I missed the July 10, 2026 Kwong deadline. Is it too late to file a claim?

Not necessarily. July 10, 2026 was the general 'most taxpayers' date publicized by the National Taxpayer Advocate — not a single statutory deadline. Under IRC § 6511, your personal deadline is the later of 3 years from when you filed the return or 2 years from when you paid the tax or penalty. If you paid COVID-era penalties within the last two years (installment agreement payments, levies, refund offsets), filed the underlying return late, or have an open audit/appeal, a claim may still be timely. Check your account transcripts before assuming you're out.

What is the 2-years-from-payment rule?

IRC § 6511 allows a refund claim within 2 years of the date a payment was made (limited to the amount paid in that window). Every payment starts its own 2-year clock. So a taxpayer who has been paying down COVID-era penalties through a monthly installment agreement can generally still claim a refund of the portions paid in the last 24 months — even after July 10, 2026.

Do installment agreement payments keep my Kwong claim window open?

Often yes, for the amounts paid within the last two years that were applied to COVID-window penalties and interest. The IRS applies payments to tax, penalties, and interest in a specific order, so you need transcripts to see which payments actually hit penalties. Separately, COVID-window penalties assessed but not yet paid can be the subject of an abatement claim, which can shrink your remaining balance if Kwong holds.

I mailed my Form 843 on July 10 — was it on time?

Generally yes, if it was properly postmarked by the deadline. Under the timely-mailing-is-timely-filing rule (IRC § 7502), the postmark date counts as the filing date. Certified mail or an approved private delivery service receipt is your proof. Keep it — the IRS may take months to acknowledge a paper claim.

Could the IRS extend the Kwong claim deadline?

The National Taxpayer Advocate publicly recommended the IRS grant a six-month extension and even consider systemic relief for all eligible taxpayers so no one has to file claims. As of the July 10 deadline the IRS had not announced an extension. If relief comes later, taxpayers who filed will be at the front; taxpayers still inside a payment-based window should protect it now rather than waiting for a rescue that may not come.

What should I do this week if I think I still have time?

Three steps: (1) Pull IRS account transcripts for 2019–2022 and list every penalty/interest assessment and every payment date. (2) Identify payments made within the last 24 months that were applied to COVID-window penalties or interest — those anchor a still-timely claim. (3) File Form 843 for each period as a protective claim ('Protective Refund Claim Pursuant to Kwong Case' across the top), mailed certified. Each month you wait, the oldest payments roll out of the 2-year window.

Does an open audit, appeal, or Tax Court case give me more time?

It can. Taxpayers with ongoing examinations, Appeals proceedings, or litigation may have open limitation periods for the applicable years, and the Taxpayer Advocate specifically noted they should assess the Kwong issue in settlement discussions and litigation strategy. If you signed statute extensions (Form 872) during an exam, your claim window may be longer than you think.

Is filing late better than not filing at all?

If no exception keeps your window open, a late claim will generally be denied as untimely — but the analysis of whether an exception applies is exactly the part people get wrong on their own. Financial disability (inability to manage financial affairs due to medical impairment) can suspend the limitations period in narrow cases, recent payments create per-payment windows, and unpaid assessed penalties can still be challenged through abatement routes. Get the facts from your transcript before concluding anything.

Missed the July 10 Kwong Deadline? Who Still Has Time for a COVID Penalty Refund

Quick Facts — Missed the July 10 Kwong Deadline?

July 10, 2026 was a general date, not a universal one. Real deadline: later of 3 years from filing or 2 years from each payment (IRC § 6511).
Still likely have time if: you paid COVID-era penalties in the last 24 months (installment agreement, levy, or offset), or filed the return within the last 3 years.
Unpaid penalties: can be pursued via abatement regardless of the refund-claim deadline.
Open audits/appeals: may have extended statutes.
Action: pull IRS transcripts, map payments against the 2-year rule, file Form 843 protective claims where a window is open.

