It is only a few days until tax filing day, April 15, and if you don’t think you’ll be ready to file, it is quite easy to file for an extension.
And if you’re thinking that you’ll just file late — because who wants to file even more paperwork just to file their taxes later — you must be informed that doing so is a terrible, horrible, no-good idea.
If you don’t file, you can’t get your money back. Worse, until you file, the IRS audit clock (they have three years to audit anyone) doesn’t start.
Therefore, if you’re not going to be able to get your forms stamped by the post office by 11:59 pm on April 15, file for an extension and save yourself an endless headache. Better yet, the process is simple.
Head over to IRS.gov and download Form 4868. This form grants you a 2013 filing year extension until October 15, 2014.
You must remember when filing your extension, however, is that you still have to estimate your total income and total tax payments owed. If you don’t, the IRS is likely to not honor the request.
Additionally, if you haven’t paid at least 90 percent of your taxes owed by April 15 (for the 2013 tax year), you will owe interest on the remainder when you do file so it is best to pay as much as you estimate that you’ll owe within the next week.
That’s all. Now, if only filing your taxes were that simple.
