VITA and Tax Counseling for the Elderly sites at 800-906-9887 and AARP Tax-Aide at 888-227-7669. The IRS notes that VITA sites usually cannot claim disaster losses.
A late-filing or late-payment penalty notice with a due date inside the postponement period should be handled by calling the number on the notice. Those who do not qualify for disaster relief may still ask for reasonable-cause abatement. Relief payments can be taxable, which the IRS refers readers to Publication 525 to sort out.
Foreign bank account reports may also get more time. The IRS says FBAR filing deadlines can be extended after natural disasters and points filers to the Treasury’s FinCEN relief notices. That is separate from the IRS postponement, so a Dawes County filer with an overseas account has to check it on its own.
The agency keeps the live county list on its tax relief in disaster situations page. Anyone with ties to Dawes County, including relatives who handle a parent’s taxes, should check it again before February, since counties can be added.
Are the Dawes County payroll deposits and information returns on the right calendar?
Those are the two items the postponement does not carry to February 1.
A Dawes County business that reads February 1 as covering its payroll deposits or its W-2 and 1099 filings can miss a real due date, because the notice leaves both on the regular calendar. The penalty notice that follows usually arrives months later.
The IRS Refund Recovery Kit includes a notice decoder and a refund status tracker spreadsheet. Part 4, Why It Stalled: The Notice Decoder, walks through what common IRS letters mean, so a business has a plan for the notice instead of guessing; it is a reading and tracking tool, not tax filing.
Track Dawes County penalty notices with a notice decoder and refund tracker →
More Financial Reading
- 21 Ways to Stretch a $2,087 Social Security Check
- 15 Places to Find Your Share of the $4.25 Billion States Give Back
- 21 Ways Retirees Can Raise $1,000 Fast Without a Job
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
