Thursday is California's tax extension deadline. Here's what L.A. County filers need to know — including fire-relief penalty fixes

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Headline graphic: Tax deadline Thursday, over a file photo of the California State Capitol

Cover: file photo (California State Capitol, Sacramento) by Andre m, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped and text added by The Southbound 105.

If you took the automatic extension on your 2025 state return, Oct. 15 is the last day to file without a late-filing penalty. The extension never covered paying — and some fire-zone taxpayers are still untangling last year's relief.

By Alberto Zamudio | The Southbound 105 | Oct. 13, 2026

If you didn't file your California income tax return in April, the clock runs out this week.

The Franchise Tax Board's automatic extension for 2025 personal returns ends Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. No application was required to get the extension — California grants it automatically — but you must file by that date to avoid a late-filing penalty, according to the FTB.

The extension was to file — not to pay

This is the part that catches people. "An extension to file your tax return is not an extension to pay," the FTB says. Any tax owed for 2025 was due April 15, 2026. If you haven't paid, penalties and interest have likely been building since then, and filing now stops the separate late-filing penalty from piling on.

For electronic filers and tax preparers, the FTB's e-file calendar lists Oct. 15, 2026, as the "Last Day to Transmit Timely Filed Current Year Returns on Extension."

Businesses run on a different clock

The automatic extensions for businesses vary by entity type, according to the FTB:

  • Corporations filing Form 100 (including exempt organizations) that are not suspended get a 7-month extension.
  • S corporations filing Form 100S get 6 months.
  • Business entities that are not corporations get 7 months.

As with individuals, those are extensions to file only. LLCs, corporations and partnerships that owed tax were supposed to pay with the FTB's automatic extension forms (FTB 3537, 3539 or 3538) by the original due date.

The L.A. fire relief: what it did and didn't cover

Many Los Angeles County residents remember a different October deadline. After the fires that began Jan. 7, 2025, the state postponed filing and payment deadlines for L.A. County taxpayers to Oct. 15, 2025.

That relief covered filings and payments originally due between Jan. 7 and Oct. 15, 2025 — such as 2024 individual returns, 2025 quarterly estimated payments and certain business returns, according to the FTB. It does not extend to 2025 returns due in 2026. This year's Oct. 15 deadline is the standard automatic extension that applies statewide.

Got a penalty notice from last year?

In a July 30, 2026, Tax News Flash, the FTB said L.A. County taxpayers who qualified for the fire postponement but did not mark "disaster" on their returns and then received penalty notices should contact the agency. The FTB says email is the fastest way to resolve those accounts:

  • Email: FTBLACountyDisasterRelief@ftb.ca.gov (only for people affected by the L.A. County disaster)
  • Online: MyFTB

The agency asks taxpayers to include their full name, address during the disaster, email address, phone number and 10-digit FTB identification number.

The relief could also apply to people who lived outside the county if the records they needed to meet a deadline were located in L.A. County — for example, with a tax preparer — according to the FTB.

Quick checklist before Thursday

  1. File your 2025 California return by Oct. 15 if you were on extension.
  2. Pay whatever you owe now; interest keeps running until you do.
  3. Check old notices. If you were in L.A. County during the 2025 fires and got a penalty for a 2024-year return, see whether the disaster postponement should have applied.
  4. Weekend rule: When a deadline falls on a weekend or holiday, the FTB moves it to the next business day. This year's Oct. 15 is a Thursday, so there is no extra time.

What's next

  • Oct. 15, 2026: Last day to file 2025 California personal returns on automatic extension and to e-file those returns on time.
  • After Oct. 15: Returns filed late may face a late-filing penalty in addition to any late-payment penalty and interest.
  • Fire-relief disputes: L.A. County taxpayers can keep using the FTB's dedicated email to resolve 2025 disaster-related penalty notices.

This story is general information, not tax advice. Check your own situation with the FTB or a tax professional.

👉 More LA County news every day at The Southbound 105

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