IRS Extends Tax Deadlines to Feb. 1, 2027 for 7 Ohio Counties (OH-2026-02)

IRS Extends Tax Deadlines to Feb. 1, 2027 for 7 Ohio Counties (OH-2026-02)

Missed the October 15 extended filing deadline? If you live — or run a business — in one of seven Ohio counties hit by the August 2026 storms, tornadoes, and floods, you can breathe: the IRS says you didn’t actually miss anything. On October 14, 2026, the agency issued news release OH-2026-02, postponing federal tax deadlines to February 1, 2027 for everyone in the federally declared disaster area. Your October 15 deadline never applied to you in the first place.

This isn’t a trick, a loophole, or something you have to apply for. Relief is automatic: the IRS identifies covered taxpayers by their address of record. But there are real traps in the fine print — tax payments that were due April 15, 2026 are not covered, W-2 and 1099 information returns aren’t postponed, and nobody has said yet whether Ohio’s Department of Taxation will match the February 1 date. This guide covers exactly who qualifies, every deadline that moved (and the ones that didn’t), how to claim your storm damage on your return, and the FEMA aid deadlines running in parallel.

The Short Answer

What Happened (and Why the IRS Stepped In)

Between August 10 and August 22, 2026, a series of severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes, flooding, and landslides tore through southern and central Ohio. Preliminary damage assessments found 50 homes and businesses destroyed, 806 with major damage, and 475 with minor damage, and confirmed 17 tornadoes statewide. Governor Mike DeWine requested a major disaster declaration on September 2, and on October 2 the White House approved it for seven counties — unlocking FEMA Individual Assistance and giving the IRS the legal basis (Internal Revenue Code § 7508A) to postpone tax deadlines.

That’s the two-part pattern every IRS disaster release follows: FEMA declares the disaster area first, then the IRS postpones the deadlines inside it. Both steps are in place here. The IRS release — OH-2026-02, dated October 14, 2026 — covers individuals and businesses affected by the storms “that began on Aug. 10, 2026,” and the postponed deadline is February 1, 2027.

Who’s Covered: The 7 Counties and the Automatic Rule

Qualifying taxpayers are individuals and households that reside — or businesses (including tax-exempt organizations) whose principal place of business is located — in Clermont, Franklin, Hamilton, Licking, Morgan, Muskingum, or Perry county.

You don’t file a form, make a call, or check a box to get the relief. The IRS identifies covered taxpayers by their address of record and applies the postponement automatically. Three groups are also covered under the standard § 7508A rules quoted in the release:

• Taxpayers outside the disaster area whose records necessary to meet a deadline are located in the covered area — you must call the IRS disaster hotline at 866-562-5227 to request the relief.
• Relief workers affiliated with a recognized government or philanthropic organization who are assisting in relief activities in the covered area.
• Visitors to the covered disaster area who were killed or injured as a result of the disaster.

One practical note: if you moved into one of the seven counties after the disaster, or the IRS has your old address, update your address of record so the automatic identification works. And if you received a late-filing or late-payment penalty notice for a date inside the postponement period, the IRS says to call the phone number on the notice to have the penalty abated.

Watch this space: the Governor’s original request covered 23 counties, and the 16 not included in the October 2 approval were still under review at last check. If FEMA adds counties later — the release itself notes additional designations may be made — the IRS relief typically follows the expanded area. We’ll update this guide if that happens.

What’s Postponed: Every Moved Deadline

The postponement covers most federal returns, payments, and time-sensitive acts with an original or extended due date on or after August 10, 2026 and before February 1, 2027. Here’s the breakdown:

A few things this list deliberately does not include:

• W-2 and 1099-series information returns are NOT postponed. The release explicitly carves them out — only the payroll/excise deposit penalties are abated (see below), not the information-return filings themselves.
• 2025 tax payments are not eligible. The release is blunt: “Because tax payments related to these 2025 returns were due on April 15, 2026, those payments are not eligible for this relief.” If you owed a balance with your 2025 return and didn’t pay by April 15, interest and the late-payment penalty kept running. The relief postpones filing, not paying. (For how estimated-payment penalties normally work outside disaster relief, see our Ohio estimated tax payments guide.)
• Refunds owed to you still arrive on schedule. The postponement doesn’t delay IRS refunds — if anything, filing sooner gets your money sooner.

