Some Michigan residents have until June 17 to file their taxes

• Residents impacted by severe thunderstorms and flooding last August have until June 17 to file their taxes 
• Residents in several communities in the southern Lower Peninsula automatically qualify for a disaster-related extension
• For everybody else, the deadline is midnight Monday, unless they file for a traditional extension 

For most people, the deadline to file 2023 tax returns is Monday but some Michigan residents may be eligible for an automatic two-month extension. 

The IRS announced in February that individuals and businesses in nine counties that were impacted by severe thunderstorms and tornadoes in late August have until June 17 to file their federal and state returns and make tax payments, without penalties. 

At least five people were killed when a line of heavy storms and multiple tornadoes hit the southern Lower Peninsula, uprooting trees, destroying power lines and leaving people without electricity for days. There were seven confirmed tornadoes statewide, six of them impacting southeast Michigan on Aug. 24, the most in a single day in the month of August, according to the National Weather Service’s Detroit/Pontiac office. 

Individuals or business owners in Eaton, Ingham, Ionia, Kent, Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland and Wayne counties qualify for the extension.

Related:

• Storms, tornadoes linked to 5 deaths and widespread power outages
• Michigan tornadoes are a rare sight in February
• Michigan tax deadline is fast approaching. How to file a tax extension

The IRS says it is offering the relief program “to any taxpayer with an IRS address of record located in the disaster area,” and taxpayers do not need to contact the agency. 

Residents in other parts of the state that are designated as disaster areas by the Federal Emergency Management Agency may also qualify for relief. 

The disaster-related extension applies to individual income tax, Michigan business tax, corporate income tax, flow-through entity tax, and city of Detroit income taxes. 

Taxpayers who got an extension on their 2022 returns may file by the June 17 deadline, but the extra time doesn’t apply to tax payments, which were due prior to the storms.

State tax returns

For state returns, Michigan is asking taxpayers to contact the Department of Treasury before the original deadline to avoid getting preliminary assessment notices. The number for individuals is 517-636-4486 and businesses should call 517-636-6925.

To request relief for state taxes, taxpayers must provide the following information to the department:

• name
• account number
• the address impacted by and within the federal disaster area (the taxpayer’s address or the tax preparer’s address)
• a brief description of how the taxpayer was impacted by the federal disaster

More information about filing an extension or applying for tax relief can be found here. 

Do I still get an extension if I wasn’t impacted by the storms?

Taxpayers who do not live in a disaster area or were not impacted by the severe storm do not qualify for the disaster-relief extension. Those individuals will have to file their taxes by midnight on Monday. 

However, as always, individuals who need more time to file their taxes can file for a regular extension, and that deadline is Oct. 15. However, those with an extension still need to pay any taxes owed by April 15.