Missed tax filing deadline. What do I do?
April 27, 2015 9:48 AM Subscribe
I missed the deadline to file federal taxes, and Turbotax says it's too late to file an extension. What do I do? I estimate being able to file my taxes by the end of May, but not before then, but would like to not have the IRS breathing down my neck.
A lot was going on, family-wise, and I was pretty stressed, which is why I missed the deadline. I know the IRS is a soulless juggernaut and would like to not have them come after me. How can I fix this? I really just need another month, but the inability to file the extension has me freaked.
A lot was going on, family-wise, and I was pretty stressed, which is why I missed the deadline. I know the IRS is a soulless juggernaut and would like to not have them come after me. How can I fix this? I really just need another month, but the inability to file the extension has me freaked.
Don't freak. They are not going to come after you. (If you skipped filing, you might get a letter in a year.)
Filing at the end of May with the full payment won't send anyone to your door. You will (probably) get a late filing penalty, for which the IRS will send you a bill. Just mail a check when it comes.
If you're really worried, you can go ahead and file and include a partial payment. Turbotax will print out a payment voucher to include.
posted by The Deej at 9:53 AM on April 27, 2015 [6 favorites]
Filing at the end of May with the full payment won't send anyone to your door. You will (probably) get a late filing penalty, for which the IRS will send you a bill. Just mail a check when it comes.
If you're really worried, you can go ahead and file and include a partial payment. Turbotax will print out a payment voucher to include.
posted by The Deej at 9:53 AM on April 27, 2015 [6 favorites]
From a practical point of view, the IRS is not going to come after you or even notice you. Not for years. Not unless you're rich, visible, and owe them a ton of money. And if they do notice, the first thing they'll do is to send you a letter telling you to file within 30 days or whatever. They're not even going to get seriously annoyed unless you ignore that letter.
They're underfunded, and their priority is to go after people who are actually evading taxes.
File as soon as you can. They'll assess you a reasonable late penalty. If you know you owe any money, pay it instantly, even before filing. They will charge interest in addition to penalties on late payments.
posted by Hizonner at 9:54 AM on April 27, 2015 [8 favorites]
They're underfunded, and their priority is to go after people who are actually evading taxes.
File as soon as you can. They'll assess you a reasonable late penalty. If you know you owe any money, pay it instantly, even before filing. They will charge interest in addition to penalties on late payments.
posted by Hizonner at 9:54 AM on April 27, 2015 [8 favorites]
Their help line has always been truly helpful and patient and calm in the face of my various meltdowns. Like, I don't know what they pipe into the air in there to keep them calm. But call and let them tell you the right steps to take now.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:54 AM on April 27, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Lyn Never at 9:54 AM on April 27, 2015 [3 favorites]
Take a deep breath. The IRS isn't going to "come after you" for filing a month late.
First, do you know if you're owed a refund or do you owe taxes? You'll be fine if you owe a refund, as you have 3 years from April 15th to file for your refund.
If you owe taxes, then you should file as soon as possible. You'll have some minor penalties (The penalty for filing late is normally 5 percent of the unpaid taxes for each part of the month), so they'll be minor if you file by May.
posted by Karaage at 9:54 AM on April 27, 2015
First, do you know if you're owed a refund or do you owe taxes? You'll be fine if you owe a refund, as you have 3 years from April 15th to file for your refund.
If you owe taxes, then you should file as soon as possible. You'll have some minor penalties (The penalty for filing late is normally 5 percent of the unpaid taxes for each part of the month), so they'll be minor if you file by May.
posted by Karaage at 9:54 AM on April 27, 2015
Will you owe money? If not, there's no penalty.
If you do owe money, pay it as soon as you can even if you don't have a completed return. If you overpay, you can get it back.
posted by jclarkin at 9:55 AM on April 27, 2015 [4 favorites]
If you do owe money, pay it as soon as you can even if you don't have a completed return. If you overpay, you can get it back.
posted by jclarkin at 9:55 AM on April 27, 2015 [4 favorites]
I have not found the IRS to be a soulless juggernaut, for what it's worth. When I had a similar problem, I called the hotline, and they talked me down and explained what I should do. I estimated what I owed and sent in a check, which meant that I didn't accrue additional interest. (I did owe a penalty, but it wasn't very much money. Under $20, I'm pretty sure.) Then I filed as soon as I could. It was really not a big deal. They're not horrible people, and they have no investment in tormenting people who are having a tough time.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 9:58 AM on April 27, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 9:58 AM on April 27, 2015 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: Omg, you guys are the beeeeeest. Basically I'm in a weird situation - I don't know if I owe money or not, or how much I owe. We had a ridiculously expensive cross country move that the IRS lets us deduct because it was for a job, but I haven't even kind of really started inputting that data. Without that, Turbotax says that we owe an amount that is larger than we can conveniently eat on the off chance the debt is real - it was a shocking surprise and I'm still not sure why it did that. It's a couple of grand.
