File claim by July 10 for potential tax refunds!

Posted by:

Aerin C

On:

June 9, 2026

What happened?

During COVID-19 emergency, the official nationwide disaster lasted from Jan 20, 2020 to July 10, 2023. A recent court case (Kwong v. United States) said that, under the tax law for disasters, many tax deadlines were effectively paused for the entire disaster period, and then extended 60 more days.

The IRS normally charges penalties (extra fees) and interest (added cost over time) when people file or pay taxes late. They offered short deadline extensions during the COVID emergency, but otherwise did business as usual. If the court’s interpretation of the law in Kwong is ultimately confirmed, the IRS handled the situation wrong in multiple ways.

What could this mean?

Many tax returns and payments weren’t late until after July 10, 2023.
The IRS shouldn’t have charged certain penalties and interest for those years.

As a result, many taxpayers might be able to get:

Refunds for penalties/interest they already paid, and/or
Abatements (cancellations) of penalties/interest that were assessed but not yet paid.

What should I do?

The courts may take years to fully settle this issue, so people should consider filing a “protective claim”. That’s basically a way to say: “I’m claiming my refund rights now, even though the final answer isn’t settled yet.”

To file a protective claim, you use IRS Form 843 (Claim for Refund and Request for Abatement). You often don’t need exact dollar amounts for a protective claim. Just provide as much detail as you can and clearly state why you’re making the claim (including writing something like “Protective Refund Claim Pursuant to Kwong Case” across the top) on the form.

Important deadline: IRS Form 843 (Claim for Refund and Request for Abatement) for this situation must be filed by July 10, 2026.

This could affect tens of millions of taxpayers. Those with low or moderate incomes may be more likely to miss the deadline because they don’t hear about it or have trouble getting help with the claim process. Help spread the word to ensure as many people as possible can take advantage.