Tax,
LA Fires
Jan. 15, 2025
Tax relief approved for LA County wildfire victims
The IRS and California FTB have extended tax deadlines and Section 1031 exchange periods to October 15, 2025, providing relief to Los Angeles County residents and businesses impacted by devastating wildfires.





Phil Jelsma
Partner and Chair of the Tax Practice Team, Crosbie Gliner Schiffman Southard & Swanson LLC (CGS3)
Email: pjelsma@cgs3.com
Phil is chair of the tax practice team at CGS3. He is recognized as a leading joint venture and tax attorney, with a 30-year background in real estate exchange transactions, syndications, nonprofit corporations and international tax planning.

Destroying entire neighborhoods, taking lives and displacing over 100,000 people, the multiple wildfires still raging in Los Angeles County are among the worst in California history. In an effort to grant some relief to the disaster victims, last week the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) extended due dates for both tax returns as well as granted extensions for Section 1031 exchanges.
As a result, taxpayers who live in or have businesses in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) designated disaster areas - which currently include all of Los Angeles County - can file 2024 tax returns with a balance due, with a postponed due date of Oct. 15, 2025. The California Franchise Tax Board (FTB) followed the IRS' lead on Jan. 11, 2025.
California disaster relief explained
To help clarify the process and ongoing updates, the following is a recap of the IRS's and FTB's recent disaster relief for Californians, which applies to individuals, business entities, quarterly payroll, and excise taxes as well as passthrough entity elective tax:
• Individual tax returns and payments are due on April 15,
2025.
• Estimated tax payments due Jan. 15, 2025; April 15, 2025,
and Sept. 15, 2025.
• Tax returns are due on March 15, 2025, or April 15,
2025.
• California passthrough entity elective tax payments due March 15
and June 15, 2025.
• The IRS automatically provides filing and penalty relief to any
taxpayer with an IRS address of record located in the disaster area so taxpayers do not need to contact the agency to get
this relief.
• In addition, under Revenue Procedure 2018-58, the four-day and
180-day time periods under Section 1031 have been extended if the
relinquished property (or replacement property in a reverse exchange) is sold
on or before Jan. 7, 2025. The 45-day identification period and
180-day exchange period will be extended up to 120 days or until Oct. 15, 2025
- whichever is later.
• Individuals and businesses in a
federally declared disaster area who suffered uninsured or unreimbursed
disaster-related losses can choose to claim them on either the return for the
year the loss occurred (in this instance, the 2025 return normally filed next
year), or the return for the prior year (2024, normally filed this tax season).
Conclusion
It is not uncommon for the IRS - and/or local entities - to grant disaster relief to help communities recover in the aftermath of extreme weather or natural disasters. Many other situations have resulted in tax relief for victims, including the California wildfires, multiple hurricanes, Florida floods, and the Alaska storms. This latest disaster relief is very similar to what the IRS implemented last year as a result of damage from severe storms and flooding in San Diego County.
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