First, a 60-second recap of what this is about

In Kwong v. United States (Court of Federal Claims, Nov. 2025), a court held that IRC § 7508A(d) automatically postponed federal filing and payment deadlines for the entire COVID disaster period — January 20, 2020 through May 11, 2023, plus 60 days, ending July 10, 2023. If that holds up on appeal, late-filing, late-payment, failure-to-deposit, and estimated-tax penalties (and related interest) assessed for that 3.5-year window should never have been charged, and the National Taxpayer Advocate says tens of millions of taxpayers may be owed refunds or abatements.

Relief isn't automatic — you must file a claim on Form 843 — and the Taxpayer Advocate publicized July 10, 2026 as the date by which "most taxpayers" needed to file. Full background, who qualifies, and how the claims work: our complete Kwong COVID penalty refund guide.

This page is for the person searching the day after: "I just heard about this. Did I miss it?"

Why July 10, 2026 was never everyone's deadline

The refund limitations rule, IRC § 6511, gives you until the later of:

3 years from the date you filed the return, or
2 years from the date you paid the tax — and critically, each payment starts its own 2-year clock, with the claim limited to amounts paid in that window.

July 10, 2026 was simply the conservative date that covered the largest group — roughly, people who filed and paid by the end of the postponement period (July 10, 2023). If your facts differ, your date differs. That cuts both ways: for some people the deadline passed before July 10, 2026, and for a large group it hasn't fully passed yet.

Romeo Razi, CPA — Former IRS Auditor

"The IRS computer tracks limitations dates payment by payment, module by module — the RSED on a transcript isn't one date for your whole life, it's a calculation. When people hear a 'deadline' on the news they assume it's binary: made it or missed it. On refund claims, it almost never works that way. The question is never 'did I miss the deadline' — it's 'which of my payments are still inside a window.'"

Who still has time after July 10, 2026 — check every row

Your Situation	Still Have Time?	Why
On an installment agreement; monthly payments in the last 2 years hit COVID-era penalties/interest	LIKELY	Each payment starts its own 2-year clock. Amounts applied to COVID-window penalties in the last 24 months can generally still be claimed.
IRS kept a refund (offset) or levied money from you within the last 2 years	LIKELY	Offsets and levy proceeds are payments — the 2-year-from-payment rule applies to them too.
Paid off COVID-window penalties in a lump sum after July 10, 2024	LIKELY	Your 2-year-from-payment window is still open for that payment.
Filed the underlying return within the last 3 years (common with catch-up filers)	LIKELY	The 3-years-from-filing prong runs from your actual filing date, not the original due date.
COVID-window penalties assessed but still unpaid (sitting in your balance)	YES — DIFFERENT ROUTE	You can pursue abatement of unpaid assessments; if Kwong holds, they come off the balance you owe.
Open audit, Appeals case, or Tax Court litigation for the relevant years	POSSIBLY	Open statutes (including Form 872 extensions you signed) can extend claim periods; the Taxpayer Advocate flagged Kwong as a factor in settlement strategy.
Medical condition prevented you from managing your finances	NARROW	"Financial disability" (IRC § 6511(h)) can suspend the limitations period — strict requirements, physician documentation needed.
Filed on time (by July 10, 2023), paid everything more than 2 years ago, no open exams	PROBABLY NOT	Both prongs have likely run. A late claim would generally be denied as untimely — but see "the IRS could still act" below.

The One People Miss Most

If you're on a payment plan today for a balance that includes 2020–2023 penalties, you are paying potentially refundable penalties every single month — and each month, the payment you made 24 months ago falls out of the claim window permanently. This is the group for whom "the deadline passed" is most wrong, and most costly to believe.

