 Internal Revenue Service IRS Tax News. IRS Reminders about April 18th deadline for last minute filers and others. IR 2022-86 April 15th, 2022 Washington. The Internal Revenue Service is reminding taxpayers the deadline to file and pay tax owed. For most individual income tax returns is Monday, April 18th. Hey, wait a second. That's today. The agency wants last minute filers. That's us if we haven't filed yet because it's the last minute right now. To know tax help is available to file a tax return request and extension or make a payment 24 hours a day on IRS.gov. Meaning don't call them. The help isn't actually by manual assistance. It's on the website. So irs.gov, irs.gov. The IRS encourages taxpayers to file electronically because tax software does the calculations, flags common errors, and reduces tax return errors by prompting taxpayers for missing information. So we got the free file for many taxpayers that's still available. And you can find it on the IRS website looking for the free file which will lead you to the third party software. You will typically want to be using software these days even for quote easy returns in quote because you would think the easy returns would be the low income returns. But now with all the refundable credits and the changes to the refundable credits, you got the child tax credits. You got the advanced payments on the child tax credits. You got the earned income tax credit which has substantial changes from prior years. They might be able to use prior year or 2019 income on it and so on and so forth. Confusing. You got the recovery rebate credit. You have got the stimulus payments which are the recovery rebate credit in essence. All those types of things make what once was an easy return hard. And software makes filing returns much easier to do. So the mid returns actually in the mid range are kind of the easier returns now. High end level of course are more difficult. Low end are difficult just because that's where a lot of changes are happening and these refundable credits are happening. Therefore check out the software on the IRS free file. So the fastest way to receive a refund is to file electronically and use direct deposit. There's a link to the direct deposit here. IRS free file. There's a link to that here. It's available to any person or family within and adjusted gross income. Otherwise known as the AGI of $73,000 or less for 2021. So if you have income of $73,000 or less you might be able to find software for the free file. You can also look for software like an like an H&R block. I think they have software that you could just use H&R block and the other one is the Turbo tax buy into it. For example for individual filers. So even if you don't go through the IRS free file you could take a look at some of those big names for the for the software that can help guide people through. If your income is above the threshold to get the free software you might still want to use the software because you would think your tax return would be sufficiently difficult if your income is above that level because it's more likely you might be itemizing which adds a level of difficulty. And if it's much above that threshold you might want to get actual physical in person consultation or possibly over the internet these days or whatever with an actual tax preparer because you not only need your tax preparation but you might also want to do some projections and stuff which could be helpful to have an actual person to talk to in that case. So leading tax software providers make their online products available for free. Taxpayers can use IRS free file to claim the remaining amount of their child tax credits the earned income tax credits and other important credits. IRS free file fillable forms is available to anyone who is comfortable preparing their own tax return. So there is a fee options a free option for everyone. So they also have the fillable forms if your income is above the 73,000. Honestly I think they do that just to say that they have a free option for everyone because I don't think it's very advisable most of the time for people to use the fillable forms because you don't have the calculation of the softwares in that case. I do think it's useful to have the forms on the website of course and to have the instructions for them which they update. You can take a look at those so that you can see how everything is kind of put together but you probably want to have software if your income is above the 73,000 because you think you would think that your tax return is more complex at that point and therefore more likely to have errors involved in it so you probably want to pay someone or at least buy some software to help you out with it if you need to. So online account providers information to help file an accurate return including advanced child tax credit and earned income payment amounts adjusted gross income amounts for last year's tax return, estimated tax payment amounts and refunds applies as a credit. So you can take a look at your online account and log into there to get that vital tax return information. Get a six month extension to file. The IRS estimates 15 million taxpayers will request an extension of time to file and the easiest way to request