posted by corb at 10:01 AM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by corb at 10:01 AM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
You might want to read the IRS Tax Tip "Eight Facts on Late Filing and Late Payment Penalties". Item 8 is particularly interesting: "You will not have to pay a late-filing or late-payment penalty if you can show reasonable cause for not filing or paying on time."
posted by ubiquity at 10:05 AM on April 27, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by ubiquity at 10:05 AM on April 27, 2015 [5 favorites]
Do try to file as soon as you reasonably can, because the big penalty is the non-filing penalty. Even if you can't pay at the time you file, get the return on file with them and pick up the pieces later.
posted by janey47 at 10:05 AM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by janey47 at 10:05 AM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yeah, they're actually really nice and customer-service-oriented if you have to call them. (It is not their fault the tax code is a nightmare. That is Congress's fault.)
They are absolutely, 100% not interested in making your life difficult or jailing you or anything like that. They are interested in having you pay your taxes. Paying late is a thing that happens all the time, and as long as you pay, and pay your statutory late fee, it's not a big deal. (And it's not like it'll go on your permanent record or anything! Once you file and pay, you're square, next year is a blank slate.)
If it's more than you can pay, btw, they can help you set up a payment plan. Again, they're really helpful, and they don't want to make you suffer -- they just want you to pay the taxes you owe, and if you need a payment plan to do that, they will help you do that.
I'd probably call the hotline and talk it over with the nice people at the IRS, but in reality it typically takes until next tax year that they might start to bug you about your tax return for this year, sometimes two years or more, since you're just a regular Joe who's not hiding millions offshore or engaging in strange real estate deals, so if you need to put it off for a month before you can deal with it, that won't make a difference -- although if you owe, yes, you are accruing interest on that debt.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:11 AM on April 27, 2015 [11 favorites]
They are absolutely, 100% not interested in making your life difficult or jailing you or anything like that. They are interested in having you pay your taxes. Paying late is a thing that happens all the time, and as long as you pay, and pay your statutory late fee, it's not a big deal. (And it's not like it'll go on your permanent record or anything! Once you file and pay, you're square, next year is a blank slate.)
If it's more than you can pay, btw, they can help you set up a payment plan. Again, they're really helpful, and they don't want to make you suffer -- they just want you to pay the taxes you owe, and if you need a payment plan to do that, they will help you do that.
I'd probably call the hotline and talk it over with the nice people at the IRS, but in reality it typically takes until next tax year that they might start to bug you about your tax return for this year, sometimes two years or more, since you're just a regular Joe who's not hiding millions offshore or engaging in strange real estate deals, so if you need to put it off for a month before you can deal with it, that won't make a difference -- although if you owe, yes, you are accruing interest on that debt.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:11 AM on April 27, 2015 [11 favorites]
+1 the IRS is actually really easy to deal with. I ended up owing $10K a few years ago and just didn't send in a payment when I filed because I didn't have any money, all that happened is they just sent me a letter telling me they'd set me up with a payment plan... $175/month is the lowest they'll go without actually having a conversation about how much you can afford. They do send kind of a lot of auto-generated letters but they're not scary or anything. (My state revenue people were way, way scarier, threatening liens and such even after I had a payment plan in place.)
posted by rabbitrabbit at 10:25 AM on April 27, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by rabbitrabbit at 10:25 AM on April 27, 2015 [3 favorites]
Yeah, we have had payment plans several times and frankly, it's one of the easiest automated processes in our life. It generates a startling amount of mail, as rabbitrabbit said - it's mostly statements, and I guess I don't hate having that much documentation, we just throw them in a folder.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:56 AM on April 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Lyn Never at 10:56 AM on April 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
I need to just add to my comment above, because I realize that you might read it and think, well, I missed the deadline and the non-filing penalty has already hit so who cares when I file? The answer to that very reasonable assumption is this:
The penalty for filing late is normally 5 percent of the unpaid taxes for each month or part of a month that a tax return is late. That penalty starts accruing the day after the tax filing due date and will not exceed 25 percent of your unpaid taxes. However, if you file your return more than 60 days after the due date or extended due date, the minimum penalty is the smaller of $135 or 100 percent of the unpaid tax.
