Six counties in central and eastern Washington, three tribal nations, and one additional county are now working under a federal tax deadline that has effectively moved five months. The IRS announced August 31 that taxpayers affected by wildfires that began July 31 have until February 1, 2027, to file and pay most federal returns that would otherwise have come due this fall and winter. The relief comes through two separate declarations covering different parts of the state, and one detail in the fine print matters more than the headline number: not every 2025 tax obligation is actually covered.
Which Counties and Communities Are Covered
The broader of the two declarations, WA-2026-03, applies to individuals and businesses in Chelan, Ferry, Okanogan, Spokane, Stevens and Yakima counties, following a disaster declaration from the Federal Emergency Management Agency carrying FEMA declaration number 3650-EM. The relief also extends to residents and businesses within the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, and the Spokane Tribe of Indians. A second, separate declaration, WA-2026-02, covers Douglas County on its own, issued following a state disaster declaration (state declaration number SD-0015-DR) rather than a FEMA declaration. Both were announced the same day and both run on the identical calendar: relief applies to deadlines falling on or after July 31, 2026, and before February 1, 2027.
What the February 1 Deadline Actually Covers
Under both declarations, the IRS is giving affected taxpayers until February 1, 2027, to file most federal returns — individual, corporate, partnership, S corporation, trust, estate and gift, and certain excise and employment tax filings — that carry an original or extended due date inside that window. Quarterly estimated tax payments due on or after July 31, 2026, are also postponed to that date without triggering the usual underpayment penalty, and quarterly payroll and certain excise tax returns normally due July 31 and November 2, 2026, get the same extension. Payroll and excise tax deposit penalties are abated separately, on a tighter window: deposits due between July 31 and August 17, 2026, avoid penalties as long as they are actually made by August 17.
The Carve-Out Households Are Most Likely to Miss
Both IRS announcements include an identical, specific warning that is easy to skim past: the February 1, 2027, deadline applies to individuals who had a valid extension to file their 2025 individual income tax return, but the actual tax payment tied to that 2025 return was due back on April 15, 2026 — and that payment is explicitly not covered by this relief. In practical terms, a homeowner in Spokane who filed for a six-month extension on their 2025 return can now wait until February to actually submit that return without a late-filing penalty, but if they owed money with that return, the payment itself was still due in April and continues to accrue interest and penalties in the meantime. This is a filing extension layered on top of an existing payment deadline, not a blanket pause on everything owed for 2025.
Replacing Records Lost in the Fire, Free of Charge
Households and small businesses that lost paper files in the fire have one additional administrative break attached to both declarations: the IRS says it will waive its usual fee for requesting copies of previously filed tax returns for anyone affected. Taxpayers claiming that waiver need to write the correct disaster designation in bold letters across the top of Form 4506, Request for Copy of Tax Return, or the more commonly used Form 4506-T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return — FEMA declaration number 3650-EM for the six-county and tribal area covered under the WA-2026-03 announcement, or state declaration number SD-0015-DR for Douglas County under the separate WA-2026-02 announcement. Getting that number right matters more than it might seem: a request filed under the wrong designation can sit in a processing queue far longer than one filed correctly, at a moment when a homeowner rebuilding an insurance claim or a small business reconstructing payroll and expense records needs those documents on a normal timeline, not a delayed one.
Casualty Losses and Retirement Account Access
Households in the covered counties who suffered property damage have a separate option worth knowing about: they can claim disaster-related casualty losses on either their 2026 return, the year the fire happened, or their 2025 return, whichever produces a faster or larger benefit, and they have extra time — up to six months past the normal filing deadline — to make that election. Anyone claiming the loss should include FEMA declaration number 3650-EM on the return for the FEMA-covered counties. Retirement savers in the area also gain limited flexibility: those with a 401(k) or IRA may qualify for a special disaster distribution that skips the usual 10% early-withdrawal penalty and can be spread across three years of taxable income, along with possible hardship-withdrawal options, both subject to each plan’s own rules.
What to Do If the IRS Sends a Late Notice Anyway
The IRS says it automatically identifies taxpayers inside the covered counties and applies this relief without any application needed. Anyone who lives or runs a business outside the formally listed counties, but whose tax records are kept by an accountant or preparer located inside one of them, needs to call the agency directly to request the same relief rather than assume it applies automatically. If a penalty notice arrives anyway for a deadline that falls inside the postponement window, the fix is to call the number printed on that notice and ask for the penalty to be abated, rather than to pay it and hope for a later refund. The full, continuously updated list of every 2026 disaster declaration and its exact covered area is maintained on the IRS disaster relief page, and general federal disaster recovery resources for the same wildfires are available through DisasterAssistance.gov.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. Figures are linked to their primary sources; where a claim could not be verified from the public record, we say so.…