When a state extends the time to file but not to pay, or a disaster postpones deadlines in a county, what moves, who qualifies, and how does a partnership use it?

An extension to file is not an extension to pay

An extension of time to file and a disaster postponement come from different authorities. This section covers the extension.

Federally, Internal Revenue Code (IRC) section 6081(a) lets the Secretary of the Treasury grant a reasonable extension of time to file, generally for no more than six months. The time to pay is extended only by a separate grant under IRC section 6161(a)(1), for a reasonable period not to exceed six months from the date fixed for payment.

California draws the same line. The FTB may extend the time to file by up to six months, and by up to seven months for a partnership required to file under Cal. Rev. and Tax. Code section 18633 or 18633.5 (section 18567(a)(1) and (a)(2)(B)). The statute provides that "An extension of time granted pursuant to this section is not an extension of time for payment of tax required to be paid on or before the due date of the return without regard to extension." Underpayment penalties apply "without regard to any extension granted under this section," and the FTB may extend the time to pay separately "whenever in its judgment good cause exists" (section 18567(b) and (c)). Interest runs "for the period from that last date to the date paid," and the last date prescribed for payment "shall be determined without regard to any extension of time for payment or any installment agreement" (section 19101(a) and (b)(1)).

For a partnership, the point matters most for three kinds of entity-level payment. The first is the limited liability company annual tax and fee. The second is any elective pass-through entity tax payment (an optional tax that a partnership may elect to pay at the entity level, for which its partners receive a credit). The third is withholding on payments to partners. A companion article covers the payments a partnership's extension does not move, the safe harbors for tiered partnerships and penalty relief. It does not address Forms 592-Q and 592-PTE, the forms used for the withholding on partner payments, which this article takes up below.

What a disaster postponement is and who is affected

A postponement is a different instrument. Under IRC section 7508A(a), the Secretary may specify a period of up to one year that is disregarded for a taxpayer affected by a federally declared disaster, a significant fire, or a terroristic or military action. The Treasury regulation applies the disregarded period to three questions: whether listed acts were performed in time, the amount of interest and penalties, and the amount of credit or refund (Treas. Reg. section 301.7508A-1(b)(1)). The listed acts include filing an income tax return, paying tax (but "not including deposits of taxes pursuant to section 6302"), claiming a credit or refund, and the government's own acts of assessing and collecting (section 301.7508A-1(c)). Revenue Procedure 2018-58 lists further acts, such as the like-kind exchange periods under IRC section 1031(a)(3). A Governor may also ask the Secretary to apply the same rules to a qualified State declared disaster (IRC section 7508A(c)(1)).

The due date does not change. A postponement "does not extend the due date for the act"; it allows the IRS to disregard a period of up to one year for performance of the act. When a due date falls inside the postponement period, the act may be performed as late as the period's last day, with relief from interest and penalties during the period (Treas. Reg. section 301.7508A-1(b)(2) and (b)(4)). If a payment is not made by that last day, penalties and interest begin the day after the period ends, not on the original date. The regulation's own example runs interest from the day after a June 2 end date.

The postponement runs together with an extension. The regulation says the postponement period "runs concurrently with extensions of time to file and pay." Suppose the original due date came before the period and the extended due date falls inside it. A return filed by the period's last day is then timely. A payment is timely by that day if an extension of time to pay was granted (section 301.7508A-1(b)(3)).

The Office of Tax Appeals applied this rule through California section 18572 in Appeal of C. Hurst, 2026-OTA-333 (April 28, 2026), an opinion designated nonprecedential. An IRS notice for South Carolina gave affected taxpayers until May 1, 2025 to file returns with an original or extended due date between September 25, 2024 and May 1, 2025, and California conformed to it. The FTB did not contest that the appellant was an affected taxpayer, because the appellant's records were with its accountant in South Carolina. The appellant's extended due date of October 15, 2024 fell inside the period, so the late filing penalty was reversed and a refund of $2,654 plus interest was due. The opinion is practice evidence and not precedent.

