It's Tax Deadline Day: File Something And Pay Your Taxes Caret RightMain Menu Mortgage Mortgages Financing a home purchase Refinancing your existing loan Finding the right lender Additional Resources Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Bank Banking Compare Accounts Use calculators Get advice Bank reviews Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Credit Card Credit cards Compare by category Compare by credit needed Compare by issuer Get advice Looking for the perfect credit card? Narrow your search with CardMatch Caret RightMain Menu Loan Loans Personal Loans Student Loans Auto Loans Loan calculators Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Invest Investing Best of Brokerages and robo-advisors Learn the basics Additional resources Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Home Equity Home equity Get the best rates Lender reviews Use calculators Knowledge base Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Loan Home Improvement Real estate Selling a home Buying a home Finding the right agent Additional resources Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Insurance Insurance Car insurance Homeowners insurance Other insurance Company reviews Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Caret RightMain Menu Retirement Retirement Retirement plans & accounts Learn the basics Retirement calculators Additional resources Elevate your Bankrate experience Get insider access to our best financial tools and content Advertiser Disclosure
Advertiser Disclosure
We are an independent, advertising-supported comparison service. Our goal is to help you make smarter financial decisions by providing you with interactive tools and financial calculators, publishing original and objective content, by enabling you to conduct research and compare information for free - so that you can make financial decisions with confidence.
Bankrate has partnerships with issuers including, but not limited to, American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citi and Discover. How We Make Money
The offers that appear on this site are from companies that compensate us. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site, including, for example, the order in which they may appear within the listing categories. But this compensation does not influence the information we publish, or the reviews that you see on this site. We do not include the universe of companies or financial offers that may be available to you. SHARE: April 18, 2017 Kay Bell Bankrate logo The Bankrate promise
At Bankrate we strive to help you make smarter financial decisions. While we adhere to strict editorial integrity, this post may contain references to products from our partners. Here's an explanation for how we make money. Bankrate logo The Bankrate promise
Founded in 1976, Bankrate has a long track record of helping people make smart financial choices. We’ve maintained this reputation for over four decades by demystifying the financial decision-making process and giving people confidence in which actions to take next. Bankrate follows a strict , so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. All of our content is authored by and edited by , who ensure everything we publish is objective, accurate and trustworthy. Our banking reporters and editors focus on the points consumers care about most — the best banks, latest rates, different types of accounts, money-saving tips and more — so you can feel confident as you’re managing your money. Bankrate logo Editorial integrity
Bankrate follows a strict , so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. Key Principles
We value your trust. Our mission is to provide readers with accurate and unbiased information, and we have editorial standards in place to ensure that happens. Our editors and reporters thoroughly fact-check editorial content to ensure the information you’re reading is accurate. We maintain a firewall between our advertisers and our editorial team. Our editorial team does not receive direct compensation from our advertisers. Editorial Independence
Bankrate’s editorial team writes on behalf of YOU – the reader. Our goal is to give you the best advice to help you make smart personal finance decisions. We follow strict guidelines to ensure that our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers. Our editorial team receives no direct compensation from advertisers, and our content is thoroughly fact-checked to ensure accuracy. So, whether you’re reading an article or a review, you can trust that you’re getting credible and dependable information. Bankrate logo How we make money
