 Income tax 2022-2023, when and where should you file? Let's do some wealth preservation with some tax preparation. Most of this information can be found at the Form 1040 Instructions Tax Year 2022 file in requirements. You can find at the IRS website, irs.gov, irs.gov. We're asking the question, when and where should you file? So file Form 1040 or 1040SR by April 18th. Once again, that's April 18th, 2023. The due date is April 18th instead of April 15th because of the Emancipation Day holiday in the District of Columbia. So if you prepare tax returns, you're gonna get this question all the time. When's the due date, April 15th? They're gonna say no, it's April 18th. Well, why is that? Fun fact here, fun fact. It's the Emancipation Holiday in the District of Columbia, which somehow pushes it out. I don't support accounting instruction by clicking the link below, giving you a free month membership to all of the content on our website, broken out by category, further broken out by course, each course then organized in a logical, reasonable fashion, making it much more easy to find what you need than can be done on a YouTube page. We also include added resources, such as Excel practice problems, PDF files, and more like QuickBooks backup files when applicable. So once again, click the link below for a free month membership to our website and all the content on it. You know why that holiday pushes it out? I have my own holidays, it doesn't seem to push out the due dates of federal due dates or anything, but that's what it is. So even if you don't live in the District of Columbia, so if you file after this date, you may have to pay interest and penalties. Clearly, that's what we're trying to avoid here, penalties and interest, these are the sticks that the IRS wields and we try to avoid them. So see interest and penalties later, we'll talk more about them in a future presentation. 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. So if you're serving the country, then thank you for your service. The IRS might be gracious enough if you're putting the life on the line in the combat zone to delay the tax filing for at least a little bit. So you can see publication three for more details about that. If you e-file your return, there is no need to mail it. However, so obviously the IRS is pushing more and more for the e-filing of the returns, but she possibly could still mail in the return. Clearly the quickest way to get the refund is usually to have an e-filed return with the banking direct deposit information in place. However, if you owe money and you're simply trying to avoid getting hit by the sticks of the penalties and interest, you might still want to pay for file, but even then it's something the IRS is trying to push on the e-files and it's kind of nice to have the verification that they actually received the return. So however, if you choose to mail it instead, filing instruction and addresses are at the end of these instructions. So if you're mailing the return in, you have the added kind of complication of saying, well, where do I have to mail this to? And you can look at the instructions for where you're located and where the mailing address should be going to tip. The chart at the end of these instructions provides the current address for mailing your return. Use these addresses for forms 1040 or 1040 SR filed in 2023. And the address for returns filed after 2023 may be different. C-I-R-S.gov forward slash form 1040 for any updates. So what if you can't file on time? So now we're saying, okay, the due date is April 15th, April 18th. That's not good for me. That's not good for me. That's not gonna work. What do I do in that instance? I want more time. I need more time. I got a business return. I just started my gig work here because you shut down my business before and I got this new business and I got to put my bookkeeping together. So you can get an automatic six month extension if no later than the due date your return is due, you file form 4868. So that's the extension form, the form 4868. As we put people on extensions, we want to remember that there's a difference between filing requirements and the tax due requirements. So our goal as always is to be in compliance with the law while still paying as little taxes as possible. We pay as little taxes as possible in part by avoiding penalties and interest. So if we're going on extension, we typically would want to file the form 4868 to avoid the penalties and interest for late filing, but we're not gonna avoid the sticks of penalties and interest related to late payment if we owe money at that point. So even though we don't know what we owe possibly, we want to still be making some kind of estimate generally of the tax that we owe in order to avoid the penalties and the interest, which can be difficult because oftentimes the reason you're going on extension possibly being that you have a business or something, you don't have the documentation to know what your taxes are, that doesn't matter. You still kind of wanna make an estimate because the IRS wants their money at that time basically even if you file an extension generally. 