What to do this week — in order

Pull your account transcripts for tax years 2019–2022 (free via your IRS Online Account). You're looking for penalty assessments (TC 166/276), interest (TC 196), and every payment, offset, and levy with its date.
Map each payment against the 2-year rule. List every payment made after today's date minus 24 months, and identify how much of each was applied to COVID-window penalties and interest. This is your still-claimable amount — and your urgency meter.
File Form 843 for each period, styled as a protective claim. Write "Protective Refund Claim Pursuant to Kwong Case" across the top, identify the years and the contingency (the pending Kwong litigation over IRC § 7508A(d)). Paper only — Form 843 can't be e-filed.
Mail certified, return receipt requested. Under IRC § 7502 the postmark is your filing date, and the receipt is your proof if a paper claim goes missing. (If you mailed a claim postmarked on or before July 10 — you likely made it. Keep the receipt.)
If penalties are unpaid, file for abatement too — and consider whether reasonable cause abatement or the transition rules of the new AEP program give you a second, non-Kwong path at the same penalties.
Don't stop paying an active installment agreement while you sort this out — a default triggers CP523 termination and enforcement, which is a far worse problem than the refund question.

Could the IRS or Congress still fix this for everyone?

Possibly. The National Taxpayer Advocate publicly recommended that the IRS (1) grant a six-month extension of the claim deadline under IRC § 6081, (2) consider systemic relief for all eligible taxpayers so nobody has to file claims at all, and (3) build an electronic way to submit these claims. She also warned that without action, the outcome will "unfairly favor the 'well advised' over the 'unaware.'"

As of the July 10 deadline, no extension had been announced. Two honest implications: first, don't bet your claim on a rescue that may never come — if a payment-based window is open for you, protect it now. Second, if broad relief does arrive later, it will likely be shaped by the litigation — another reason the safest position is a timely protective claim sitting in the IRS's suspense file with your name on it.

Frequently asked questions

I only heard about this today. Am I completely out of luck?

Not necessarily — that's the entire point of this page. The July 10 date covered "most taxpayers," but the 2-years-from-payment rule, late-filed returns, unpaid assessed penalties, and open exams all create paths that survive July 10. The only way to know is to look at your transcript's actual dates.

I mailed my Form 843 on July 10. Did I make it?

If it was properly postmarked by the deadline, generally yes — the timely-mailing rule (IRC § 7502) treats the postmark date as the filing date. Certified mail or approved private delivery receipts are your proof. Expect months of silence; paper claims are slow, and protective claims are typically held in suspense until the litigation resolves.

How do I know if my installment agreement payments went to COVID-era penalties?

You can't tell from your bank statement — the IRS applies each payment across tax, penalties, and interest in a set order, per period. The account transcript shows the actual application. This is precisely the analysis we do in a transcript review: which payments, in which months, hit which penalty assessments, and how much is still inside a 2-year window.

If my claim window truly closed, is there anything left?

Sometimes. Unpaid COVID-window penalties can still be attacked through abatement routes; penalties for later years may qualify for First Time Abate / reasonable cause or the new AEP program; and if the courts or Congress later mandate broad relief, having your account documented puts you in position to move immediately. And in narrow medical situations, financial disability can suspend the limitations period entirely.

Will filing a Kwong claim trigger an audit or IRS attention?

A refund claim is a routine, legally provided procedure — the Taxpayer Advocate herself urged eligible taxpayers to file. A protective claim doesn't reopen your return; it preserves a legal position while courts decide a pure question of law. As with anything you send the IRS, it should be accurate and consistent with your transcript.

Is a refund guaranteed if I file?

No — and be wary of anyone who says otherwise. The government disputes Kwong and an appeal is expected; resolution may take years. Filing preserves your right to a refund if the taxpayer-favorable reading wins. Not filing guarantees you get nothing even if it does.

Related guides from a former IRS auditor:

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Romeo Razi, CPA

Former IRS Tax Examiner (Individual & Employment Tax Division) · CPA · 15+ years in private practice

Romeo spent years auditing businesses inside the IRS before switching sides. He's helped clients resolve IRS debts ranging from a few thousand dollars to $440,000. He founded Taxed Right LLC to give everyone access to insider IRS knowledge.

Not sure if your window is still open?
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