# H.R. 1491 (119th): Disaster Related Extension of Deadlines Act This act requires the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to treat the postponement of the federal tax return deadline due to a federally declared disaster or certain other events as an extension of such deadline for purposes of calculating the limit on a tax refund

Disaster Related Extension of Deadlines Act This act requires the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to treat the postponement of the federal tax return deadline due to a federally declared disaster or certain other events as an extension of such deadline for purposes of calculating the limit on a tax refund. The act also provides that the IRS’s deadline for sending certain notices includes such postponement. Under current law, a tax refund claim must be filed within three years of the date that the federal tax return is filed. (Some exceptions apply.) The tax refund amount generally is limited to federal taxes paid within the three years preceding the tax refund claim plus any extension of the federal tax return deadline (known as the lookback period). Under the law in effect prior to this act, the postponement of the federal tax return deadline is not an extension for purposes of the lookback period. Thus, under prior law, certain tax payments (e.g., amounts withheld from a paycheck for federal taxes) made before the federal tax return is filed may be outside the lookback period and non-refundable. Under the act, a federal tax return deadline postponed due to a federally declared disaster or certain other events must be treated as an extension of such deadline for purposes of the lookback period. Further, under current law, the IRS is required to mail a notice and demand for tax payment within 60 days of an assessment but not before the tax payment due date. The act provides that the tax payment due date includes the postponement of the tax payment deadline due to a federally declared disaster or certain other events.

## How this bill is scored

Tier: no Tier 1 record. A bill with no record cannot newly become Tier 1.
Lane: disaster_relief. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: disaster_response. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: emergency_management. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: tax_administration. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: tax_relief. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Tier 1 sign-off: no record. A bill with no record cannot newly become Tier 1.
Stored polarity: mixed. Only tags the rules mark scoreable on a mixed bill are scored. A yea can draw a penalty or a credit according to the tag. A nay on a tag scored as good can draw a penalty.
Roll 88: On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended. Vote type: final_passage.
Polarity rationale: Reviewed enrichment (llm_import) polarity: The bill is ordinary tax administration that modestly restores fairness to disaster-affected taxpayers by preventing already-paid withholding from falling outside the refund lookback period. It advances no named moral harm and contains no direct moral evil. Its classification as mixed reflects that it is a prudential, technical adjustment rather than a clear good or evil, and the summary does not reveal costs or revenue effects that would sharpen the judgment.
Theological note: Scripture commends honest weights and fair dealing (Proverbs 11:1) and calls the civil authority to equity in its dealings with the governed. This measure concerns whether taxpayers harmed by disaster-related deadline postponements keep fair access to refunds of taxes already paid, a matter of administrative equity rather than a direct moral question.

## Recorded votes

Roll 88: On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended. Yea 423 · Nay 0 · Other 8.

HTML: https://justmeasure.org/bill/hr-1491-119/