Who is affected. The IRS fixes the covered disaster area, county by county, by news release. The regulation reaches an individual whose principal residence is in the area, a business whose principal place of business is in the area, and an individual or business whose records needed to meet a deadline are maintained there, even if the individual or business is located elsewhere. A catch-all adds "Any other person determined by the IRS to be affected by a federally declared disaster" (section 301.7508A-1(d)(1)(i), (ii), (iv), (vii) and (ix)). None of the subparagraphs read names the preparer's address. The IRS reaches preparers through the records and the client. Its FAQ states that "Disaster relief applies to the clients of tax preparers who are unable to file returns or make payments on behalf of the client because of a federally declared disaster." A practitioner in the area who holds records for clients outside it may ask the IRS to identify them, by telephone for up to nine clients and by spreadsheet for ten or more.

Automatic or by call. For the 2025 Los Angeles County fires the IRS "automatically provides filing and penalty relief to any taxpayer with an IRS address of record located in the disaster area," and a taxpayer outside the area whose records are in it must contact the IRS (IR-2025-10). Federal tax deposits under IRC section 6302, such as payroll and excise tax deposits, are outside the postponement. The same release abated payroll and excise deposit penalties only for deposits due from January 7 to January 21, 2025 and made by January 22, 2025.

California's version

California applies the federal postponement through Cal. Rev. and Tax. Code section 18572. Subdivision (a) applies IRC section 7508A "except as otherwise provided." Subdivision (b) applies it to a taxpayer the Director of Finance determines to be affected by a state of emergency the Governor declared. Subdivision (c) says the state postponement "shall be determined by the Director of Finance." The statute does not say that California copies the IRS list automatically.

In practice the FTB announces a matching postponement for each disaster. Its page for disasters outside California says the California periods match the IRS periods unless otherwise noted, and asks taxpayers to write the name of the disaster at the top of the return. An FTB article of April 2026 says that when the federal and California periods align, relief is automatic "but only if the return is properly marked" with the disaster designation, and that no Form FTB 3872 is required.

Subdivision (d) is a second layer. It lets an impacted taxpayer request an additional relief period, defined by reference to the federal postponement period, on Form FTB 3872, with supporting documentation on request. One listed form of documentation is a statement signed under penalty of perjury from a tax professional about the taxpayer's books and records. The statute describes the statement as saying the records were destroyed in the disaster area. The form instructions treat a statement of the same kind as evidence that the records were kept there. Either way, the statement speaks to the records and not to the preparer's address.

What the FTB moved for Los Angeles County. The FTB's notice for the 2025 fires is the best evidence of its practice, and it is broader than the federal minimum. It moved the following to October 15, 2025, among other items: 2024 individual returns and payments; quarterly estimated payments; 2024 partnership, limited liability company (LLC) and S corporation returns and payments; the 2025 LLC annual tax and estimated fee; pass-through entity elective tax payments; filing and remitting under the Form 592 series (nonresident withholding) and Form 593 series (real estate withholding); and claims for refund or credit. The FTB says it cannot identify postponed payments automatically, so each payment should carry its tax year and payment type, and elective pass-through entity payments go in separately.

The notices reviewed for this article follow one rule: a payment moves only if its normal due date falls inside the postponement period. The FTB's winter storm page says the 2022 LLC annual tax (normally due April 15, 2022) and the 2022 LLC estimated fee (normally due June 15, 2022) "do not qualify" for the postponement of December 27, 2022 through November 16, 2023, because both dates fell before that period opened. The Los Angeles notice covered the 2025 tax and fee because April 15 and June 15, 2025 fell inside its period.

Notices also differ in detail. The FTB's page of declared disasters, in its 2022 tax year section, says the postponement of time to file and pay does not apply to residents and businesses located in Lassen County, which must file and pay by the normal deadlines. For San Diego County in 2024, the FTB's release said "Payments due on June 17 remain due on that date," the last day of the period.

