Today, April 26, at midnight is the deadline for many northeastern taxpayers who suffered through the severe storms and flooding on April 14 through 18.

However, some taxpayers in the hardest hit areas are getting even more time.

The The IRS announced today that New York state taxpayers in Orange, Rockland and Westchester counties, and New Jersey filers in Bergen, Burlington, Essex, Passaic, Somerset and Union counties now have until June 25 to complete their returns and pay their taxes.

The IRS says that its computer systems will automatically identify taxpayers located in the covered disaster area and will apply filing and payment relief to the affected filers. That means you don't have to write "April Storm" on your returns or use the disaster designation in your tax software.

I don't know if you're a worrier like me, but if I was in upstate NY or suburban NJ, I'd probably go for the redundancy notification just to be sure.

Worse damage, but added filing options: This latest IRS extended filing extension comes on the heels of several northeastern locales being declared presidential disaster areas.

They include several counties in Maine, as well as the New York and New Jersey, counties cited separately in the IRS extended-filing announcement. (Don't be surprised if the IRS soon adds Maine filers in the disaster areas to the June extension list, too.)

If you're in one of these major disaster areas, my sympathies. Been there, done that with hurricanes and it truly sux.

But at least in these cases, you have the option of claiming disaster-related casualty losses on either your current or prior year's federal tax return.

You have to evaluate both situations to see which will get you the most tax cash back. A bit of extra work, but for more money when you're dealing with damaged property, it's generally worth the trouble. This story has information on the tax considerations and filing steps you need to take.

Here's wishing you good luck, a big refund and rapid recovery from Mother Nature's wrath.