 internal revenue service IRS tax news don't wait to file IRS encourages taxpayers with October filing extensions and others who still need to file isn't it nice that the IRS is so encouraging like a loving mother saying you can do it little taxpayer but remember if you don't do it you see these two sticks right here one labeled penalty the other labeled interest they will be applied directly to your face not the face that's my moneymaker anyways just kidding they don't apply the penalty directly to your face they applied to the pocketbook but here we go file electronically when ready speeds refunds avoids added interest penalties ir 2022-116 june 2 2022 washington the internal revenue service is encouraging taxpayers who have yet to file their 2021 tax return you've yet to come on people well you could be on extension so okay including those who requested an extension of time to file a complete and accurate return electronically as early as possible once they have all their information together so if you haven't filed they're just saying we're just saying here that you know you should do that at some point in time it'd be nice make sure you do that sometime so there's no need to wait until october deadline so you know you have until october but we you could do it earlier you could if you wanted to it'd be okay with us at the irs over here taxpayers who requested an extension have until october 17th this year to file their tax return however if a taxpayer has all the necessary information to file an accurate return filing before summer vacation can be a win-win don't you want to do that you want to get it you want to get it out before the vacation don't you it's for your own it's for your own benefit so quote irs employees continue working hard to process tax returns and address our inventory issues end quote inventory issues for the iris are the tax returns that they're trying to uh get out and obviously if they get the information in faster you would think that would be easier for them to sort that information and uh and process it so i would assume that they would like to get the the tax returns earlier possibly so they could process the stuff before you get into the next filing season you know next year so said this is what's said by irs commissioner chuck reddick quote we continue to urge people to file electronically and do it as soon as possible even if people have an extension to file until october send in the tax return as soon as possible can either help get them a refund quicker or it can save them money if they owe by avoiding additional interest and penalties end quote so there it is obviously if you owe money then don't forget about the sticks i know they talk nice over there they talk nice they're encouraging and they're just you know the sweetheart it hits to most people ever but they will hit you with the sticks of penalties and interest which is the true motivation here so filing electronically as soon as possible can also help taxpayers who did not file an extension and miss the april deadline to avoid further penalties and interest if they owe taxes file electronically and choose direct deposit that's the preferred method by the irs and it's probably the easiest one to use in general generally people who choose choose not to file a tax return because they don't earn enough money to be required to file won't receive a penalty if they are owed a refund so in other words basically if you owe money to the irs then the irs you know obviously isn't as concerned with you filing the tax return because they would have to process you a refund so you could be on extension if your income is below a certain threshold you might not be required to file at all but these days it's kind of silly not to at least look into as to whether it would be worthwhile to file given the fact that the iris has been just spouting and spewing money out of every pore in their fiber and bean for the last couple years you know so if you file the tax return you might get something because they got the child tax credit they changed that they earned income tax credit the economic income payments and the refund all these refundable credit reform kind of things so and the tax software is basically free you know that you could take a look at online if you are under a certain threshold looking up the free file status so and i think that's only available up through the extension deadline of october so if your income is below the threshold you don't need to file you probably still want to look into it because why wouldn't you given the fact that all this money was spewed out which probably caused inflation or at least was a participating factor in it so you might as well get the benefit of the money because the money may not be worth as much as the money was worth before the money was spewing out of the pores of the any case but they may miss out on receiving a refund if they don't file the irs advices individuals who still need to file a 2021 tax return to file electronically there's a link to that here and if do a refund to choose direct deposit so filing electronically is fast accurate and secure and when an individual chooses direct deposit their refund goes directly from the irs into their bank or financial account getting their their refund in the fastest time possible if they have a prepaid debit card they may be able to have their refund applied to the card by providing the account and routing numbers to the irs don't worry there you know all this information the irs has everybody's completely trustworthy these days but you know you got that is the fastest way to go to get the refund so the irs