LA Fire filing relief

[user17577022433]

I will be filling a 2024 tax return and estimated payments for the first the quarters 2025 by October 15 as provided under relief provided to victims of the LA wildfires. Do I need to file anything special with my return and estimated payments so that the IRS and CA FTB will know that I am filing under these provisions and not subject to late filing penalties?

[vithalanin]

As you are in the designated LA fire area, you will not need to file any special forms to inform the IRS or CA FTB for making the payment by October 15, 2025. Your address on the tax return automatically notifies the IRS of the reason for paying by October 15, 2025.
If the IRS  send you a late payment notice, you will need to call them and ask them to remove the penalty as you are in the disaster zone.
In Turbo Tax, you will need to take the following steps to report the casualty losses:

Steps to enter your disaster loss in TurboTax

1. Sign in to your TurboTax Online account and select "Take me to my return".
2. Go to the federal section and select "Deductions & Credits".
3. Navigate to the "Casualties and Thefts" subsection. In TurboTax Desktop, you can use the search feature to jump to this section.
4. Answer "Yes" to the question about whether you had anything damaged or stolen.
5. In the "Description" field, enter the name of the disaster. For the 2025 Los Angeles County wildfires, a format like "California, Los Angeles County Fire" is appropriate.
6. Continue following the prompts to enter the specific details of your property loss, damage, and any insurance reimbursements you received

In the California section, the prompts will ask you if you are in the disaster zone. Make sure to answer them correctly. 
CA FTB will not issue a penalty notice for the 2024 taxes paid and return filed on October 15, 2025 or even the estimated taxes paid on that date.

[user17577022433]

Thank you for very helpful reply. One follow-up question. Since we have been displaced we are living in a temporary location outside of the designated LA fire area and we are using our temporary location as the address on the return that we will be filing by October 15,  in the event we need to be contacted by mail. So my question is how will the IRS and the CA FTB know that we are within the designated LA fire area. Should we use our address in Altadena on the return even though we are not at that address?

[vithalanin]

You should contact the IRS at (866) 562-5277. When you answer the question in CA side for the disaster, the CA FTB will get notified about this. People do move away from the disaster zone and both of them understand this.
I would file a Form 8822 with the IRS to show the change of address. This form does take 4-6 weeks to process.
For California, you need to file  Form FTB 3533, Change of Address for Individuals.
If you still receive the penalty notice, you will need to call them and ask for the waiver.

[CelBar]

Your response is not correct, as far as California taxes go.

The California Franchise Tax Board specifically says that you should write, "Los Angeles County Fire," on the top of your return to notify them of why you are filing late (by the extended October 15 deadline).

https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/when-to-file/los-angeles-county-fires.html

I am also wondering how to do this with TurboTax.

[CelBar]

I posted this in another thread, but I'll post it here also, in case it helps someone.

Regarding California's requirement that you write something like "Los Angeles County Fire" on the top of your 540: I discovered, at least in the desktop version of TurboTax, that when you do the walk through for California taxes, toward the end, in the "Other tax situations" section, there is an item called "Special Processing Conditions." When you click on that, first it asks you if you were out of the country on April 15 and on the next page it asks you if you experienced a disaster and there is a blank in which to enter the name of the disaster.

If you click on forms, you can see that TurboTax entered the name of the disaster under "Special condition text" in section VI of the Info Worksheet. And on the worksheet above the box for the disaster name it states "prints at the top of form 540," which is exactly what California says you should do.

So TurboTax (at least desktop version) does handle this. I don't know about for other states, but at least for California I can verify this. I also don't know if this works in the online version.