Everyone knows that dreaded feeling when tax deadlines sneak up sooner than anticipated. In case you want extra time to file your return, a tax extension can provide you some respiration room. Simply request an extension by filling out IRS Kind 4868 by the April 15 submitting deadline. It will grant you till Oct. 15 to file with out going through penalties.
However there are some issues to know earlier than you go down that highway. Listed below are among the high questions and solutions about enterprise and private tax extensions, from some tax specialists.
1. What’s the most important false impression about tax extensions?
All of the specialists Success.com spoke with mentioned the most important false impression is that tax extensions provide you with extra time to pay up. In actuality, you simply have extra time to file your tax returns. You continue to have to pay your taxes by the unique April 15 deadline.
“A number of penalties could apply to each private and enterprise tax returns for those who don’t pay what you owe by the unique due date of your return; for those who don’t file or request an extension by the unique due date of your return and present a steadiness once you ultimately file your return; for those who do file an extension however don’t file by the prolonged deadline and present a steadiness once you ultimately file your return; or for those who didn’t pay your required quarterly estimated funds final 12 months,” says Logan Allec, CPA and founder at Alternative Tax Aid. These penalties embody:
● Failure to pay penalty (for those who don’t file an extension): The failure-to-pay penalty is charged once you don’t pay your taxes on time and is calculated as a proportion of the unpaid tax quantity. In accordance with the IRS web site, this penalty “is one-half of 1% for every month, or a part of a month, as much as a most of 25%, for the quantity of tax that continues to be unpaid from the due date of the return till the tax is paid in full.”
● Curiosity on unpaid tax (for those who don’t file an extension): This penalty is charged on any unpaid tax from the due date of the return till the cost date in full. “The rate of interest is decided quarterly and is the federal short-term charge plus 3%. Curiosity compounds every day,” in response to the IRS web site.
● Failure-to-file penalty: In case you owe tax and don’t file on time, there’s a penalty (even with extensions). The failure-to-file penalty is usually 5% of the tax owed for every month, or a part of a month that your return is late, as much as a most of 25%.
● Underpayment of estimated tax penalty (for those who don’t make your quarterly estimated tax funds): In case you fail to pay sufficient taxes by means of withholding or estimated funds, you would possibly incur a penalty. The penalty, in response to Allec, “accrues on any unpaid or underpaid estimated tax cost from the date the cost is due till the sooner of when the estimated tax cost is made or the due date of the return. The underpayment penalty is… equal to the federal short-term charge plus 3%.”
2. How do I do know what to pay for my taxes if I haven’t filed a tax return?
“[Do] your greatest to compile the knowledge that you’ve got,” says Andrea Harrington, CPA and companion at Fiondella, Milone & LaSaracina LLP and use that to estimate. You too can use tax software program or give the knowledge to your tax preparer to calculate an estimated tax.
3. Are the submitting dates for all private and enterprise tax returns the identical?
No. April 15 is the deadline for many forms of tax returns, and it’s additionally the deadline to file for many forms of tax extensions. Nonetheless, S company and partnership tax returns are normally due on March 15, and extensions should be filed by then, Allec says. “There’s some confusion about deadlines, as a result of the dates modified a number of years again for S corps and partnerships.”
S firms are companies that move company revenue, losses, deductions and credit on to their shareholders for federal tax functions. Shareholders then report these pass-through earnings and losses on their private tax returns, the place they’re taxed based mostly on their particular person revenue tax charges. Many small companies function as S firms.
4. Do I have to file for a state tax extension if I’ve filed for a federal tax extension?
Typically. In lots of states, reminiscent of California, you don’t must file a separate state tax extension. Different states, reminiscent of New York, require that you just do.
In case you dwell and work/have a enterprise in one of many states with no state revenue tax, you do not want to file a state revenue tax return or request an extension. There are some exceptions. In case you have a C-corporation in Florida, which doesn’t have a state revenue tax, you could pay a 5.5% company revenue tax.
