 internal revenue service IRS tax news most taxpayers who request an extension to file their 2021 tax return must file by October 17th oh I must mustn't tie IRS well what what if I don't huh huh IRS what if I don't I see you'll hit me on the head repeatedly with the proverbial stick of penalties and dang jerks at the IRS they found my weakness you see ever since I was a young child I've had this strange eversion to being hit on the head repeatedly with a stick proverbial or otherwise cunningly played IRS your two steps ahead of me once again with that crafty move threatening with a stick a strategical move most likely learned from the brilliant historical tactician grug who once proclaimed you give me bearskin shirt off back or me thump you on stick with head or other way round head thump head with stick you win this round IRS you win this round freeze-dried meat is amazing it's amazing so nice it's really good it keeps forever in a little water actually does bring a steak back to life and it worked love brought him back to life proving that love is more powerful than dead no Phil the cow is still dead I mean the flavor was brought back to life I know I know Phil it's wrong to eat meat you said it's wrong to eat me is he crazy no just ignorant you see your crazy friend never heard of the food chain I see Phil as the furry the cow could have been your cousin just ask this scientifician he'll tell you that in nature one creature invariably eats another to survive but wait a second you're a furry ferret Phil how can a cow be your cousin now don't kid yourself Jimmy if I however got the chance he'd eat you and everyone you care about I mean what what is it are all animals cousins at this point cousin Andrew had dinner with us two months ago you have too many cousins COVID tax tip 2022-156 October 12 2022 time is running out the clock has gotten legs it ran right out the door hope it's not raining out there cuz rain's not good for clocks the October 17th filing extension deadline is just days away most taxpayers who requested an extension of time to file their 2021 tax return must filed by Monday to avoid the penalties for filing late so they gave you the consequences here that they were kind of missing in the title I kind of think in the title they should have at least included an or else tax return must be filed by October 17th or else and you best clean your room or else there's something terrible will happen and now they've listed out the things that are going to happen which of course are the sticks of the penalties and the interest that can compile so this year the IRS received about 19 million requests for extension to file until October 17th and urges people to file electronically there's a link to that here extension filers who owe taxes should pay as much as possible to reduce interest and penalties note that those two things are basically different meaning you have kind of two things that could result in penalties and interest hitting you one would be that you filed on time the other being that you paid on time remember that when you're thinking about paying your taxes the IRS wants to be paid as or in the year generally as you earn the money so when in 2021 they would like to be paid as you are earning your money in 2021 in a perfect world when you file the tax return usually by April 15th of 2022 in this case but now extended to October 17th it should just be an information return in a perfect world if our tax code was not so complicated just saying hey look this is how much I owed you I'm recalculating how much I owe and I've already paid it either through withholdings from my paycheck or through estimated tax payments it's not a perfect world the tax code is really complex so we can't exactly pay exactly what we owe in the year that we earn it because of the progressive tax system and all the changes in the code and so on so what we try to do is overshoot a little bit for the taxes so that we can get a refund not because we just simply want to refund but because we want to avoid getting hit with sticks of penalties and interest that's that's the general process so oftentimes when you don't file by April it's because you don't have the information to file and you might think well how in the world can I pay the proper amount of tax if I don't have the information to file my tax return which tells me how much tax I owe that is a problem but you still need to give some kind of estimate why because you're trying to avoid getting hit with sticks of penalties and interest so you try to you try that so that's the goal so so those who have not yet filed the 2021 tax return owe tax and did not request an extension can generally avoid additional penalties and interest by filing the return and paying any tax that owed as soon as possible some groups have additional time to file so you might have even more time possibly if you're in one of these groups people who have an extension and are in or affected by a federally declared disaster area may be allowed more time to file so if you're got hit by a hurricane and you're floating out in the ocean on an iceberg and your whole house is under under the iceberg or something like that the iris is gracious enough to extend the filing deadline you still have to pay on time pretty much because you know but the filing deadline generally may they may push that out a bit so special deadline exceptions may apply for certain military service members and eligible support personnel in combat zones so if you're in the military serve in your country that's good but you got it looks like you got to actually be basically under file fire you know death on the line and in that case again iris gracious enough possibly to extend the filing deadline you know a little bit so several resources are available for service members and their families who may be eligible for these exceptions here are a few resources on irs.gov to help last-minute filers you got irs free file these are the third-party service providers the tax software providers that provide provide software for free if your income is below a certain threshold the iris somehow has kind of strangled these people into into offering their products for free if your income or if you meet certain requirements according to the software requirements but I don't think they can keep strangle holding them after the filing deadline or the extension so you really want to use software if you're not using a tax professional and if you're if you're working with a tax professional to help you prepare your taxes they're going to be using software so software is something that's quite helpful even on the low income side of things it used to be you'd say well if it's an easy tax return I remember like it you I used to be able to basically call in my taxes fill out like a postcard type form and call in my taxes over the phone I believe it you know at one point but even low income filers can't really do that as easily these days because there's the low income area is where a lot of the changes in the tax codes has happened so the tax code is not the same from year to year especially with the credits the refundable tax credits the earned income tax credit the child tax credit the prepayments and so on the health insurance you know kind of capacity possibly for credits so that means that you really want software to help you out with it so if you haven't filed that's another reason to file you want to make sure that you don't lose the capacity to get access to the software or else you'll have to pay for the software or do some other method available so it's available through October 17th IRS e-file is easy safe and the most accurate way to file taxes I'm not sure about all that but it's sure the way the IRS is pushing things so that's the way you're probably gonna have to go at some point in any case so here we go so there are eight free file products available in English and two in Spanish filing electronically can also help taxpayers determine their earned income tax credit child and dependent care credit and recovery rebate so those are big credits that are available particularly to lower income individuals making the tax returns a bit more complex there's links to all those credits here online payment there's a link to that here taxpayers can pay online using IRS direct pay there's a link to that at no cost or use a debit card credit card or digital wallet which may be subject to a payment processing fee if they're filing through tax software or a tax preparer taxpayers can schedule a payment when filing a taxpayers if taxpayers have a balance or are unable to pay it they should apply for a payment plan note if you can't pay your taxes and there's a lot of people that probably had really unusual circumstances in the last couple years here so you might be in a situation where I've always been able to do my taxes and then this year I can't pay the taxes possibly for some reason what you don't want to do is just avoid it completely because what will happen then is usually just nothing at the start but then the IRS will accumulate penalties and interest in some time down the road you're gonna be hit with this giant bill because of the accumulation of penalties and interest over time so what you want to do is file the tax return reduce the penalties and interest which you could do basically yourself even if you can't pay the tax generally and then set up a payment plan with the IRS which again you could do basically yourself online you don't have to you know you can research the whole process and then and that will reduce the amounts of penalties and interest that you're gonna oh so don't just avoid it that's the worst thing to do because just the way the IRS structure is now that that's always the worst thing to do in situation but this is in this case bad thing to do because you'll just accumulate penalties and interest over time set up the payment plan file the tax return the IRS has more information for taxpayers who can't afford to pay the taxes they owe there's a link to that here online account so there's a link to that so you can you can check out what's going on with your taxes online and set up your account becoming more and more important that is I believe individual taxpayers can log into their online account to view key information from their most recent tax return such as their adjusted gross income and their income impact payment amounts which may which may help in preparing and filing their return they can also view the amount they owe payment history including estimated tax payments their payment plan details and options digital copies of certain notices their address on file and authorization requests from tax professionals more information's at the links below you got the topic number one five three what to do if you haven't filed your tax return and you got the interactive tax assistant there's links to that there's links to the other stuff I said there was links to and there'll be a link to this in the description