Preparers and records. On whether a preparer's location matters, the FTB's Los Angeles page looks to the records. A taxpayer outside the county whose records needed for a filing or payment deadline are located there, for example with a tax practitioner, still qualifies. The FTB recommends keeping proof such as a utility bill or bank statement. The FTB's July 2026 reminder and its winter storm page say the same. The April 2026 article lists practitioner location as an example of records in the disaster area, with documentation to be kept. No page read treats the preparer's address alone as a ground. Two published sources treat the preparer's inability to complete the work as a ground: the IRS FAQ quoted above and New York's notice N-21-5, below.

Estimated tax and refunds. The Los Angeles notice moved the quarterly estimated payments. Section 19136(a) and (f) apply the federal estimated tax penalty, IRC section 6654, to individuals, including nonresident individuals, and the subdivisions read contain no disaster provision. The April 2026 article names Form FTB 5805 as the form for estimated tax underpayment penalties. The refund statute, section 19306(a), does not mention section 18572. The postponement reaches refund claims in two ways. The first is section 18572(a) applying IRC section 7508A, under which the regulation counts credit or refund among the matters for which the period is disregarded. The second is the FTB's statement that claims for refund or credit had until October 15, 2025.

The FTB's own assessment period. The regulation lists assessing tax and collecting it by levy or otherwise among the government's acts for which the period is disregarded. In FTB Notice 2020-02 (March 30, 2020), issued under section 18572 for the COVID-19 emergency, the FTB (NPA means Notice of Proposed Assessment) said the following about any statute of limitations to assess additional tax that expires during the postponement period, including an agreed time to assess under section 19067: the FTB "has until July 15, 2020, to issue a timely NPA." The notice is cited for the FTB's reading and not for its 2020 dates, and the disaster pages read for this article do not repeat the statement.

How other states handle it

Each state below uses a different instrument, and each notice or order has to be read for its own dates.

• New York acts by statute and notice. Tax Law section 171, subdivision twenty-eighth, authorizes the Commissioner of Taxation and Finance to postpone certain deadlines for "up to ninety days, or longer when necessary to align with relief provided by the Internal Revenue Service," for a taxpayer affected by a presidentially declared disaster or a disaster emergency the Governor declared. The disregarded period reaches the acts described for the personal income tax in Tax Law section 696(a)(1), comparable acts under the other taxes, and the amount of any credit or refund, but not interest on an overpayment. Where no postponement was granted, the Commissioner may abate interest for the time a taxpayer could not meet a deadline because of the disaster's direct effects. Important Notice N-21-5 (October 12, 2021, Post-Tropical Depression Ida) shows how this works. It moved October 15 deadlines to January 3, 2022 and included installments of estimated tax. It excluded certain withholding, sales tax and motor fuel deposits. Its affected classes reached taxpayers whose records were unavailable and taxpayers whose practitioners could not finish their work. It did not extend the time to elect the pass-through entity tax. A partnership's ordinary extension is six months on Form IT-370-PF, filed on or before the return's filing deadline, and interest runs on unpaid tax despite an extension.
• New Jersey acts by published policy. Technical Bulletin TB-54 (December 13, 2004) says the Division of Taxation's "general policy is to follow the guidelines provided by the IRS," and the Division's disaster page, updated in April 2025, says it follows the latest federal guidelines. Affected taxpayers include those whose tax records are in the affected areas. TB-54 has the taxpayer write "Presidential Disaster Relief Area" and the IRS designation at the top of the return. The disaster page tells a taxpayer who receives a penalty notice to respond by requesting relief and naming the disaster. The pages read cite no statute and name no 2025 or 2026 disaster.
• Texas acts by statute, on request. Tax Code section 111.058 lets the Comptroller of Public Accounts grant a victim of a natural disaster "an extension of not more than 90 days" to make or file a return or pay a tax. The request may be made until 90 days after the original due date. Interest begins the day after the extension ends, and penalties are determined as though the extension's last day were the original due date. The Comptroller's page says extensions are considered on request and case by case. It offers out-of-state taxpayers eligible for IRS relief a 90-day extension, and IRS eligibility includes the records route.
• Florida acts by order, with one statutory rule. During a declared emergency the executive director of the Department of Revenue may extend due dates for returns and payments and waive interest accruing during the emergency (Fla. Stat. section 213.055(2)). For the corporate income tax return only, section 220.222(2)(c) automatically moves the due date to 15 calendar days after the taxpayer's federal return date, as extended for a federally declared disaster that included locations in Florida, if section 220.32 is met. Section 220.32 requires a tentative return and payment by the original date, so the payment moves only by order. The Department's Hurricane Milton page extended the September and October 2024 reporting periods for 24 counties to November 22, 2024 and included reemployment tax. It said the Department would work with all affected taxpayers case by case.
• Georgia acts by release. The Department of Revenue's release of October 3, 2024 (Hurricane Helene) extended covered deadlines to May 1, 2025, including 2024 returns normally due in March or April 2025 and estimated payments due January 15 and April 15, 2025. It excluded 2023 payments that were due April 15, 2024, information returns, and employment and excise tax deposits. Deposit penalties were nonetheless abated for deposits due from September 24 to October 8, 2024 if made by October 9. Georgia's sales and excise tax relief reaches taxpayers outside the area whose records are in it.

