Millions of Americans who may be due money from the IRS now have until July 10, 2026, to claim it. The deadline comes from a federal judge's November ruling that said the IRS should have suspended filing and payment deadlines during the COVID-19 disaster declaration.
The timing matters because the money will not flow automatically. Erin Collins, the National Taxpayer Advocate, said most taxpayers must file a claim for refund on or before July 10, 2026, if they want to preserve their rights under the ruling.
The dispute reaches back to the COVID-19 disaster declaration, which ran from Jan. 20, 2020, through May 11, 2023. IRS rules gave taxpayers an extra 60 days after that declaration ended, pushing the deadline to July 10, 2023. From there, the normal refund clock took over: taxpayers generally have three years after filing a return or two years after paying a tax, penalty or interest bill to ask for money back. Under those rules, affected taxpayers now have until July 10, 2026, to request a refund or submit a protective claim.
Collins said taxpayers who may be affected should review their records now and decide whether they need to file a refund claim, an amended return, an original return, an abatement request or a protective claim. That distinction matters. A protective claim keeps a taxpayer's right to seek a refund alive while the legal issue is still being resolved. If the claim is for penalties or interest paid to the IRS during the disaster period, the taxpayer should file Form 843 and write “Protective Refund Claim Pursuant to Kwong Case” across the top. If the claim involves income, deductions, credits, filing status or another item that changes tax liability, the taxpayer should use Form 1040-X for the applicable tax year.
There is still no guarantee the deadline question is settled for good. Collins said the law remains unsettled, and she expects the Department of Justice to appeal the decision. That leaves taxpayers with a narrow choice: file the correct claim now or risk losing a refund even if the ruling is ultimately upheld. Missing the July 10 deadline means taxpayers owed money will lose out on that refund.
For now, the practical answer is simple. The relief exists, but it is not automatic, and the only taxpayers who will benefit are the ones who put a claim in the right form before July 10, 2026.
