 Income tax 2023-2024. When and where should you file? Get ready and some coffee because we need to know a lot of information to do income tax preparation 2023-2024. Most of this information can be found in the Form 1040 Instructions Tax Year 2023, which you can find on the IRS website, irs.gov, irs.gov. When and where should you file? So for most of us, we're back to the norm here, not having those weird holidays landing on a weekend, pushing that date out. But to file Form 1040-1040 SR, we have the April 15, 2024 deadline for most of us. However, if you live in Maine or Massachusetts, you have until April 17 because of the Patriots' Day and Emancipation Day holidays. They're the special people. I can make up a holiday too if I wanted to, if it would help me to delay my taxes, but whatever. For most of us, we're back to that April 15, 2024. So a quick recap of what this means. There's a difference between the deadline for filing the taxes and the deadline for paying the taxes. Talking about tax year 2023, the IRS typically wants to get paid during the tax year, usually in the form of withholdings if you are an employee or in the form of estimated tax payments, say if you have a sole proprietor type of business, for example, and then the filing requirement. First, a word from our sponsor. Yeah, actually, we're sponsoring ourselves on this one because apparently the merchandisers, they don't want to be seen with us. But that's okay, whatever. Because our merchandise is better than their stupid stuff anyways. Like our, trust me, I'm an accountant product line. Yeah, it's paramount that you let people know that you're an accountant. Because apparently we're among the only ones equipped with the number crunching skills to answer society's current deep complex and nuanced questions. If you would like a commercial free experience, consider subscribing to our website at accountinginstruction.com or accountinginstruction.thinkific.com is at April 15, 2024, if you don't have any extensions. If you try not paying until April 15, 2024, you will still get hit with the stick of penalties and interest, remembering our goal here is not to get hit with the stick of penalties and interest. That means that we want to basically withhold and pay throughout the year with withholdings or estimated tax payments, shoot for a bit of an overpayment to get a refund, and that's because we like getting money from the IRS to check from the IRS if it's our own money they're giving back to us, but because we're trying to avoid the penalties and interest. Okay, if you file after this date, you may have to pay interest and penalties. That's the stick we're trying to avoid. So see interest and penalties later. So if you were serving in or in support of the U.S. Armed Forces in a designated combat zone or contingency operation, you may be able to file later. See publication three for details. So if you are in the military, thank you for your service. If you're in a designated combat zone, that sounds like a dangerous situation, and the IRS is gracious enough to give you a little bit more time to file your tax return in that case. So that's nice of them. So if you e-file your return, there's no need to mail it. However, if you choose to mail it instead, filing instructions and addresses are at the end of these instructions. So it used to be of course that we typically had to mail, snail mail, the tax returns in which caused a huge problem on the tax due date. Oftentimes lines forming at the post office at that point. The IRS has more and more tried to get people onto the e-mail system in part because that's of course easier on their side as well for the processing of the returns. And so most of us are probably on that system now with the e-filing. If you're using any kind of tax software, then you possibly have the capacity to do the e-filing. It is the easier thing to do. Now, some people still have concerns about whether or not it's more safe possibly to file by mail. There's going to be arguments on either side of the issue in those cases. The IRS, of course, arguing that e-filing is completely secure because it's hard to really tell because they have an interest in trying to get everybody on the e-file. But for most of us, the e-filing is going to be the way that we would typically go, but you might still be able to do the paper filing if you really want to. So tip. So the chart at the end of these instructions provides the current address for mailing your return. So if you mail your return, obviously you want to make sure you're mailing it to the correct location. Also note, if you are mailing the return, then it might take longer to process. When we were going through all that COVID stuff, the government, you'll recall, was trying to impose these kind of restrictions from the top down. So it kind of looked like the government agencies were the ones that were first kind of dismantling or working from home or not going to the office, which meant, of course, backlogs on things like paper tax returns. So even without that, however, now that we're back to kind of normal, they still kind of have backlogs, but they're kind of back to normal. It'll take longer to process the tax returns. That means that from a practical standpoint, if you're looking for a refund and you want it soon, then that might take longer. However, if you are not looking for a refund or possibly if you owe them money, what are you trying to do in that case? You're just trying to avoid the penalties and interest. So maybe filing a paper return isn't too bad at that point because as long as you pay them on time, then you're going to avoid the stick of penalties and interest. And if it takes them a while to cash your check and process your return might not be as big a deal. However, it's also very nice for the electronic filing to give you the automatic response showing that you have successfully, at least delivered the return so it doesn't get lost in the mail. I know where I'm at, there's a whole lot of mail problems and people tampering with the mail. So I don't trust it going either way out or in with all the kind of stuff going on with that. So use these addresses for forms 1040, 1040 SR filed in 2024. The address for return filed after 2024 may be different. So make sure you have the right address for the right time to file. So what if you can't file on time? What's going to happen? Well, you get an automatic six month extension if no later than the due date of your return is due, you file form 4868. So if you want to apply for an extension electronically, see form 4868 for details. So this sounds great. You're like, well, I can do it. Why don't they just push the due date out six months? Well, they could do that. But remember, there's a difference between the filing requirement and the payment requirement. So the fact that you that you put yourself on extension does not alleviate the penalties and interest from pain late. So for example, if you owe money as of April 15th, and you say I'm just going to put myself on extension. Well, you might alleviate yourself from the penalties and interest for just the filing. However, you'll still get hit with penalties and interest for pain late. So you just want to keep those two things kind of separate in your mind. Now, obviously, many times the reason that people put themselves on extension is because they don't know how much money they owe because they have to do the taxes because the tax system is complex. I need to do the taxes before I know how much I owe. This is often the case for sole proprietors, for example, who haven't got their bookkeeping together to the point where they can do their taxes possibly. Therefore, they don't know how much they owe. Well, what are you going to do? You still want to try to overpay the taxes a little bit so you can kind of shoot for a refund even though you have no idea how much tax you owe. Why? Because you're trying to avoid the penalties and interest of pain late. So caution, an automatic six month extension to file doesn't extend the time to pay your tax. So if you don't pay your tax by the original due date of your return, you will owe interest on the unpaid tax and may owe penalties. You can see form 4868 for instructions. Now, some of the software that's the free file software, if your income is below a certain threshold, which you could find in the IRS website, may help you to determine whether or not you owe the tax. So you can kind of check that out. And I'm not sure if the free software will allow you to file the extension automatically as well. But the extension is like a one paper form. It's a pretty easy thing to file. And if you owe money, you might be able to basically file an extension by basically making the payment at the same time and assigning the payment to the extension. So if you are a US citizen or resident alien, you may qualify for an automatic extension of time to file without filing form 4868. You qualify if on the due date of your return, you meet one of the following conditions. You live outside the United States or Puerto Rico and your main place of business or post of duty is outside the United States and Puerto Rico. So you are in military or naval service on duty outside the United States and Puerto Rico. This extension gives you an extra two months to file and pay the tax, but interest will be charged from the original due date of the return on any unpaid tax. So you must include a statement showing that you meet the requirements. If you are still unable to file your return by the end of the two month period, you can get an additional four months if no later than June 17, 2024, you filed the form 4868. So a little bit different on the timeline where you get that automatic two months. So this four month extension of time to file doesn't extend the time to pay your tax. So same kind of thing with the payment of the tax situation there as well. So that is the difference here. So the extension gives you an extra two months to file and pay the tax, but interest will be charged from the original due date of the return on any unpaid tax.