Calling procrastinators: If you haven’t filed your taxes yet, this is for you

Published 1:15 pm Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Happy April 14, or as it should probably be known, National Procrastinator’s Day. 

We know. You got your W-2(s) and tucked all your paperwork in a safe place, convinced that this was the year you would file your taxes well ahead of the Internal Revenue Service’s deadline. When Procrastinator’s Day came around, you would already be enjoying your refund money and gloating about your superior brand of adulthood. 

Well. Alas, though your intentions were pure, it’s April 14, one day before taxes are due, and you, like many other Americans haven’t even touched your forms yet. 

Be that the case, there is hope for you yet. The IRS offers an option to file for a federal extension, you just need to get the form filed by the original deadline, April 15. You can download and print the form, or many popular tax preparation programs have an option to file an extension.

However, while the extension gives you time to get your return in order, it doesn’t extend the amount of time you have to pay, should you owe more money and you’ll also owe interest and penalties on the taxes you pay late. 

But, as irs.gov notes, filing for an extension is far better than doing nothing at all: The failure-to-file penalty is usually much more than the failure-to-pay penalty. In most cases, it’s 10 times more, so if you can’t pay what you owe by the due date, you should still file your tax return on time and pay as much as you can.”

Next year, though. Next year, you swear you’ll do it all early.