Thousands of Alaskans affected by the earthquake that struck Southcentral Alaska Nov. 30 are eligible for an automatic extension for filing their tax returns.
Monday is Tax Day, the deadline to file, for most Americans. But residents and owners of businesses in Anchorage, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and the Kenai Peninsula Borough have until April 30 to file their returns. That’s because of a Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster declaration following the magnitude 7.1 earthquake.
According to the IRS, the extension is applied automatically and does not require any additional filings beyond the tax return itself. Unlike the general six-month filing extension the IRS offers, which requires filing a form to request it, filers using the earthquake extension do not need to pay any taxes owed until the extended April 30 deadline.
Casey Grove is host of Alaska News Nightly, a general assignment reporter and an editor at Alaska Public Media. Reach him atcgrove@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Caseyhere.