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 if you owe money, then you might say, okay, I'm gonna put myself on extension. I'm gonna try to estimate how much I owe at the point in time, on April 15th or April 18th or whatever before the due date. If you owe money, then you can make an electronic payment to the government. And when you make the electronic payment, you can basically say, hey, look, this is me going on extension. The payment itself is the estimate of the tax that I owe. So you can do that might be a little bit easier if you owe money. Obviously, if you do not owe money and if you still need to file a form 4868, then you're not making a payment and you can't file the extension and that way might have to then file the form 4868 just to be sure that everything's rolling the way it should. Obviously, if the government owes you money, they are not as concerned with the extension form because in that case, you're basically just delaying the refund that they're giving you. You are in essence giving them a loan. So they're pretty much good with that. They're like, all right, whatever will pay you later. That's not, you would think that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. If you owe them money, then it's a bad thing for them. Then they might hit you with the penalties and interest. Then you're gonna need to pay them at the point in time you give the extension and so on. Caution, an automatic six month extension to file doesn't extend the time to pay your tax. This is a point I've reiterated multiple times but you wanna make sure to drill that into the minds of anybody that's asking you questions about extensions because oftentimes people tend to think that the taxes are actually due when the tax return is filed, April 15th or April 18th in this case or when the return is extended, no, that's not the case. The IRS wants their money during the year. In this case, during 2022, if you owe any taxes by April 15th or April 18th, they still want their money. And so you've gotta kind of nail that or that point home because people are quite stubborn to understand it. 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 more information. 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. So you might get the automatic extension without actually filing form 4868. Form 4868 is pretty dang easy to file. So, I mean, you know, it's not like a real burdensome thing to file it. The difficult thing, of course, usually is trying to estimate how much tax you owe at that point in time and paying it. But in any case, you live outside the United States in Puerto Rico and your main place of business or post of duty is outside the United States in Puerto Rico. You are in military or naval service on duty outside the United States in Puerto Rico. So yeah, in those cases, it might be a little difficult to file the extension form. And again, the IRS gracious enough to possibly give an automatic extension. So these extensions give 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. 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 15th, 2023, you file form 4868. So then you can further go with the extension filing the form 4868 at that point on those more kind of unusual circumstances and get the four months rather than the six months because you already got the two months, you see. So the four month extension of time to file doesn't extend the time to pay your tax. So same kind of thing, difference between the filing requirement and when taxes actually do. Private delivery services. If you choose to mail your return, you can use certain private delivery services designated by the IRS to meet the timely mailing treated as timely filing pain, quote, rule for tax returns and payments. So obviously if you are mailing the return, then the question is, well, when is the due date that I mail? It used to be that there was a big line at the post office on tax day. It was kind of, it's kind of funny scenario. I remember having to deal with that as a tax preparer and trying to mail out stuff. So it is quite a lot easier with the e-file kind of stuff these days. It's a little embarrassing going to the post office with a bunch of stuff you're gonna send to like a hundred clients or anything. But in any case, these private delivery services include only the following. You've got the DHL Express 9, DHL Express 1030, DHL Express 12, DHL Express worldwide. I won't go through all of these. You could check a look at them on your own time. If you so choose, you've got UPS Next Day Air. So you've got those lists. You've got the FedEx first overnight and so on and so forth. So you've got your mailing options if you choose not to e-file, then you've gotta go through some of those options. So to check for any updates to the list of designated private delivery services, go to irs.gov forward slash pds for the IRS mailing address to use. If you're using a private delivery service, go to the irs forward slash and so on. You could find that there. I won't go, you can check that out. So the private delivery service can tell you how to get written proof of the mailing date. So if you wanna be more secure and you're mailing something, then you'd like to get proof of the mailing date. So if the IRS gets it late, which you know, they're kind of backed up on the mailing returns because all the COVID thing and the social distancing. So I mean, if they mess something up, then it's nice if you could add that added level of security and say, hey, no, I mailed it on this date. You guys lost it on the pile and so don't charge me with any penalties and interest. So for most people, if your filing is and at the end of 2002, you were then file a return if your gross income. So these are just the tables in terms of whether or not you're required to file. We talked about whether or not you are required to file in a prior presentation, the general rule being that if your income is below like the standard deduction, you might not be required to file, but remember that you still probably want to file oftentimes or at least check it out because the software is often free available on the free file options online to at least run a projection with. So I would think that would be the general rule.