 Income tax 2021-2022. When and where should you file? Get ready to get refunds to the max, diving into Income tax 2021-2022. Most of this information can be found in the Form 1040 Instructions Tax Year 2021 found on the IRS website, irs.gov. When and where should you file? File Form 1040 or Form 1040 SR by April 18th. Once again, that's April 18th, 2022. So we're talking about the 2021 tax year. Often it's due on April 15th. We've got April 18th at this point in time due to some holiday that we'll see shortly here. So the due date is April 18th instead of April 15th because of the Emancipation Day Holiday in the District of Columbia. Even if you don't live in the District of Columbia. If you live in Maine or Massachusetts, you have until April 19th, 2022 because of the Patriots Day Holiday in those states. If you file after this date, you may have to pay interest and penalties, see interest and penalty later. So obviously our goal when we think about the filing requirements is that the goal paying taxes in general is going to be that we want to be in compliance. Why? Because we don't want to get hit with the stick. What's the stick going to be? It's going to be penalties and interest in general. So we're trying to avoid penalties and interest. One of the ways we do that is we meet the filing requirements because if we don't, they may charge penalties on it. And once they charge penalties, then they'll accumulate interest on top of it as well. So that's what we're trying to avoid here. When and where should you file? If you were serving in or in support of the U.S. Armed Forces in designated combat zone or contingency operation. Thank you for your service. You may be able to file later. See publication three, four details. So if you were in a combat zone, the IRS is gracious enough to possibly delay the filing requirements. So that's, you know, you got that going for you. That's good. So if you e-file your return, there is 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 more and more of the IRS is trying to push people towards the e-filing. They've been doing this for some time, but after the COVID pandemic type thing that's going on here, they're doing it more and more in part because of the restrictions, which are following, I would think more heavily on the IRS when you're talking about basically restrictions for masking and any other kind of distancing kind of restrictions. Those, because they're in the Fed, the IRS is kind of the first place they can kind of apply those at least from a top town fashion. So you would think that the IRS is going to have more problems with those kind of things. And we know that they are quite backed up on tax returns that are having issues and problems. So if you send in a paper return, it's quite likely that it's going to take them longer because they're going to need actual manual processing for it. They're trying to get everything basically automated. If you send in a return and it has a problem with it that's going to take, you know, a manual person instead of an electronic process, then that could also take longer. For most people that want a refund, that's going to be bad. So the general rule that they've been putting out there for some time now is if you want to get your refund fast, you want to use tax software, you typically want to electronically file, and then you want to have the refund go directly into your bank account with a direct deposit status. Now, if you owe them money, then you might not be as concerned with them processing as long as you avoid the stick of getting hit with the penalties and interest by still filing on time. So if you owe them money and you send them a paper check and you send them a paper tax return that takes them five years to process or something, it might, you know, won't take that long, I would think. But, you know, as long as they don't charge you penalties and interest, you might not be as concerned. But even on that side of things, it's kind of nice to be able to e-file it because then you can at least say, hey, look, the thing has been processed. I don't have to worry if it got lost in the mail or whatever, anything like that. So in any case, the chart at the end of these instructions provides the current address for mailing your returns. So if you want to mail the return in, you could take a look at the form 1040 instructions and you'll find the proper place to mail it. Make sure that you're mailing it to the proper place. Use these addresses for forms 1040 or 1040 SR file 2022. Obviously, if you're using tax software, then it's an e-file, a lot easier of a process. Remember that even if your income is below a certain threshold, you may have access to free software on irs.gov, irs.gov. So the address for the returns filed after 2022 may be different. See irs.gov forward slash 1040, form 1040 for any updates. What if you can't file on time? You can get an automatic six-month extension if no later than the due date of the return is due. You file form 4868. So you got form 4868. That's going to be the six-month extension. And remember when you're thinking about the extension of time that that's going to be different than when you owe the money. So the general rule being that you owe the money as you earn the money. In other words, the way the tax system is kind of designed to be would be similar to if you've ever worked with payroll taxes. That being that during the tax year, in this case 2021, as you earn revenue, you actually pay the irs as you earn it. And then when you file the tax return in 2022 by possibly or generally April 18th in this case of 2022, you would just have an information return telling them this is my earnings. These are the taxes, my tax liability, which I already paid during 2021 resulting in no refund and no tax due. That's how it's kind of designed to be. However, it can't be that way perfectly because it's a very complex tax system. So we cannot know throughout 2021 how much tax we're actually going to owe because it's a progressive tax system with massive amounts of different kinds of deductions instead of just one kind of standard deduction. And you have different complexities with filing statuses and so on and so forth. That's why we shoot for kind of a refund so that we can avoid the stick of penalties and interest. So that means that the IRS wants to get paid during 2021. Now, if you file an extension of time and so that you have more time to file, what you're trying to generally do is avoid getting hit with the penalties and interest to stick related to penalties and interest for late filing. But you're still going to need to pay them because simply by delaying the return, you're not going to delay the pay date because the pay date, in essence, they still want to get paid throughout the year. So you're going to, and most of the times when people can't file, it's because they don't know something like they have their own business and they don't have the proper bookkeeping or so on to file the proper schedule C. So they don't know how much tax they owe and that becomes a problem to estimate the payment. But remember, you have to estimate the payment to avoid the stick of the penalties and interest because there's a difference between the filing requirement and the payment requirement. So even if you file an extension, in other words, you still generally need to pay them if you owe any money at that point in time in order to avoid the penalties and interest related to the late payments as opposed to the late penalties and interest for the filing. So instead of filing form 4868, you can apply for an automatic extension by making an electronic payment by the due date of your return. So it's a little bit faster if you're going to say if you owe them money at that point to make the electronic payment. If you owe them money, you could just basically go onto the IRS website and make the payment that you owe, which will automatically file in essence the extension. If you don't owe them money, then you might still file the form 4868 to kind of, you know, make sure that you're in compliance. But usually, obviously, if the government owes you money, in other words, when you file the tax return, they're going to give you a refund and you delay that point, then it's not a big problem to the IRS. They don't care that much because you're in essence giving them a loan. They know the time value of money. They'd rather hold on to the money for a longer period of time and not give it to you until later. And so it's not as big of a problem. If you owe them money, then it is a problem. They want their money up front. You've got to make a payment and so on. So an automatic six-month extension to file doesn't extend the time to pay your tax. 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 more information as well as the related instructions possibly. What if you can't file your tax on time? If you are a U.S. 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. So you live outside the United States and Puerto Rico and your main place of business or post of duty is outside the United States and Puerto Rico. 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 got that same kind of difference between the due date and the due date for the payments. You must include a statement showing that you meet the requirements. If you are still unable to file your tax return by the end of the two-month period, you can get an additional four months if no later than June 15th. So you got that extra two months to kind of do the filing and then if you can't by that point, then you got this kind of extension format for the four months then. You file form, that's when you file the form 4868. This four-month extension of time to file doesn't extend the time to pay your tax, C form 4868. So you have the same thing here. It's an extension of time to file, not an extension of time to pay. The IRS still wants their money.