Tax-filing deadline approaches for flood victims

The government declared the counties as presidential disaster areas, resulting in an IRS-issued deadline extension that gives taxpayers in those areas until May 19 to file returns, according to a news release.

The counties with approved extensions are: Butler, Bollinger, Calloway, Cape Girardeau, Carter, Christian, Franklin, Gasconade, Greene, Howard, Iron, Jasper, Jefferson, Laclede, Madison, Maries, McDonald, Newton, Oregon, Osage, Phelps, Pulaski, Reynolds, Ripley, Scott, Shannon, St. Francois, St. Louis, Stoddard, Stone, Taney, Texas, Washington, Wayne and Webster.

To expedite processing, taxpayers should call the IRS disaster hotline at (866) 562-5227 to identify themselves, and they should write “Missouri Severe Storms and Flooding” at the top of their tax forms.

Affected taxpayers have the option of claiming disaster-related casualty losses on their income tax returns for either this year or last. Claiming a loss on an original or amended return for last year will get the taxpayer an earlier refund, but waiting to claim the loss on this year’s form could result in greater tax savings, according to the release.