an extension to file is using IRS free file. So if you can't file on time, today's the day to file that extension. Now note the IRS is most concerned with those people that actually owe them money. So if you owe them money there's two things you got to be concerned of. One, the extension and two, the payment because they're two separate things. So don't think that if you file an extension that that's an extended of time to pay. It just means they're not going to hit you with the stick of the penalty on the late filing but they'll still hit you with the other stick of the late payment penalty. So keep that in mind in a matter of minutes. Anyone can request an extension until April on October 17th using form 4868 application for automatic extension of time to file U.S. individual income tax return. There's a link to that here. An extension of time to file is not an extension of time to pay however and taxpayers must estimate their tax liability on this form and pay any amount due by the April 18th filing deadline to avoid penalties and interest. Taxpayers can also request more time by paying all or part of their estimated income tax due and indicate that the payment is for an extension. So if you owe money you can actually just pay them and file that to the extension. Make sure that you're applying it to the proper period. Remember that if you pay the IRS they're not just going to optimize and take the money and put it where it's supposed to go. You got to tell them where it's going to go. It's usually fairly straightforward. If you were to pay them online you got to apply it to the extension if that's what you want to apply it to. If you apply the payment that you make to 2022 for example when you are trying to apply it to the 2021 extension they will most likely apply it to 2022. Then say that you were late on paying your taxes for 2021 and hit you with the sticks of penalties and interest. So make sure that you file to the proper place, use the extension and that's another way that you can have the extension if you owe money. So they can do this using direct pay, the electronic federal tax payment system the EFTPS or a debit credit card or digital wallet. This way they don't have to file separate extension form and will receive a confirmation number for records. IRS Form 4868 can also be downloaded from forms, instructions and publications on the IRS website completed and addressed to the correct IRS office that must be postmarked by the filing deadline who automatically has more time to file so some people have an automatic more time to file. The IRS automatically provides filing and penalty relief to any taxpayer with an IRS address of record located in areas covered by Federal Emergency Management Agency Disaster Declarations. The deadlines to file tax returns and makes tax payments submitted for affected taxpayers in certain areas of Arkansas, Colorado, Kentucky and Tennessee until May 16, 2022 and for Puerto Rico until June 15, 2022. For details on all available relief, visit around the nation page on IRS.gov. There's a link to that here. Special rules may apply for some military personnel serving in combat zone or a qualified hazard duty area. So if you're a military personnel serving in a combat zone, thank you for your service and the IRS might be gracious enough to extend your tax filing deadline a little bit maybe. So this also applies to individual serving in the combat zone in support of the U.S. Armed Forces. A complete list of designated combat zone localities can be found in Publication 3, Armed Forces Guide, Tax Guide. There's a link to that here. It's available on IRS.gov. U.S. citizens and resident aliens living outside the United States have until June 15, 2022 to file their 2021 tax returns and pay any tax due. $1.5 billion in unclaimed 2018 refunds. Now we're talking 2018. Remember, if you don't file, there's a statute of limitations. So if you had a refund coming to you and you don't file, then at some point you won't be able to file. And if you can't file, you won't have access to the refund anymore. So check it out if you haven't filed 2018. The IRS estimated that 1.5 million taxpayers did not file a 2018 tax return to claim tax refunds worth more than $1.5 billion, the three-year window of opportunity to claim a 2018 tax return closes April 18. Wait, wait, that's today. Put your foot in the door. How can I put my foot in the door before it closes? So one way you might want to put your foot in the door is if you have any taxes that might be owed to you, you might first try to think, well, am I going to get a refund if I file the return? Because you might not have filed returns or you might know someone that has not filed the returns because they were not required to. But we know that, especially this year, but the same is true for prior years, too, that you've got these refundable credits for withholdings. So in other words, you might have worked somewhere but not earned a lot, but you might have some withholdings that would be refunded if you didn't owe any taxes. You also might have the earned income tax credit and you could have the child tax credit possibly. These are refundable credits, not as big as in 2018 as today, but they're still kind of there. So you