The partnership and its partners

A partnership and each of its partners are separate taxpayers, and the federal regulation tests each taxpayer's own residence, principal place of business or records (Treas. Reg. section 301.7508A-1(d)(1)). A partnership whose principal place of business is in the covered area is affected. A partner who lives outside the area is not affected by the partnership's location alone. The IRS supplies the bridge. Its FAQ treats a partner as an affected taxpayer when the affected partnership cannot provide the records needed to file, with the same postponed dates as the partnership, and a taxpayer outside the area whose records are in it contacts the IRS to qualify. The FTB's records route is the state counterpart. Four consequences follow.

1. The partnership's own dates move if the notice lists them. The partnership's return, its entity-level payments and the withholding payments it remits with Form 592-Q (reported on Form 592-PTE) move when the notice lists them, as the Los Angeles notice did for the Form 592 series. The partnership then issues Schedules K-1 (the forms that report each partner's share of the partnership's income) under the postponement.

1. A partner outside the area is on the normal schedule. Unless the records route applies, the partner's own dates do not move. The partner's own extension (six months at most under California section 18567(a)(1)) moves the filing date and not the payment. A partner who waits for a Schedule K-1 therefore pays an estimate by the original date, and interest runs from that date on any shortfall (section 19101).

1. Pass-through entity withholding follows its own schedule. Under the Form 592-PTE instructions for 2025, the partnership remits withholding with Form 592-Q on four dates: April 15, 2025 for January through March; June 16, 2025 for April and May; September 15, 2025 for June through August; and January 15, 2026 for September through December. The annual Form 592-PTE is due no later than January 31 of the following year. The rate is 7 percent or a lower amount the FTB authorizes in writing. Withholding on the first $1,500 of payments in a calendar year is optional. Interest on late payments runs from the withholding's due date to the date paid. These dates stand unless a notice moves them.

1. The pass-through entity elective tax has its own dates. For taxable years 2022 through 2025, the election required a payment by June 15 of the greater of 50 percent of the prior year's elective tax or $1,000, with the balance due by the original return date without regard to any extension. A missed June 15 payment barred the election (Cal. Rev. and Tax. Code section 19904(a)(2) and (b)). For taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2026 and before January 1, 2031, section 19914 imposes the same two payments but allows the election despite a missed or short payment (section 19914(b)). The FTB's 2026 instructions for Form FTB 3893 reduce the partners' credit by 12.5 percent of their share of the unpaid amount, and for an individual partner the credit statute, Cal. Rev. and Tax. Code section 17052.11(b)(2)(B), makes the same reduction. The election is made "on an original, timely filed return" (sections 19900(d) and 19910(d)). The Los Angeles notice moved the elective payments to October 15, 2025. The FTB's help page says there are no statutory exceptions to the June 15 payment or election requirements. It adds that where a disaster declaration provides additional time to pay the June 15 payment or to file a return, the entity "may be entitled to additional time." No FTB page says whether a postponement extends the election itself. One reading from the statute's words is that a return filed by the last day of a postponement that lists the entity's return is a timely original return, so an election on it is timely. That is a reading and not an FTB statement. New York's notice N-21-5 states the opposite for its own election.