posted by janey47 at 11:14 AM on April 27, 2015 [4 favorites]
The penalty for filing late is normally 5 percent of the unpaid taxes for each month or part of a month that a tax return is late. That penalty starts accruing the day after the tax filing due date and will not exceed 25 percent of your unpaid taxes. However, if you file your return more than 60 days after the due date or extended due date, the minimum penalty is the smaller of $135 or 100 percent of the unpaid tax.
posted by janey47 at 11:14 AM on April 27, 2015 [4 favorites]
You can file late, it's not a problem. If you don't owe anything, then you don't have any penalties (note: may not apply for state tax purposes). If you do, then you'll have a late filing penalty, a late payment penalty, and (possibly) an underpayment of estimated tax penalty. If you had filed on time, but couldn't pay the balance, you would still be out the late payment and underpayment penalties. The IRS will mail you a letter about any penalties, you don't need to calculate these yourself.
Pay as much as you can when you file the return. You can easily set up an installment agreement for the unpaid balance. If you think you may owe something, you can submit a payment right now using Direct Pay or a 2014 Form 1040-V, which will stop the penalties from accruing on that amount. Be sure to record this payment on your 1040, so you get credit for it.
The IRS is severely understaffed, but generally a great agency to deal with.
Sidenote: "reasonable cause" for late filing means something to the effect of you were in a car accident on your way to mail your return and missed the filing deadline because you were in a coma for a week.
posted by melissasaurus at 11:16 AM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
Pay as much as you can when you file the return. You can easily set up an installment agreement for the unpaid balance. If you think you may owe something, you can submit a payment right now using Direct Pay or a 2014 Form 1040-V, which will stop the penalties from accruing on that amount. Be sure to record this payment on your 1040, so you get credit for it.
The IRS is severely understaffed, but generally a great agency to deal with.
Sidenote: "reasonable cause" for late filing means something to the effect of you were in a car accident on your way to mail your return and missed the filing deadline because you were in a coma for a week.
posted by melissasaurus at 11:16 AM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
Yeah, you'll get a penalty for late filing *and* late paying, if you owe. But I think it's like a couple hundred bucks, not outrageous.
posted by kestrel251 at 12:48 PM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by kestrel251 at 12:48 PM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
Nthing to go ahead and call their hotline. They're actually quite nice and calm people.
One year, I did my taxes, thought I sent them in, and didn't think twice about it — until November, when I got a letter from the IRS asking me politely where the hell my return was. I went and looked in the filing cabinet for the mailing receipt, confident I'd already sent them… and found my original returns all printed out and ready to mail. D'oh!
I called their hotline, apologized profusely, and threw myself on their mercy. It wasn't a big deal at all.
posted by culfinglin at 3:00 PM on April 27, 2015
One year, I did my taxes, thought I sent them in, and didn't think twice about it — until November, when I got a letter from the IRS asking me politely where the hell my return was. I went and looked in the filing cabinet for the mailing receipt, confident I'd already sent them… and found my original returns all printed out and ready to mail. D'oh!
I called their hotline, apologized profusely, and threw myself on their mercy. It wasn't a big deal at all.
posted by culfinglin at 3:00 PM on April 27, 2015
If you file fast enough on paper they might not even notice.
posted by stowaway at 3:18 PM on April 27, 2015
posted by stowaway at 3:18 PM on April 27, 2015
Yeah, just call them. At the level you're talking about, the people you'll be dealing with actually get reviewed on how helpful they are to the taxpayer, i.e. you. There are two separate things you could possibly be penalized for: "failure to file" and "failure to pay". You know you're going to be dinged for "failure to file", but you don't know whether or not you owe. Just call them and explain. They'll be very helpful and really not judgmental. If you can't afford to pay what you owe, they will help you work out a payment plan you can afford. It's what they get paid for.
posted by trip and a half at 4:12 PM on April 27, 2015
posted by trip and a half at 4:12 PM on April 27, 2015
They won't breathe down your neck and might not even take notice for a few months. From experience i can tell you that they will however charge you a penalty for late filing that i believe is a low percentage based on the over-all amount that you owe. The IRS is not the monster that it used to be. They tend to be very helpful and since you are not calling when the system is overwhelmed with other panicking taxpayers they can be surprisingly nice. (just noticed that many have said this above).
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 4:44 PM on April 27, 2015
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 4:44 PM on April 27, 2015
If you are unclear on possible deduction that is potentially several thousand dollars and TurboTax isn't helping, bite the bullet and contact an accountant. Depending on where you live, it will probably be $400-800 to get your filing done, but you will have what will likely be much closer to the actual IRS ruling if you think it's dubious.
