[email protected] wrote:
I have been reading about the income tax filing extension to October 16
for locations experiencing destructive storms this past winter.
I live in the part of California that was affected. I’m looking for
some of the details.
Where is the official information about which zip codes are affected by
the extension?
Federal disasters are declared by county, not ZIP code. You must live in
the affected county.
Do I need to put something in my tax return to indicate I’m taking >advantage of the extension?
Taxpayers eligible are automatically identified. You don't do anything
other than make absolutely sure that your address and city-state-ZIP
Code are correct. If you receive a notice from IRS, it will have a
telephone number to call to request abatement of any penalties.
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-announces-tax-relief-for-victims-of-severe-winter-storms-flooding-and-mudslides-in-california
https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/03/02/more-time-to-file-state-taxes-for-californians-impacted-by-december-and-january-winter-storms/
Does TurboTax support using the extension?
Anything else I need to know?
More than you need to know:
The federal government began using encoding to describe geography for
all sorts of purposes. In the '80s, to better improve distribution and
data entry of the 1990 census, the census block, the smallest unit of
census geography, was encoded to the postal block. ZIP+4 was designed to
make this possible. Eventually, lat-long was added to the census block's encoding. Note that a "block" means the same thing in the census and
post office, at least in an area with street addressing in effect. It's
one side of the street between intersections and it's broken up further
at important points, like the hundreds of a street address changes, or
there is a significant political subdivision boundary like a
municipality, township, or county.
There is a massive translation table called TIGER/ZIP to translate
census blocks into postal blocks.
In mid and high density areas, there is both a ZIP+4 code assigned to
the block and to a smaller set of addresses, like a high-rise building
(one street address with at least four apartments or offices) or a
business receiving a lot of mail, but there is always a block
designated with its own ZIP+4 code.
There is plenty of weirdness in rural areas and places without street addressing or without a rural carrier. On a rural route, the carrier
serves one side of a through street only and mailboxes are erected on
that side of the street, not on the property. Someone whose street isn't
served by a rural carrier erects the box on the nearby street served by
the rural carrier. If there is no rural free delivery, then one
establishes a PO Box with no fees at a nearby post office.
In locations without street addresses, the post office doesn't know
where the property being served is and I have no idea how that gets
translated into census geography.
Over the years with laws consolidating election administration at the
county level rather than having special districts hold their own
elections, and with E-911 service, more and more areas were forced to
accept street addressing to ease administration of government services,
but there are still plenty of areas not yet described by street
addresses.
--
<< ------------------------------------------------------- >>
<< The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, >>
<< nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties >>
<< that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. >>
<< >>
<< The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts >>
<< to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy >>
<< are at www.asktax.org. >>
<< Copyright (2011) - All rights reserved. >>
<< ------------------------------------------------------- >>
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)