What does not move

A postponement moves only what its own authority lists. Four categories need a separate check.

• Elections. Revenue Procedure 2018-58 lists some federal elections and deadlines, and a state election appears on no federal list. California's FTB says only that an entity in a declared disaster area "may be entitled to additional time" on the pass-through entity elective tax payment.
• Sales and use tax. Cal. Rev. and Tax. Code section 6459(c) lets the sales tax agency extend the time to make a return or pay tax for up to three months in a disaster, on request, with interest from the original due date. For the Los Angeles fires, release NR 25-01 (January 13, 2025) moved the January 31, 2025 deadline to April 30, 2025 for Los Angeles County taxpayers. The relief was tied to a $1 million tax test that the release states in two different ways.
• Payroll deposits. Federal deposits are outside the postponement. Under Unemployment Insurance Code section 1111.5, the director of the Employment Development Department (EDD) may extend the time to file returns and pay contributions after the Governor declares a state of emergency, for employers prevented by the emergency from doing so. The EDD says affected employers can ask for up to two months and must cite section 1111.5. Georgia and New York excluded deposits from the notices described above.
• Property tax installments. The dates are fixed by statute. Taxes due November 1 are delinquent after December 10 with a 10 percent penalty, and the second half is delinquent after April 10 with the same penalty (Cal. Rev. and Tax. Code sections 2617 and 2618). Section 4985.2 treats a late payment as excused when the lateness is due to reasonable cause and circumstances beyond the taxpayer's control, without willful neglect, and the principal is paid by June 30 of the fourth fiscal year after the fiscal year in which the tax became delinquent. A separate article on California wildfire property tax relief covers the reassessment and base year value transfers and not these dates.

What changed or may change

IRC section 7508A(e) provides a mandatory postponement period for a major disaster declaration. The period ends 120 days after the later of the earliest incident date or the date of the declaration (subsections (e)(1)(B) and (e)(6)). Public Law 119-29, approved July 24, 2025, lengthened that period from 60 days to 120 days for declarations made after enactment. The article does not describe who qualifies under subsection (e). California section 18572 was amended in 2024 (the code page is dated June 27, 2024). Subdivision (f) applies the amendments to any federally declared disaster or Governor-proclaimed emergency on or after the amending act's effective date.

The pass-through entity elective tax changes at the end of 2025. Part 10.4, with section 19904, covers taxable years 2022 through 2025 and is repealed by its own terms on December 1, 2026 (section 19906(a)). Part 10.4.1, with sections 19910 and 19914, covers taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2026. The FTB's help page of August 4, 2026 says Senate Bill 132 extended the elective tax for taxable years beginning before January 1, 2031. The FTB page dates cited in this article are notice dates and not law dates, and the 2020 COVID-19 postponements are history and not a model for these rules.

Several points remain open. No source read says whether California relief for a disaster outside California not yet listed on the FTB's page is automatic. None says whether a postponement extends the pass-through entity tax election, or whether a preparer's address alone is a ground. None says whether a superseding return replaces the original for penalties and elections, or what the refund statutes of New Jersey, Georgia and Florida provide. None says whether New York has issued a disaster notice since N-21-5.

Worked example

The facts are invented. A limited liability company (LLC) taxed as a partnership runs a furniture retail business with its principal place of business in Marlow County, California, on a calendar year. Its partners are Partner 1 (40 percent), a California resident living in Marlow County; Partner 2 (30 percent), a California resident living in another county; and Partner 3 (30 percent), a nonresident living in another state. A federal major disaster declaration for Marlow County has an incident date of March 3, 2025, and the IRS postpones deadlines from March 3 through July 15, 2025 to July 15, 2025. The example assumes the FTB's notice for this disaster matches the IRS dates and lists the same items as its Los Angeles notice. Without that listing, the dates would not move.