processes most e filed returns and issues direct deposit refunds in less than three weeks here's a tip to help with e filing a 2021 tax return for those still waiting on their 2020 tax return to be processed the to validate and successfully submit an electronically filed tax return to the irs taxpayers need their adjusted gross income or agi from their most recent tax return so this is this is important information let's listen close to this one here if you haven't yet filed those waiting on their 2020 tax return can still file their 2021 return by entering zero for their 2020 agi on their 2021 tax return okay so let me see if i could summarize this this is kind of like when you're playing a video game and i haven't played video games for a long time but back it used to be that you can enter the secret code with an up up down right right left a a a b kind of kind of thing so that you can get you know you can get passed to a certain level well here if you haven't filed your 2020 i mean if you filed your 2020 but it hasn't been processed yet and then you want to file the 2021 tax return you might think well i can't do that because to file it they're asking me for a secret code which is the agi of that's the adjusted gross income on the 2020 tax return but that doesn't work when i put in that secret code because why because the iris hasn't processed the 2020 return so maybe i have to wait till it's processed before i can do the 2021 but no that's where the secret code comes in because if you haven't filed the 2020 or if it hasn't been processed yet then you should be able to enter zero as the secret code and then uh you should be able to process and file the 2021 return even if the 2020 return hadn't totally been processed so that's why you're here people so you get this kind of stuff this is kind of this is insider information so remember if using the same tax preparation software as last year this field will auto populate so if you're using the same software you might not even be aware of it it's just doing it by itself you know it's helping you to file it but that's what it's doing and if there's a problem it's good to know that taxpayers who haven't filed the 2021 tax return yet including extension filers can file electronically anytime before the october deadline and avoid the last minute rush to file you don't want that last minute rush people that's what the iris is saying you could file early if you want find help on irs.gov irs.gov vv for victory over tax questions it's the only help you're going to get most likely because they don't do the phones so they're trying not to limit the phone stuff so any case people may be waiting to file because they need help or more information have a more complicated tax return or owe taxes the irs has resources to help taxpayers get the answers they need so they can file an accurate return take the time to file an accurate tax return but don't wait until the last minute and risk missing the october deadline so the iris doesn't want an inaccurate return but they would also like the return like sooner rather than later possibly now and if you wait too long they will show their annoyance by hitting you with penalties and interest sticks so which aren't physical sticks this is a metaphor that they did your wallet book pocket book with the sticks of penalties okay so tools on the irs website are easy to use and available 24 hours a day so that this is where they're going to say check out our website because we don't really want to talk to you please don't call please don't call us because we got our that's why we have the website so millions of people use them to find information about their accounts get answers to tax questions or file and pay taxes the online tools include important special steps related to the economic impact payments and advanced child tax credit payments there's links to that stuff here irs.gov irs.gov has many online tools and resources ranging from tax preparation and refund tracking tools to tax law research tools like the interactive tax assistance there's a link to that here and answers for frequently asked questions the FAQs on dozens of subjects just just dozens of them so payment options submitting the tax return and paying any amount owed as soon as possible can help taxpayers avoid further interest in penalties so there it is they try to subtly say what the true influence here with the true what you're trying to really do is not get hit by these sticks right it's not like it's not like oh they're so nice over there i'm just going to send them some money and do my taxes because they're so they're so they're so personable uh no you're trying you're trying to avoid the penalties and interest so taxpayers do owe taxes can review all payment options online these include paying taxes through the online account so the online accounts getting better and better they stop the kind of facial recognition thing at least for now i think so they're not trying to like take over the world and you know put a chip in your head or something or i don't i don't know why they would need that but i don't think you need that anymore so you could go online and get on to your your account they got the iris direct pay or you can pay with a debit card credit card or digital wallet although there might be a small fee on the credit card side if you do that the irs options for people who can't pay their taxes include applying for a payment plan so if you can't pay the taxes don't just avoid the taxes you don't just say i'm just not going to do it because i can't pay it what am i going to do i'm just going to ignore it you can't do that because