Estimated Taxes & Payroll Deposits: The Exact Rules

This is where taxpayers most often misread disaster releases, so here are the release’s own words — these are the exact lines from OH-2026-02 (U.S. federal government work, quoted directly):

Estimated payments: “Estimated income tax payments originally due on or after Aug. 10, 2026, are postponed through Feb. 1, 2027, and affected taxpayers will not be subject to penalties for failure to pay estimated tax installments as long as such payments are paid on or before Feb. 1, 2027.”

In plain terms: the September 15, 2026 and January 15, 2027 individual estimated installments can both wait until February 1, 2027 with no underpayment penalty, as long as they’re in by then. Interest doesn’t run on amounts that are timely under the postponement.

Payroll and excise deposits: “Penalties on payroll and excise tax deposits due on or after Aug. 10, 2026, and before Aug. 25, 2026, will be abated as long as the tax deposits are made by Aug. 25, 2026.”

That grace window is narrow — fifteen days — and it’s already in the past. If your deposits fell in that window and were made by August 25, you’re covered. Deposits due on or after August 25 but before February 1, 2027 fall under the general postponement for returns and payments originally due in the period. (Note the distinction: deposit penalties are abated for the first 15 days; the deposit obligations themselves remain.)

And one more reminder from the previous section: the relief does not touch information returns. If you’re an employer in Franklin County who was counting on extra time for W-2s, don’t.

Claiming Storm Damage on Your Tax Return (Casualty Losses)

Federal disaster declarations come with a second, separate tax benefit: you can deduct uninsured personal casualty losses from the disaster — and a 2025 law change made that deduction much more valuable.

The election. You may claim the loss on either your 2025 return (the year it happened) or your 2026 return. That’s your choice — and it can matter: if 2025 was the higher-income year, the deduction is usually worth more there. You have up to six months after the due date of the disaster-year return (without regard to extensions) to make the election. Claim it on Form 4684 (Casualties and Thefts) and write the FEMA declaration number 4945-DR on the return so the IRS matches it to this disaster. IRS Publication 547 is the full reference.

The LaMalfa Act change. Under the old rules, a personal casualty loss had to clear two hurdles: a $100-per-event floor and 10% of your adjusted gross income, and you had to itemize. The Disaster Related Extension of Deadlines Act (Public Law 119-64, the LaMalfa Act) eliminated both hurdles for qualified disaster losses — federally declared disasters with incident periods beginning before January 1, 2027, which this one qualifies for. That means even if you take the standard deduction, your unreimbursed storm loss can still produce a tax benefit. Expect this to matter for a lot of the 806 “major damage” households whose losses are real but whose deductions never cleared the old 10%-of-AGI floor.

Unreimbursed only. The deduction is reduced by any insurance reimbursement you received or expect to receive, and by the $100-per-casualty floor that still applies. Document everything now — photos, contractor estimates, insurance correspondence — even if you won’t file until 2027. If you already filed your 2025 return before claiming the loss, you can amend it with an IT 1040X-style correction on the federal side (Form 1040-X); our Ohio amended return guide walks through the state-side mechanics if the casualty loss also changes your Ohio figures.