Dates that move to July 15, 2025:

• The LLC's 2024 return and payments, normally due March 15, 2025 (a Saturday; the IRS lists March 17 for the federal return).
• The 2025 LLC annual tax of $800, normally due April 15, 2025.
• The 2025 LLC estimated fee of $6,000, normally due June 15, 2025 (a Sunday; the form instructions move a weekend deadline to the next business day, June 16).
• The Form 592-Q withholding payments for January through March (April 15) and for April and May (June 16).
• Partner 1's 2024 return and balance due (April 15) and 2025 estimated payments due April 15 and June 15, as the FTB lists them.

Dates that do not move: the Form 592-Q payment for June through August, due September 15, 2025, which falls after the period, and the estimated payments and 2024 balances of Partners 2 and 3, unless the records route applies.

Entity payments. The LLC's 2025 California income is assumed to fall from $1,000,000 up to $5,000,000, so the fee is $6,000 (section 17942(a)(3)). The 2024 fee was also $6,000. The annual tax is $800 (sections 17941(a) and 23153(d)(1)). On July 15 the LLC pays $800 plus $6,000, or $6,800. The 10 percent penalty under section 17942(d)(2) does not apply, because the amount paid equals the preceding year's fee. Had the fee gone unpaid on July 15, the penalty on the $6,000 underpayment would be $600, and interest would begin July 16, 2025, the day after the period ends.

Withholding for Partner 3. The example assumes the amounts are California-source distributions to Partner 3 and that the 7 percent rate applies. The withholding base is a separate subject and is simplified. Distributions of $60,000 (January through March), $40,000 (April and May) and $50,000 (June through August) produce withholding of $4,200, $2,800 and $3,500, or $10,500 on $150,000. The first two payments, $7,000 in all, are due July 15. The third, $3,500, is due September 15, 2025. Had the notice not listed the Form 592 series, interest on the first two would run from April 15 and June 16.

Interest on one partner. Partner 2 paid $30,000 by April 15, 2025 against a 2024 liability of $38,000 that the Schedule K-1, delivered July 14, 2025, fixed. A partner who could not file without the K-1 might qualify through the records route. The example assumes Partner 2 did not claim it, so Partner 2's dates did not move. The extension to October 15, 2025 (six months, the most section 18567(a)(1) allows) moves the return and not the payment. The $8,000 shortfall therefore carries interest from April 15 to the payment date, which is 183 days if the shortfall is paid with the return on October 15. The FTB's published rates are 8 percent through June 30, 2025 and 7 percent from July 1, 2025. At those rates, simple interest is $133.26 for 76 days plus $164.16 for 107 days, or $297.42 in all ($8,000 at each rate for the days shown, over 365). The FTB's page does not say how interest compounds, so the figure is an approximation. Partner 1 could pay a shortfall on July 15 with no interest, because the period is disregarded and the payment falls inside it.

What the example shows. The same K-1 date produces different results for partners in different places, and a partner's dates depend on the partner's own location or records and not on the partnership's postponement. What it leaves out: the FTB's actual list for a real disaster, Partner 3's home-state rules, estimated tax underpayment charges and the withholding base.

Practice notes

Mark each return filed under a postponement with the disaster name at the top, or enter the disaster information in the software, and keep the notice in the file. Read the specific notice for each disaster before relying on the list from another. A payment whose normal due date fell before a window opened falls outside it, Lassen County was excluded from the winter storm postponement, and the San Diego release left payments due on the end date due that day. Where a return is on extension and the extended due date falls inside the window, file or pay by the window's last day and mark the return.

For a partner outside the area, document that the records needed for the deadline are with the partnership or the practitioner in the area, contact the IRS disaster hotline, and keep the proof the FTB recommends. Pay a partner's estimate by the original date where the partner's own dates have not moved, because interest runs from that date on any shortfall. Label each payment with its tax year and payment type, and submit the elective pass-through entity tax payment separately. Do not assume that a payroll deposit, a sales tax return, a property tax installment or an election moved. Check each agency's own authority. When a penalty notice ignores a postponement, request abatement through the number or email the notice or the FTB names, as the FTB's Los Angeles page does for a taxpayer who filed and paid by October 15, 2025. G&G State Tax Group advises partnerships and their partners on filing extensions, disaster postponements and multistate procedure alongside its state and local tax practice.