A fast-closing federal tax deadline is drawing new attention because it could affect millions of taxpayers nationwide. With just days left before July 10, the IRS has opened a new electronic filing option tied to COVID-era refund claims that may preserve rights to money some filers say they are owed.
IRS adds an online filing option as a July 10 deadline nears
The Internal Revenue Service on July 1 launched an electronic filing option for Form 843, the document used to request certain refunds or abatements of penalties and interest, according to the National Taxpayer Advocate. The new option applies only to claims related to potential COVID-era relief tied to penalties and interest that were fully paid. That change arrived just days before what tax lawyers and the Taxpayer Advocate have described as a critical July 10, 2026, deadline.
The scale could be significant. National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins wrote that “tens of millions” of taxpayers may be eligible to protect potential refund claims connected to penalties, interest, or other tax items from the pandemic period. Collins said filing generally is not automatic, meaning taxpayers typically must submit a claim or protective claim to preserve their rights.
The deadline is tied to litigation, not a new act of Congress. In Kwong v. United States, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled in late 2025 that a disaster-relief statute suspended certain federal tax filing and payment deadlines during the COVID-19 federal disaster period, which ran from January 20, 2020, through May 11, 2023, with the relevant window extending to July 10, 2023, under that reasoning. The federal government is appealing that decision, but tax advisers have said waiting for a final outcome could cause taxpayers to miss the statute-of-limitations deadline.
The impact is national because the underlying COVID-19 federal disaster declaration applied across the country. This is not limited to one state or a handful of counties, and no public guidance suggests a narrower geographic pool. Taxpayers potentially affected include individuals, businesses, trusts, and estates that paid late-filing penalties, late-payment penalties, estimated-tax penalties, or related interest on obligations that may have fallen inside the disputed period.
What remains unclear is how many people will ultimately qualify and how much money may be at stake. Neither the IRS nor the courts have released a nationwide list of all taxpayers who may have valid claims, and eligibility can depend on the type of penalty, the dates involved, and whether a filing or payment deadline fell within the period covered by the court’s interpretation. The IRS also has not announced a blanket refund program for all potentially affected filers.
The new online option may help because Form 843 is ordinarily paper-filed in many cases. Collins said taxpayers with an IRS Online Account can now submit Form 843 electronically through IRS.gov for these specific COVID-related claims involving fully paid penalties and interest. For other situations, including some broader refund or protective claims, taxpayers may still need to use paper filings, amended returns, or other procedures depending on the issue involved.
The dispute centers on how federal disaster-relief law should have worked during the pandemic. Collins, along with analyses from firms including Venable, Taft, and PwC, has said the central question is whether Internal Revenue Code Section 7508A(d) automatically paused filing and payment deadlines for the full COVID disaster period. The Court of Federal Claims said yes in Kwong, creating a potential basis for refund and abatement requests.
That does not mean every claim will be paid. Collins has emphasized that filing a claim does not guarantee relief, especially while the law remains unsettled and the government’s appeal continues. Instead, the near-term significance of a filing is procedural: it may preserve a taxpayer’s right to a refund if courts later uphold the broader interpretation.
For taxpayers, the most immediate expectation is administrative rather than dramatic. Claims filed by July 10 may be reviewed later, potentially after additional court action or IRS guidance. For those who do not file by that date, the Taxpayer Advocate has warned that the chance to seek some of these COVID-era refunds or abatements may be lost permanently, making this one of the final pandemic-related tax deadlines still carrying nationwide consequences.