Retirement Plan Distributions & Installment Agreements

Two lesser-known provisions in the release are worth a paragraph each, because they answer questions disaster victims actually ask:

• Took money from your 401(k) or IRA after the storms? The release allows special disaster distributions from retirement plans: the usual 10% early-distribution tax doesn’t apply, and you can spread the income over three years. Report it on Form 8915-F (Qualified Disaster Retirement Plan Distributions and Repayments). If you already took a distribution, check with your plan administrator or tax preparer whether it qualifies — this is a meaningful break for anyone who raided retirement savings to fund repairs.
• On an IRS installment agreement? Missed payments during the postponement period (Aug. 10, 2026 through Feb. 1, 2027) will not cause your agreement to default. But — and this is easy to miss — interest and late-payment penalties keep accruing on the unpaid balance during the relief period. If you can pay, pay; the agreement is protected, but the meter is still running.
• Owed a refund you never claimed? Under the same Public Law 119-64, the disaster postponement counts as an extension for purposes of the refund-claim deadline — affected taxpayers get additional time to claim a refund or credit. If you had a 2023 refund you were about to let expire, this may buy you more time.

FEMA Aid Running in Parallel: DUA, SBA Loans & Recovery Centers

The tax relief is only half the picture. The FEMA declaration (4945-DR) unlocked several programs with their own hard deadlines:

• Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA): available to workers and self-employed people in the 7 counties whose employment was lost or interrupted as a direct result of the storms — including people who don’t qualify for regular unemployment insurance. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services is accepting applications, and they must be filed by December 1, 2026 (60 days from the October 2 declaration).
• SBA disaster loans: homeowners, renters, businesses, and private nonprofits in the seven counties can apply for physical-damage loans — applications are due December 1, 2026. Small businesses, agricultural cooperatives, and nonprofits in the primary and listed contiguous counties (including parts of Indiana and Kentucky) can also seek Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL), with applications due July 2, 2027.
• In-person help: three Disaster Recovery Centers are open: Reynoldsburg Community Church (1636 Graham Road, Reynoldsburg — serving Franklin and Licking counties), the William H. Barker Community Center (13047 Karl Brown Road, Roseville — serving Perry, Morgan, and Muskingum counties), and the Hamilton County Central Campus (1701 Patricia McCollum Way, Cincinnati — serving Hamilton and Clermont counties). Hours run Monday–Friday 8 a.m.–8 p.m., Saturday 10–6, Sunday 10–4, subject to attendance.

Apply for FEMA assistance at DisasterAssistance.gov, through the FEMA app, or by calling 800-621-FEMA (3362).

What About Ohio State Tax?

Here’s the honest answer: nobody has confirmed it yet. As of October 17, 2026, the Ohio Department of Taxation has issued no announcement matching the federal February 1, 2027 postponement, and no conformity statement we could find. Federal disaster relief does not automatically move Ohio deadlines.

What we do know about Ohio’s normal rules: Ohio’s IT 1040 return gets an automatic filing extension when you have a federal extension — that’s the standard rule that put the October 15, 2026 date on Ohio’s calendar. Whether the Department will mirror the disaster postponement to February 1, 2027 is a separate decision, and it hadn’t been announced at last check.

What to do:

• Confirm before you rely on it. Check tax.ohio.gov news releases or call the Department before assuming your Ohio return is also due February 1, 2027.
• Ohio estimated payments are a separate question too. The IRS postponement doesn’t touch Ohio estimated tax; don’t assume the state follows.
• School district income tax follows its own form (SD 100) — any state-level extension would still need to reach that filing separately.
• Property tax angle: if storm damage reduced your home’s value, it’s worth asking your county auditor about a damage-based reappraisal — a lower valuation can lower your property tax bill. If you receive the Homestead Exemption, confirm that a reappraisal doesn’t affect your eligibility; our Ohio Homestead Exemption guide explains the program’s rules.

We’ll update this section the moment Ohio issues guidance. For the federal side’s standard deadlines, keep our Ohio filing deadlines page bookmarked.

