After 32 years of IRS work \u2014 and more than $100 million in resolved tax debt \u2014 I've seen just about every version of the problem you're dealing with. I'm Darrin Mish, a tax attorney in Tampa. Here's what you should know.<\/p>\n\n\n
The IRS announced Hurricane Isaias tax relief one day before the October 15 extension deadline, and it doesn’t cover most of Florida. Tax Attorney Darrin Mish walks through who got more time, what the relief leaves out, and two more IRS stories from this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Watch this episode of IRS Monday on YouTube<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n Get IRS Monday in your inbox every week:<\/strong> getirshelp.com\/irs-monday<\/a> If you live in the Florida Panhandle or southern Alabama, your October 15 tax deadline moved to February. If you live in Tampa, Orlando, or Miami, it didn’t. And if you owed the IRS back in April, the storm didn’t buy you a single extra day on that bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Good morning. It’s Monday, and this is IRS Monday. I’m Tax Attorney Darrin Mish. Every Monday, I take the IRS news, cut out the noise, and tell you what actually matters if you owe the IRS or you think you might. Three things today: the Hurricane Isaias tax relief and who it actually covers, the IRS spelling out what it owes you when you can’t pay, and a new partnership that rewards people for reporting hidden foreign money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The headline: on October 14, 2026, the IRS announced disaster tax relief for Hurricane Isaias in Florida and Alabama. One day before the October 15 extension deadline. That’s cutting it close, even for the IRS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Start with Florida. The relief covers 27 counties, mostly the Panhandle and the Big Bend. Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Bay, Leon, Levy, Citrus, and others. If you live in one of those counties, or your business is based there, you’ve got until February 8, 2027, for most federal returns and payments with a due date on or after October 9, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That includes your extended 2025 individual return. It includes the estimated tax payment due in January. It includes the quarterly payroll returns due November 2 and February 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Look at what’s missing from that list. Hillsborough isn’t. Pinellas isn’t. Pasco isn’t. Orange and Miami-Dade aren’t. If you live there, October 15, 2026, was your deadline, and it stood. If you missed it, file now. The failure-to-file penalty is the expensive one, and it doesn’t care that it rained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alabama got its own relief the same day. Forty counties, including Mobile, Baldwin, Montgomery, and Tuscaloosa. Most deadlines there move to February 4, 2027. And the Alabama relief is built on a disaster declaration issued by the State of Alabama. That’s the state-declared disaster path Congress created in 2025. Under that law, a governor’s declaration alone doesn’t trigger anything. The state has to ask Treasury in writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The relief has limits, in both states. If you owed tax on your 2025 return, that payment was due April 15, 2026. The IRS says it’s not eligible for this relief. Interest and penalties on that balance keep running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Payroll tax deposits aren’t postponed either. In Florida, the IRS will waive the penalty on deposits due from October 9 through October 25, but only if you make them by October 26, 2026. In Alabama, that date is October 22, 2026. Miss it and you’re back in penalty territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re on a payment plan, there’s some good news. The IRS says your agreement won’t default because of payments you miss during the relief period, as long as you catch up by February 8, 2027. But interest and late-payment penalties still pile up. And your direct debit keeps pulling unless you call the IRS or your bank to stop it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The relief is automatic. The IRS uses your address of record to find you. If you live outside the area but your records are inside it, call the IRS disaster line at 866-562-5227. And if you get a late penalty notice for a date inside the relief window, call the number on the notice and get it removed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Deadlines move, and nobody calls to tell you. Subscribe, and I’ll tell you every Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now the quick hits. Number one, on October 7, 2026, the IRS published a tax tip on your right to a fair and just tax system. It reads like a list of tools. The IRS can’t levy all of your wages. Part of your pay is exempt so you can cover basic living expenses. When it evaluates an offer in compromise, it uses national and local cost-of-living guidelines. But the IRS says that if those guidelines would leave you without enough for basic living expenses, it uses your actual expenses instead. Your real numbers can beat their chart. You have to prove them, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The same tip says the IRS has discretion to reduce interest when an IRS employee caused an unreasonable delay or error and you weren’t significantly responsible for it. So if your file sat on someone’s desk for a year while interest ran, that may be fixable. It isn’t automatic. You have to ask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Number two, also on October 7, 2026, the IRS announced it’s partnering with the United Kingdom’s tax authority on the UK’s whistleblower program. The IRS Whistleblower Office helped get it running. Both countries want tips on undeclared foreign bank accounts, people who didn’t file an FBAR, and assets hidden in foreign trusts and anonymous holding companies. The IRS says tips come from accountants, bankers, and executives. People who know where the money is. And a whistleblower doesn’t have to be a U.S. or UK citizen to get an award. If you’ve got money overseas the IRS doesn’t know about, the people who helped you move it now have a reason to talk. Get compliant before one of them does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, check your county against the IRS list before you assume you’re covered. Assuming is how people end up with penalties they didn’t need. Second, if you still owe for 2025 or you’re on a payment plan, keep paying. The storm postponed some deadlines. It didn’t pause the interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If what you find scares you, that’s what we’re here for. Go to getirshelp.com or call my office at 813-229-7100. If you want IRS Monday in your inbox every week, sign up at getirshelp.com\/irs-monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the IRS is already reaching into your paycheck, watch this one next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ll see you next Monday, and thanks for watching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The IRS gave 27 Florida counties and 40 Alabama counties until February 2027. Tampa, Orlando, and Miami got nothing. 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Listen to the podcast:<\/strong> Apple Podcasts<\/a> | Libsyn<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nTranscript<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Hurricane Isaias tax relief: who it covers and who it doesn't<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What the IRS owes you when you can't pay<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The IRS and UK whistleblower partnership<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
This week's takeaway<\/h3>\n\n\n\n