Taking advantage of disaster relief provisions from the Internal Revenue Service has itself become a disaster for some Boone County taxpayers.

The IRS is penalizing some taxpayers for filing late federal income tax returns even though they qualified for a one-month extension after this spring’s storms and followed the IRS’ own filing rules.

"It just angered me," taxpayer Jan Burger said this week after receiving a penalty notice for filing late. "I was like, ‘No, this can’t be right. It was in the paper, and I followed all the directions.’ "

Local accountants have heard from others in the same boat, and they expect to hear from more.

In March, the IRS released a notice that taxpayers in Boone and several other Missouri counties had been granted special tax relief that included pushing the filing deadline forward a month to May 15. The Missouri Department of Revenue followed suit for state income tax returns.

The tax relief followed severe storms, tornadoes, hail and flooding that hit the region March 8-13. President George W. Bush declared disaster areas in dozens of Missouri counties shortly thereafter.

Taxpayers who wanted to use the grace period were told to write "Severe storms, tornadoes and floods - MO" in red ink at the top of all forms filed with the IRS or click a box if filing online, according to an IRS news release.

Burger said she followed those instructions but still got a notice from the IRS that she owed a penalty of $79.10 and interest of $4.14 for filing late. She called the IRS for an explanation. "I sat on the phone for an hour," she said. "I got bounced from three people and heard that incessant, ‘Your call is important so please don’t hang up’ message."

Eventually, Burger said, an IRS employee politely told her Boone County was not on the list of approved disaster counties. That led Burger to think the information printed in the newspaper was incorrect.

"He was so positive that he was right," Burger said of the IRS employee, who agreed to remove the penalty but said he could do nothing about the $4.14 interest charge. Burger also was told the penalty would be reassessed along with additional interest if she had any problems with the IRS during the next three years.

IRS spokesman Mike Devine yesterday confirmed that Boone County was one of the 37 Missouri disaster-area counties approved for the special relief provisions. He declined comment on Burger’s penalty notice but said mistakes can happen. "If it’s a mistake, it will certainly be corrected," he said.

Local accountants weren’t surprised to hear about Burger’s experience. Jeff Echelmeier of Williams-Keepers said his firm has heard from "several" clients in the same boat. Don Landers, a partner in Landers, Weiss & Co., just heard from one today. "My guess is that there will probably be others," Landers said.

Devine, the IRS spokesman, said taxpayers should carefully read any notices received from the IRS before calling the phone number on the notice for assistance.

If not satisfied with the assistance, he said, taxpayers should first speak to a supervisor before following the Taxpayer Advocate procedures outlined on the IRS Web site, www.irs.gov.