What To Do Right Now: A Checklist

1. Confirm you’re in the zone. Clermont, Franklin, Hamilton, Licking, Morgan, Muskingum, or Perry county — live or principal business there, or tax records there (then call 866-562-5227).
2. Relax about October 15 — but don’t relax about April 15. Your 2025 filing deadline moved to Feb. 1, 2027; any 2025 balance you owed was still due April 15, 2026, and interest is accruing. Pay it now if you haven’t.
3. Mark the real deadlines: Feb. 1, 2027 (federal filing, estimated payments, business returns); Dec. 1, 2026 (FEMA assistance, DUA, SBA physical-damage loans); July 2, 2027 (SBA EIDL).
4. Document storm damage today. Photos, contractor estimates, insurance letters — you’ll need them for the casualty-loss deduction whether you claim it on 2025 or 2026. Write “FEMA 4945-DR” on the return.
5. Call the IRS about any penalty notices with due dates in the Aug. 10, 2026–Feb. 1, 2027 window — use the number on the notice to request abatement.
6. Check Ohio separately. Don’t assume the state return moved until the Ohio Department of Taxation says so.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which Ohio counties qualify for the IRS disaster relief?

Seven: Clermont, Franklin, Hamilton, Licking, Morgan, Muskingum, and Perry. You qualify if you reside or have your principal place of business in one of them. Taxpayers outside the area whose tax records are in the disaster zone, relief workers, and visitors killed or injured in the disaster are also covered. The Governor requested 23 counties; the other 16 were still under review at last check, and FEMA may add counties later.

I missed the October 15, 2026 extended filing deadline — am I in trouble?

Not if you’re in one of the 7 counties. IRS release OH-2026-02 (Oct. 14, 2026) postpones your deadline to Feb. 1, 2027, so your October 15 deadline never applied to you. Relief is automatic — the IRS identifies you by your address of record. Note this covers filing; any 2025 tax you owed was still due April 15, 2026.

Do I need to apply for the disaster tax relief or call the IRS?

No application is needed if you live or have your principal business in the covered counties — it’s automatic. You only need to call the IRS disaster hotline at 866-562-5227 if you’re outside the area but your tax records are inside it, or if you’re a relief worker. If you got a penalty notice for a date in the postponement period, call the number on the notice to request abatement.

Are my 2025 tax payments postponed to February 1, 2027 too?

No. The IRS is explicit: “Because tax payments related to these 2025 returns were due on April 15, 2026, those payments are not eligible for this relief.” Only the filing deadline moved. Interest and late-payment penalties continue on any unpaid 2025 balance — if you owe, pay now to stop the meter.

Which estimated tax payments are postponed?

Estimated income tax payments originally due on or after Aug. 10, 2026 — i.e., the Sept. 15, 2026 and Jan. 15, 2027 installments — are postponed through Feb. 1, 2027, with no failure-to-pay-estimated penalty as long as they’re paid by Feb. 1, 2027. This applies to individuals and businesses in the covered area.

I’m an employer in a covered county — what about payroll deposits and W-2s?

Penalties on payroll and excise tax deposits due Aug. 10–25, 2026 were abated if the deposits were made by Aug. 25, 2026. Quarterly payroll and excise returns normally due Nov. 2, 2026 are postponed to Feb. 1, 2027. But W-2 and 1099-series information returns are NOT postponed — don’t wait on those.

Can I deduct my storm damage on my taxes?

Yes — uninsured losses from a federally declared disaster are deductible as casualty losses, and thanks to the LaMalfa Act you don’t need to itemize and there’s no 10%-of-AGI floor for qualified disaster losses. You can claim the loss on either your 2025 or 2026 return (Form 4684; write FEMA declaration 4945-DR on the return). You have up to six months after the disaster-year return’s due date to elect the year. See IRS Publication 547 for the full rules.

I withdrew from my IRA or 401(k) to pay for repairs — is there any relief?

Possibly. The relief includes special disaster distributions from retirement plans: the 10% early-distribution tax doesn’t apply, and the income can be spread over three years. It’s reported on Form 8915-F. Check with your plan administrator or tax preparer to confirm your distribution qualifies.

Does the February 1, 2027 date apply to my Ohio state return?

Unconfirmed. As of Oct. 17, 2026, the Ohio Department of Taxation had issued no announcement matching the federal postponement, and federal disaster relief doesn’t automatically move Ohio deadlines. Ohio’s normal rule gives you an automatic extension when you have a federal extension — but whether that reaches the disaster date is the Department’s call. Confirm at tax.ohio.gov before relying on it.