might want to file first the 2021 tax return just to get an idea as to whether you might qualify for some of these refundable credits that might make it worthwhile to file prior year tax returns even if you're not required to due to the fact that you might get money to do that because of these refundable credits perhaps or possibly because of withholdings. And then go back to the prior years, you might not be able to file the prior years with the free software, like the free file software is for 2021. That's why I recommend looking at that first because you might get access to the free software. I don't believe you have access to that free file software for prior years. So you might have to pay for the software basically in prior years to go back and pick that up. That's why you might want to kind of test it out to see if you think it's worthwhile to do that in the prior years. Now you also might say I'm not going to get it all done today and I might not have the records. So you might try to file as best you can, right? Do the best you can to file for 2018. And if you send that thing in like today, then you kind of put your foot in the door, right? Because now if you file before the deadline, they're probably going to send the IRS aside, hey, there's something missing, there's something wrong because you don't have all the data maybe. And then you can fix it, right? So you could try that. Where would you get the information? You'd say, well, where would I get the information because you would want to go to the prior employers possibly and pick that up into the bank and so on. You might be saying, I'm not going to that prior employer. I'm never going back. I'm never going back. I'm not even going to send or maybe, or maybe they're not around anymore or something like that. You might go to the IRS website, IRS itself, and try to look up your prior period transcripts because they already have most of the information, all the information instead of a W2 and the 1099s and that stuff on their side. So you go to try to get a transcript from your account on irs.gov and that might help to give you the information to populate into the software that you could file right now so you could put your foot in the door for 2018 so they don't slam shut and lock your refund inside. So if they did not file a 2018 tax return by April 18th, 2022, the money becomes the property of the U.S. Treasury. The law requires taxpayers to properly address, mail, and ensure the 2018 tax return is postmarked by that date. Other April 18th deadlines. April 18th is also the deadline to make 2021 contributions to individual retirement arrangements. The IRAs contributions can be made to a traditional or Roth IRA until the filing due date, April 18th, but must be designated for 2021 to the financial institution. So that's usually like the last tax planning thing that you can basically do is try to think about whether you could put money into an IRA and you could do that up until the filing deadline. You can't extend the ability to put it into the IRA past April 18th even if you go on extension. So if you could put money into an IRA and you still have the capacity to do so, you might want to do that now. Make sure that when you do it, you're putting it in the money in now as of 2022, but you're applying it to tax your 2021. That's important to note. And then for 2022, you might put more money in 2022 or at the end of 2022 when you file the tax return in 2023 by April 15th of that year. So more information. You can see retirement plans, FAQs, frequently asked questions. That's what that stands for regarding IRS or Publication 590 a contributions to individual retirement arrangement IRAs. There's links to those here. Employment taxes are due April 18th for household employees, including housekeepers, maids, babysitters, gardeners and others who work in or around a private residence as an employee if they were paid $2,300. For more information, you can see Publication 926 Household Employer's Tax Guide. So have I paid all of my various attendees this morning that have been... Okay, maybe... So the deadline to submit 2021 tax returns or an extension to file and pay tax owed this year falls on April 18th instead of April 15th because of the Emancipation Day Holiday in the District of Columbia. Taxpayers in Maine or Massachusetts have till April 19th, they get till April 19th those people in Maine and Massachusetts. Why? Some holiday, but still, why don't they apply that to everyone like they did with the District of Columbia? I don't get it, but that's just the way it is. They have till April 19th, 2022 to file their returns due to the Patriots Day Holiday in those days. I'm a patriot too. I'm a patriot. Okay. The first quarter estimated tax payment for 2022 is also due on April 18th. Taxpayers are encouraged to check their withholding for 2022 after they filed their 2021 tax return. It can protect against having too little tax withheld and facing an unexpected tax bill or penalty at tax time next year. They can also help taxpayers adjust their tax withheld upfront so taxpayers can receive a bigger paycheck and smaller refund at tax time. So there's links to some of this wonderful stuff here. There'll be a link to this in the description.