State gets a tax reprieve

The Internal Revenue Service has granted a two-day reprieve to residents of the Northeast, including Massachusetts, who lost power or were flooded during this week's storm, extending their tax-filing deadline to midnight Thursday.

To qualify for the extension, residents have to write "April 16 storm," preferably in red ink, at the top of their tax return. Taxpayers filing electronically should use the special disaster settings in their tax software, the agency said.

"Because this unusually forceful storm hit within 24 hours of the filing deadline, we are giving affected taxpayers 48 additional hours," Commissioner Mark W. Everson said.

People who meet the extended deadline will avoid late-filing or payment penalties, the IRS said. They should be prepared to prove their home or the office of their accountant or tax-preparer was damaged or flooded by the storm.

For people who lost power , the IRS will know what cities and towns were affected, said an IRS spokeswoman, Peggy Riley. Delays because of storm-related public transportation breakdowns also are a permitted excuse.

Riley said the extension is not without precedent . Typically, the IRS waits until the government has declared a region a disaster area. But in this case, she said, with the storm falling so near the deadline, there was no time to wait.

A spokesman for Governor Deval Patrick said last night it was unclear whether the state would extend its deadline.

CHRISTOPHER ROWLAND