what the iris does it's kind of nefarious is they they basically will keep on kind of nagging you with letters for some time and it seems like nothing's happening but then the penalties and interest accumulate like a like a stick roll down a hill that gets a bunch of snow that turns into ice on it before they hit you with it at some point and so so you want to make sure that you that you're in compliance and you could just file a a plan a payment plan to do that and you don't even really have to talk to anyone to do that and you could basically get a payment plan and then you're still in compliance and at least lowering the amount of penalties and interest in that case so irs free file eligible individuals including those who've requested an extension to file can use the irs free file program to prepare and file their federal tax return for free which is nice and again you might as well check out whether or not you're going to get money back with the software you can get access to a computer because it could be free and so you want to you want to check it out while it is free i don't think it will be free past the extension time frame that's the stranglehold that the iris has over these for-profit tax software providers and they can't hold that stranglehold i don't think much past the october deadline here so the program offers 70 of all taxpayers the choice of several brand name tax preparation software packages to use at no cost which is nice those who earned less than 73 thousand dollars in 2021 can choose which package is best for them some even offer free state tax return preparation those that earn more have the option to use the irs free file fillable forms which i don't recommend generally because if you earn more money than that you probably have a more complex return and should probably be using some software which can help you limit your errors and or talk to a tax professional at that point due to your tax return most likely being somewhat complicated due to needs for tax planning possibly as well you also got the mail tax online software which is i believe done by the government it's not a for-profit software so that to me would indicate i'm not sure if it would be as good as the top for-profit kind of software that are competing against other softwares but it is designed specifically for military members and possibly could be free over a certain threshold so if anybody has any experience with that software in comparisons with other brand name softwares and would like to give us some comparing and some contrasting on them in your opinions let us know it's also available for members of the military and certain veterans regardless of income this software is offered through the department of defense eligible taxpayers can use mail tax prepare and electronically file their federal tax returns and up to three state returns for free volunteer income tax assistance the irs volunteer income tax assistance the v ita there's a link to that here program still offers face-to-face help preparing taxes in some locations in communities across the country so that face-to-face help hasn't completely disappeared with covet although you might be faced to mask or mask to mask to help or whatever but you know it's you're still kind of there in person i guess so check that out in any case it offers free basic tax return preparation to people who generally make fifty eight thousand dollars or less and people with disabilities or limited english speaking taxpayers the v ita slash tce site locator there's a link to that here can help eligible taxpayers find the nearest community based site staffed by irs trained and certified volunteers taxpayers can use the locator tool to see if there's an available site still open near them tax professionals many people use a trusted tax professional to help guide them through the process of doing their taxes and avoiding errors there are various types of tax return professionals including certified public accountants enrolled agents attorneys and many others who don't have a professional credential so you might want to look into the different credentials which might be most appropriate for you in general you would think the cpa's would be pretty good if you're talking about someone that needs like accounting needs as well possibly more in the business or uh returns side of things because they might have a better you know understanding their focus was a lot of on accounting as well as taxes the enrolled agent maybe maybe more appropriate for people uh in general that are going to be the individual tax just a straightforward kind of individual tax returns possibly not so much as if you have more of a complex business component uh to it but some of them may be competent there as well and then the attorneys usually if you're looking for tax preparation they might have like a specialty kind of area that the attorneys are in that might be applicable to you because attorneys are quite the attorney field is like quite broad so usually if they're in taxes they're going to specialize in some area possibly as well so in any case because tax professionals have access to an individual's personal and financial information it's important to choose a tax a tax preparer wisely there's a link here to possibly help you do so for taxpayers who want help with their taxes this online directory can help them find a tax professional in their area there's a link to that online directory there's links to all the other stuff that I said there was a link to so you can check it out you can you can browse the IRS's wonderful website and there'll be a link to this in the description