As regards filing -- people are often unclear on what an extension is -- it's an allowance to file your paperwork late provided you have paid your estimated liability. It is not an extension to pay tax due. So if you don't have the money, but your paperwork is done, just send the finished return without payment.
Depending on your cash flow and what you know about it, and how stressed you feel, you can either call in a two weeks (allowing them time to process your return) and ask to set up a payment plan, or let it stew for a couple weeks. They will likely send out an demand letter in 8-12 weeks, at which point you have to call (if not they will grind forwards towards garnishment, which is much less sympathetic -- the IRS responds well if you look like you are making a good faith effort to pay; not sending in a return, ducking letters, this sort of thing leads to no good end).
The IRS phone people have never been anything but polite, helpful and professional with me (I've had to do payment plans 3-4 times in the past decade). Be organized, and realistic about your payment schedule (don't promise more than you can deliver -- they are charging you interest, so they won't really care what your timetable is provided you make your payments on time).
One important detail: payment plans can exceed 12 months, provided that you keep your current liability up to date. You can't just tack your coming liability on the end of your payment plan like a credit card.
posted by 99_ at 5:15 PM on April 27, 2015
As regards filing -- people are often unclear on what an extension is -- it's an allowance to file your paperwork late provided you have paid your estimated liability. It is not an extension to pay tax due. So if you don't have the money, but your paperwork is done, just send the finished return without payment.
Depending on your cash flow and what you know about it, and how stressed you feel, you can either call in a two weeks (allowing them time to process your return) and ask to set up a payment plan, or let it stew for a couple weeks. They will likely send out an demand letter in 8-12 weeks, at which point you have to call (if not they will grind forwards towards garnishment, which is much less sympathetic -- the IRS responds well if you look like you are making a good faith effort to pay; not sending in a return, ducking letters, this sort of thing leads to no good end).
The IRS phone people have never been anything but polite, helpful and professional with me (I've had to do payment plans 3-4 times in the past decade). Be organized, and realistic about your payment schedule (don't promise more than you can deliver -- they are charging you interest, so they won't really care what your timetable is provided you make your payments on time).
One important detail: payment plans can exceed 12 months, provided that you keep your current liability up to date. You can't just tack your coming liability on the end of your payment plan like a credit card.
posted by 99_ at 5:15 PM on April 27, 2015
If you are unclear on possible deduction that is potentially several thousand dollars and TurboTax isn't helping, bite the bullet and contact an accountant. Depending on where you live, it will probably be $400-800 to get your filing done, but you will have what will likely be much closer to the actual IRS ruling if you think it's dubious.
That is exactly what I was going to suggest. We pay a professional (independent accountant, not a chain place) for tax prep because of exactly these kinds of weird issues, with income from several states and an overall life that does not fit well into the easy tax software that I tried. The cost range over the last three years as been about $300-$500, varying based on how weird our situation is in a different year, but every year they know how to handle things in ways that saves way more money than it costs.
And now that it is past the crunch time for tax prep, you can probably get more of their undivided attention than you could have the week before taxes are due. Good luck!
posted by Dip Flash at 6:07 PM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
That is exactly what I was going to suggest. We pay a professional (independent accountant, not a chain place) for tax prep because of exactly these kinds of weird issues, with income from several states and an overall life that does not fit well into the easy tax software that I tried. The cost range over the last three years as been about $300-$500, varying based on how weird our situation is in a different year, but every year they know how to handle things in ways that saves way more money than it costs.
And now that it is past the crunch time for tax prep, you can probably get more of their undivided attention than you could have the week before taxes are due. Good luck!
posted by Dip Flash at 6:07 PM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
I owed the IRS thousands of dollars (or they thought I did) when I was settling my dad's estate. It was more confusing than that, I'd sent a check but they applied it to the wrong tax year for understandable (but wrong) reasons. They sent me a blustery letter that was all "We are going to take your house ARARARAR" but I called them on the phone and after being on hold for 55 minutes (just call back if you get the "we are too busy to take your call" message, they don't let people stay on hold if the wait time is over an hour) I talked to a super nice woman who talked me through everything including how to sort it out. So if you call this week or next you still may get stuck in eternal-hold hell but there is a very good chance you will talk to someone who can help you. And even making a small payment up front might be useful. That said I concur with everyone if you potentially might have some big deductions it might be worth trying to talk to a tax person because they might save you as much as you'd wind up spending on them.
posted by jessamyn at 8:07 PM on April 27, 2015
posted by jessamyn at 8:07 PM on April 27, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:52 AM on April 27, 2015 [6 favorites]