Our office is outside the disaster area, but our tax records were with an affected accountant. Can we request relief?
A taxpayer outside the disaster area may qualify for relief when records necessary to meet a covered deadline are located in the affected area, under the…
By AE Tax Advisors Team · Updated October 29, 2026
A taxpayer outside the disaster area may qualify for relief when records necessary to meet a covered deadline are located in the affected area, under the announcement's conditions. Automatic system relief may not apply, so the taxpayer may need to identify itself to the IRS. A general business inconvenience is not the same as inaccessible necessary records.
A specific business-owner situation
A business's accountant and required records are in a covered flood area, while the business itself is elsewhere. Its account may not receive automatic relief based on the filing address.
Illustrative example, not a client result.
What to establish before filing
- Identify the necessary inaccessible records.
- Review the announcement's affected-taxpayer definition.
- Follow the stated contact or relief-request process.
Which fact changes the answer?
Records necessary for the covered act differ from documents unrelated to that filing obligation. Explain the actual dependency.
A mistake to avoid
Do not assume the accountant's ZIP code automatically updates every client's IRS account.
Records that support the decision
- Record location evidence.
- Accountant correspondence.
- Covered deadlines and IRS contact record.
The decision to document
Request the applicable relief using the official process and retain confirmation rather than silently assuming every deadline moved.
Business-owner tax planning and preparation scope · Discuss advisory scope with AE
Related questions
- The IRS announced disaster relief for our county. Does that prove the state tax deadlines changed too?
- We sold damaged property instead of repairing it. Do we combine the casualty and sale into one loss?
Sources and editorial context
- IRS: disaster-specific tax relief announcements
- IRS Publication 547: casualty losses and disaster elections
General educational information prepared with AI assistance. No individual professional review is claimed. Apply the relevant tax-year rules to the actual records. Editorial policy · AI disclosure.