In a November 1 letter to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, Jeffrey Porter, CPA, chair of the AICPA's Tax Executive Committee, noted that the IRS expects to grant additional filing and payment relief as qualifying disaster declarations are issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), beyond the limited initial guidance issued October 31, 2012 (IR-2012-82).

 

"This situation merits an extraordinary response from the IRS - FEMA declaration or not," Porter wrote. "We understand that the IRS has authority through administrative pronouncement via press release to grant relief for filing deadlines for those individuals in affected areas. We hope that the IRS considers some amount of broader relief than typically provided in disasters."

 

At a minimum, Porter explained, any relief should at least consider factors such as where the taxpayer is located, where the taxpayer's preparer is located, and where the taxpayer's records are located. "If any of those locations fall within the areas impacted by Hurricane Sandy, we request that the relief be extended to those items," he stated.  

 

Relief is needed by many types of taxpayers, including some significant deadlines associated with exempt organization filings, where many of the organizations may actually be involved in relief efforts associated with Hurricane Sandy.

 

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