California Wildfire Tax Extension: Coverage, Postponed Filings, and How to Claim

If a federally declared wildfire hits your California county, the IRS and the California Franchise Tax Board automatically push back your tax filing and payment deadlines, usually by about six months. The California wildfire tax extension applies to everyone whose home or business sits in a covered county, and you don’t have to file any form to get it. For the January 2025 Los Angeles County fires, every federal and state deadline that fell between January 7 and October 15, 2025, was postponed to October 15, 2025.¹²

Who the Extension Covers

The IRS defines affected taxpayers broadly. You qualify if your principal residence is in a county covered by the federal disaster declaration, or if your business is located there.³ Joint filers qualify if either spouse lives in the disaster area. The category covers individuals, sole proprietors, partnerships, S corporations, C corporations, trusts, estates, and tax-exempt organizations.

You don’t have to live in the burn zone to get relief. If your tax records are kept in the affected area, or if your tax preparer’s office is there and they can’t file on your behalf, you also qualify. The same applies if you need a Schedule K-1 from a partnership or S corporation operating in the disaster area and can’t get the information to you on time.⁴ Relief workers assisting with the disaster response through a recognized government agency or charitable organization are also covered.³

What Filings and Payments Are Postponed

The extension reaches well beyond your annual 1040. For the January 2025 Los Angeles County wildfires, the IRS postponed all of the following to October 15, 2025:¹

2024 Form 1040 returns and any income tax owed, normally due April 15, 2025.
All four 2025 quarterly estimated tax payments (January 15, April 15, June 16, and September 15).
Partnership and S corporation returns normally due March 17, corporate and fiduciary returns normally due April 15, and tax-exempt organization returns normally due May 15.
Quarterly payroll and excise tax returns normally due January 31, April 30, and July 31, 2025.
2024 IRA and HSA contributions for eligible taxpayers.

California mirrors the federal postponement. Under Revenue and Taxation Code Section 18572, the FTB incorporates the federal framework and evaluates each disaster declaration to set state filing relief.⁵ For the LA County fires, the FTB confirmed the same October 15, 2025, date for all postponed state returns and payments, including quarterly estimates.²

Filing and payment move together. You won’t be hit with failure-to-file penalties (normally 5% of unpaid tax per month) or failure-to-pay penalties (normally 0.5% per month) on anything due within the postponement window, provided you file and pay by the new date.⁶

How to Claim the Extension

If you live in a covered county, you don’t need to do anything. When FEMA notifies the IRS that a county qualifies for individual assistance, the IRS automatically codes every taxpayer account tied to a zip code in the affected area. The system flags the account as eligible for the postponement without any action on your part.⁴ Returns, whether paper or electronic, don’t need any special disaster marking.

If you qualify through records or a preparer in the disaster area but live outside it, the automatic coding won’t catch you. Call the IRS disaster hotline at 866-562-5227, explain the situation, and give the FEMA disaster number for the county.⁴ For state taxes in the same situation, you can contact the Franchise Tax Board to request the same treatment if a bill with penalties shows up.²

If You Get a Penalty Notice Anyway

The automated systems sometimes misfire and send late-filing or late-payment notices to taxpayers who should be covered. Don’t ignore it, but don’t pay it either. Call the IRS disaster hotline at the number above; agents handle these cases specifically and can abate the penalty on the call.⁷³ For state notices, email or contact the FTB directly to request a penalty waiver tied to the covered tax year.² Keep your address records from the disaster period and any FEMA correspondence handy, along with the FEMA disaster number if your coverage runs through an out-of-area preparer or records location.

What the Extension Does Not Cover

The deadline postponement is one piece of wildfire tax relief, not all of it. If you lost property, received disaster payments, or want to tap retirement funds, those sit in separate programs with their own rules and deadlines.

A casualty loss deduction for property destroyed or damaged in the fire is claimed on Form 4684, and because the fire is a federally declared disaster the loss qualifies for the more favorable “qualified disaster loss” treatment, including a waiver of the 10% adjusted gross income floor and the ability to claim the loss on top of the standard deduction.⁸ You can also elect under IRC Section 165(i) to deduct the loss on the prior year’s return for a faster refund, with a deadline of six months after the original due date of the disaster-year return.⁹ California follows the same prior-year election through FTB Publication 1034.¹⁰

Qualified disaster relief payments under IRC Section 139, and the broader exclusion for qualified wildfire relief payments received between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2025, under the Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2023, are excluded from federal income entirely; if you already reported qualifying payments as income, an amended return can recover the tax.¹¹¹²

California property tax relief under Revenue and Taxation Code Section 170 is a separate claim filed with your county assessor within 12 months of the damage (or by any later deadline in a local ordinance) when physical damage is at least $10,000 in market value.¹³¹⁴¹⁵ None of these are triggered by the filing postponement; each requires its own action.

1
GovDelivery. IR-2025-10: IRS: California Wildfire Victims Qualify for Tax Relief
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Franchise Tax Board. Los Angeles County Fires
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Internal Revenue Service. Disaster Assistance and Emergency Relief for Individuals and Businesses
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Internal Revenue Service. FAQs for Disaster Victims
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California Legislative Information. California Revenue and Taxation Code 18572
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Internal Revenue Service. Failure to File Penalty
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USAGov. Tax Relief for Federally Declared Disaster Areas
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Internal Revenue Service. Publication 547 (2025), Casualties, Disasters, and Thefts
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eCFR. 26 CFR 1.165-11 – Election To Take Disaster Loss Deduction for Preceding Year
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Franchise Tax Board. 2025 FTB Publication 1034 Disaster Loss How to Claim a State Tax Deduction
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 139 – Disaster Relief Payments
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Internal Revenue Service. Wildfire Relief Payments and Casualty Losses Frequently Asked Questions
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California State Board of Equalization. Disaster Relief
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Internal Revenue Service. Access Retirement Funds in a Disaster
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Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plans and IRAs Under the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022