What FEMA aid is available and what are the deadlines?

Individual Assistance (housing grants, home repairs, rental assistance, personal property, crisis counseling, legal services) is open at DisasterAssistance.gov or 800-621-FEMA (3362) — applications due Dec. 1, 2026. Disaster Unemployment Assistance for workers whose jobs were lost or interrupted is also due Dec. 1, 2026 (via the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services). SBA physical-damage loans for homeowners, renters, and businesses are due Dec. 1, 2026; Economic Injury Disaster Loans run to July 2, 2027. Three in-person Disaster Recovery Centers are open in Reynoldsburg, Roseville, and Cincinnati.

The Bottom Line

If you’re in Clermont, Franklin, Hamilton, Licking, Morgan, Muskingum, or Perry county, the tax calendar just gave you three and a half extra months — automatically. Your October 15 deadline never applied to you; your new federal deadline is February 1, 2027, covering your 2025 return, your fall estimated payments, and your business filings. Your April 15 payment obligation did not move, your W-2s and 1099s did not move, and your Ohio state return has no confirmed extension — those are the three traps that will catch the careless.

The two clocks that matter most right now are the ones in December: December 1, 2026 is the deadline for FEMA individual assistance, Disaster Unemployment Assistance, and SBA physical-damage loans. File your tax paperwork whenever you’re ready up to February 1 — but don’t let the aid deadlines slip while you wait. And start documenting your storm damage today; the casualty-loss deduction on your 2025 or 2026 return may be worth real money under the new LaMalfa Act rules.

Sources

Every deadline, county, and rule above comes from these sources (checked or re-checked October 17, 2026):

• IRS news release OH-2026-02 (Oct. 14, 2026) — 7 counties, Feb. 1, 2027 postponement, estimated-payment and deposit-penalty rules, 2025 payments exclusion, retirement-plan distributions, installment agreements, Public Law 119-64, casualty-loss election, FEMA 4945-DR: irs.gov/newsroom
• IRS, “Tax relief in disaster situations” — master list confirming OH-2026-02 among active 2026 disaster releases: irs.gov/newsroom/tax-relief-in-disaster-situations
• Columbus Dispatch (Oct. 2, 2026) — 7 counties approved, 23 requested, 16 pending review, damage totals: dispatch.com
• Ohio CPA Society, week in review Oct. 11, 2026 — DUA available, applications due Tuesday Dec. 1, 2026, same 7 counties and damage figures: ohiocpa.com
• Ohio Dept. of Job and Family Services press bulletin (Oct. 7, 2026) — DUA eligibility rules, 60-day application window, Dec. 1, 2026 deadline: content.govdelivery.com (ODJFS)
• Farm and Dairy (Oct. 2026) — three Disaster Recovery Center locations/hours (Reynoldsburg, Roseville, Cincinnati) and 16-county pending status: farmanddairy.com
• Zanesville Times Recorder (Oct. 12, 2026) — Roseville recovery center open through Nov. 1; Dec. 1 individual-assistance deadline: zanesvilletimesrecorder.com
• Porter Brown (portebrown.com), Oct. 2026 analysis — LaMalfa Act casualty-loss rules: itemizing requirement and 10%-AGI floor eliminated for qualified disaster losses with incident periods before Jan. 1, 2027; disasters must be federally declared: portebrown.com
• w4news.org (Oct. 2026) — SBA disaster loans tied to FEMA-4945-DR / SBA OH-20017: physical-damage applications due Dec. 1, 2026, EIDL due July 2, 2027; contiguous-county EIDL eligibility (Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky): w4news.org
• Ohio Department of Taxation — checked Oct. 17, 2026: no conformity or matching-extension announcement found; the article’s state section advises readers to confirm.

Last updated: October 17, 2026. This guide is for general information only and is not tax advice. Disaster designations and deadlines can change — verify at irs.gov and fema.gov before acting.