For federal revenue tax functions, a C company is handled as an unbiased taxpaying entity. It operates as a enterprise, generates earnings or losses, pays taxes and distributes earnings to its shareholders. Most large companies function as C firms.
To find out your state tax extension guidelines, test your state’s division of income or division of taxation web site for the most recent info, says Allec. You too can test the extension guidelines in your state’s tax kinds, he says.
5. When is submitting a private or enterprise tax extension a sensible transfer?
Listed below are among the principal causes:
Ready for Okay-1 funding tax kinds
Schedule Okay-1 kinds are tax paperwork that report a person companion’s, shareholder’s or beneficiary’s share of revenue, deductions, credit and different objects from sure companies. These kinds are utilized by pass-through entities, which don’t pay revenue tax themselves however move the tax accountability to their members. Cross-through entities embody partnerships and S firms.
Partnerships and S firms can request a six-month extension, shifting the deadline to Sept. 15 for calendar-year entities.
K1 returns are usually extra advanced, taking longer to finish, says Harrington. “We do get a flurry of them in August for our purchasers,” she says.
Monitoring audit outcomes
“If you’re underneath audit, you would possibly need to wait to see what the outcomes of the audit are,” says Harrington, “in case there are positions that you just’re at the moment taking which can be challenged or [reversed].”
For instance, throughout an audit, the IRS would possibly problem your auto use proportion for those who can’t substantiate the enterprise use proportion, she says.
Anticipating adjustments to laws
One more reason to file an extension is to see if there’s any pending laws that would change your submitting place, Harrington says. “The federal authorities made some adjustments to analysis and improvement capitalization insurance policies various years in the past, and there was plenty of legislative buzz that induced folks to increase to see if the flexibility to at the moment deduct these prices could be reinstated,” she says.
It didn’t occur, but when it had, the individuals who filed tax extensions could have been capable of benefit from that change. (The American Innovation and R&D Competitiveness Act of 2025 was reintroduced in March of this 12 months however will not be prone to develop into regulation in time to have an effect on this 12 months’s tax return.)
Including cash to enterprise retirement accounts
One more reason to file an extension is as a result of it could provide you with extra time to place cash into your outlined profit plan, says John Adams, CPA and proprietor of Bridgewater Tax and Monetary Consulting.
Money steadiness plans are a kind of outlined profit plan that permits for a bigger tax deferral in comparison with 401K plans, Adams says. “These plans are utilized by small companies, high-income earners {and professional} corporations like medical doctors and attorneys to defer extra taxes. Every year, an employer provides cash to a plan based mostly on a proportion of wage and an curiosity credit score.”
“Money steadiness plans are one kind of retirement plan that means that you can deposit cash up till your submitting extension deadline,” Adams says. “Sure forms of small enterprise retirement plans supply the identical possibility as effectively, together with Simplified Worker Pensions (SEPs), solo 401Ks or SIMPLE-IRAs.”
6. If I dwell and work in an space affected by a significant pure catastrophe, will I’ve extra time to file and pay taxes?
Typically, sure. For instance, people, households, and companies in Los Angeles County, California, qualify for tax reduction because of the wildfires. The tax submitting deadline for 2024 tax returns for that space has been prolonged to Oct. 15, 2025.
It’s an computerized extension, says Allec, which implies you don’t have to file a tax extension to each file and pay your taxes by Oct. 15, 2025. You too can lengthen your IRA and HSA contributions till Oct. 15, 2025, as effectively, Allec says.
7. Ought to I file a tax extension?
“Folks ought to simply view it [a tax extension] as a device,” says Allec. “Like all device, it may be for good…. Extra time to fund your SEP, extra time to assemble data [and] get your books collectively.”
Allec cautions that it may be straightforward to procrastinate. Oct. 15, the submitting deadline for folks with extensions, can come up quick, and it is advisable be able to file your returns.
Photograph courtesy of fizkes/Shutterstock
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