You have money questions. Bankrate has answers. Our experts have been helping you master your money for over four decades. We continually strive to provide consumers with the expert advice and tools needed to succeed throughout life’s financial journey. Bankrate follows a strict , so you can trust that our content is honest and accurate. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. The content created by our editorial staff is objective, factual, and not influenced by our advertisers. We’re transparent about how we are able to bring quality content, competitive rates, and useful tools to you by explaining how we make money. Bankrate.com is an independent, advertising-supported publisher and comparison service. We are compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and, services, or by you clicking on certain links posted on our site. Therefore, this compensation may impact how, where and in what order products appear within listing categories. Other factors, such as our own proprietary website rules and whether a product is offered in your area or at your self-selected credit score range can also impact how and where products appear on this site. While we strive to provide a wide range offers, Bankrate does not include information about every financial or credit product or service. Stuff happens, and here it is April 18 — tax deadline day — and you have yet to file your tax return. You have a couple of options. You can: File for an extension and put off the inevitable for six more months. Or you can get it done in the final hours remaining. How an extension works
The IRS will wait for your return until Oct. 15 (Oct. 16 this year, since the 15th lands on Sunday) if you file for an automatic extension. You can do this by sending in , Application for Automatic Extension of Time to File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return. You can e-file the extension request from your home computer or have your tax professional who is an IRS-authorized e-filer do it for you. The extension request must be made before the Tax Day deadline passes, or postmarked April 18 if you snail-mail it. While the extension will give you six more months to get your tax act together, you don’t have to wait until that ultimate deadline. Anytime you get your tax-filing material in order before then, you can send in your 1040. But do pay your taxes on time
Filing this form won’t delay any taxes you owe. If you don’t send the taxes due, you’ll get hit with penalties. In the worst-case scenario — for those who both fail to file and fail to pay — penalties can amount to your tax bill plus an additional 47.5 percent of the unpaid tax — plus interest. How do you know how much money to send? You don’t have to be precise. As long as the amount comes to 90 percent of what you eventually owe, you’ll be OK with the IRS. The easiest way to estimate what to pay is to look over last year’s tax return. If your financial and tax situation are basically the same as last year — you have the same job, still married, two kids, deductible mortgage interest — then what you owe this year is likely to be close to the amount you owed last year. Hardship relief
What if you are experiencing severe financial hardship? First consider the IRS’ to see if they might work for you. In rare cases, the IRS offers some penalty relief to taxpayers who would face an undue hardship if they pay their tax bills by the deadline. This relief applies to income taxes, as well as to self-employment taxes. You must send the IRS supporting documentation that shows you would have a substantial monetary loss, such as selling property at a much lower price than you could get under ideal circumstances, if you pay your tax on time. In these cases, the IRS may waive the late-payment penalty if the eligible taxpayers pay tax and interest due by Oct. 15. However, interest on the due tax will continue to accrue. To apply for penalty abatement, file , Application for Extension of Time for Payment of Tax Due to Undue Hardship. Getting a low-interest credit card may be better than paying IRS penalties and interest. . Filing at the last minute
If you decide it’s just as easy to file your taxes before the midnight deadline and be done with them, follow this quick guide: First step is to pick which form to use. The IRS gives you : the 1040EZ, the 1040A and the long 1040. Use one of the latter two if you might be eligible for certain of those forms. If your tax situation is simple, you might want to file Form 1040EZ. ! Next, track down all your — W-2 salary, wage statements, reports on how much interest you earned last year. If you’re , use the data on your final pay stub from last year to complete , the IRS’ authorized income statement substitute. For interest and dividend income, you can pull out your last account statements if you can’t find the or tax statements that were sent to you. Your statements should have the earnings information you need. Determine which tax deductions or credits you can claim. The bulk of the tax breaks, such as home-related deductions, go to itemizers. But most filers actually claim the . Now it’s time to fill in the form blanks. You can download one of several tax software packages and use it to file electronically directly from your personal computer. Or, you can access essentially the same products online to complete your taxes via the Web. The IRS encourages this method via the Free File Alliance, which affords many taxpayers . If you do your taxes the old-fashioned paper way, mail your return before midnight. Use the U.S. Postal Service’s post to find the one nearest you. If it’s getting late, call first to make sure the office will be open longer to collect tax returns. Whether you file for an extension or file your return, just be sure to send the IRS something. And if you’ve already filed your return and are expecting a tax refund, find a high-yielding CD in which to park it. . Related Links: Related Articles: SHARE: Kay Bell Related Articles