Tax Lawyer's Blog

Today is April 15th, the last day for most Americans and U.S. residents to file their Form 1040 – U.S. Individual Income Tax Returns.

If you still haven’t prepared your tax return, don’t panic.

The IRS will give you more time if you ask for it.

Rushing to Prepare and File Your Return By April 15th Increases the Chances of Costly Errors

Many taxpayers will be rushing today to patch together their records, prepare their tax returns and get them filed (postmarked) before midnight tonight.

But scurrying to get your tax return filed by April 15th can cause you to make serious mistakes such as the failure to take full advantage of all the tax deductions available to you.

The few dollars you might save in penalties and interest by filing your return on April 15th instead of, say, April 25th, is not worth the hundreds or even thousands of dollars you may lose by failing to file your return correctly.

So take a deep breath, relax and read on.

Our Recommendation

If you have not begun to assemble your records, we recommend that you do the following:

• Prepare and download Form 4868 
• Make out a check payable to the Department of Treasury for the amount of taxes you expect to owe with the return (if you expect a refund, you do not have to include a check with your extension)
• Send the completed extension and your check, certified mail, return receipt requested to the appropriate IRS address for your part of the country.

Other filing and payment options

Electronic Filing:  If you can’t make it to the post office in time to mail your Form 4868, you can file your extension online. Make sure you e-file your extension before midnight. There is a five to ten minute lag, so don’t wait until 11:59 am to log in.

Pay by Credit Card: You can also pay your tax using your credit card and file your Form 4868 all at the same time. There are two IRS-approved credit card services. One is Link2Gov which offers extension payments through Pay1040. The other IRS-approved payment service is Official Payments.

Both companies charge a 2.49% convenience fee for using their service.

An Extension of Time to File is NOT an Extension of Time to Pay

We get this question from taxpayers all the time,

 If I filed an extension, why did the IRS penalize me and charge me interest?

The answer is simple, but seems to perplex many taxpayers: The Form 4868 gives you more time to file your tax return. It does not give you more time to pay your tax.

I repeat: The Form 4868 gives you more time to file your tax return. It does not give you more time to pay your tax.

This is why you must do the best job you can in estimating the amount of additional tax you will owe once the return is prepared and pay it to the IRS when you file the Form 4868.

Taxpayers Filing an Extension Should File Their Returns As Soon As Possible After April 15th

Without having already prepared the return, it is difficult to estimate precisely what you will owe.

For this reason, taxpayers frequently do not pay enough with their extensions and later, when they do file their returns, the IRS charges interest and assesses a penalty for late payment.

For this reason, even if you do file an extension, you should prepare and file your return as quickly as possible after April 15th to minimize any potential underpayment penalties and interest you might have.

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