H.R. 1491 explained · 119th Congress · Became law
Disaster Related Extension of Deadlines Act
Cosponsors: 2 (1 D, 1 R) · per Congress.gov, 2026-10-09
Introduced: 2025-02-21
Latest action (2025-12-26): Became Public Law No: 119-64.
What H.R. 1491 does, in plain terms
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.
Official summary by the Congressional Research Service, via Congress.gov.
Constitution Index
“VFA Constitution grade”
Constitutionally sound
Graded 2026-10-10
SI-generated grade · five published checks · not individually reviewed by a person · methodology
This bill is fully constitutional. It adjusts tax refund deadlines and IRS notice timing to account for disaster-related postponements, operating entirely within Congress's enumerated taxing power under Article I, Section 8, Clause 1. It does not infringe any Bill of Rights protections, restrict individual sovereignty, consolidate power upward, or violate due process or takings protections.
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✓ Passes · Enumerated powers
Congress has explicit constitutional authority to 'lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises' under Article I, Section 8, Clause 1. This bill merely adjusts procedural deadlines for tax refunds and IRS notices in the context of federally declared disasters, which is a straightforward exercise of that enumerated power. No overreach into areas reserved to the states under the Tenth Amendmen… -
✓ Passes · Bill of Rights
The bill does not restrict speech, religion, assembly, press, petition, arms, quartering, search and seizure, self-incrimination, due process, fair trial, jury rights, cruel and unusual punishment, unenumerated rights, or reserved powers. It solely concerns tax refund deadlines and IRS notice timing, which implicates none of the first ten amendments. -
✓ Passes · Individual sovereignty
The bill expands individual taxpayers' ability to claim refunds by ensuring that disaster-related deadline postponements count toward the lookback period. This does not restrict what a person can do with their own person, property, speech, labor, or belief. Instead, it provides relief from potential forfeiture of refunds due to timing technicalities, thereby protecting rather than restricting indi… -
✓ Passes · Decentralization
The bill passes all four questions of the decentralization test. (1) An individual or family cannot independently adjust federal tax refund deadlines, as this requires federal statutory change. (2) A local community or county cannot handle federal tax refund rules. (3) A state cannot handle federal tax refund rules. (4) The action does not consolidate decision-making upward beyond the minimum nece… -
✓ Passes · Due process and takings
The bill enhances due process by ensuring that taxpayers affected by disasters are not deprived of refunds they would otherwise be entitled to, simply because of a technical mismatch between postponement and lookback periods. It does not bypass fair notice, fair hearing, or the presumption of innocence. It does not take private property without just compensation; rather, it preserves taxpayers' ab…
Sources: Congress.gov: HR 1491 summary
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