Tax deadline is Tuesday at midnight
JACKSON, Tenn. — The deadline to file your taxes is Tuesday at midnight.
Tonya Warren, with RRD Financial, says if you’re in the situation where you haven’t filed your taxes yet and you have lots of deductions to do, it is best to file for a tax extension. An extension will give you six more months to file your taxes.
“Even if you owe and you’re not ready to file, it is an excellent idea to go ahead and do an extension. It basically lets the IRS know, ‘Hey. I’m not ignoring you, just trying to get everything together,'” Warren said.
According to irs.gov, the penalty for filing late is calculated by how late the tax return was filed and the amount of unpaid tax as of the original payment due date. The failure to file penalty is 5% of the unpaid taxes for each month that the return is late.
“The penalty for late filing is actually worse than the interest in penalties that you would owe if you owed the IRS,” Warren said. “The penalty there is usually more than what your interest in penalties are.”
According to Warren, some common problems people may face when filing taxes could be that they’re waiting on documents to come through, they struggle to believe they owe, causing them to think the calculations are off, they believe the withholding on the W-2 are incorrect, and more.
“But that is the main issue we’re seeing is people leaving off income documents and not making sure they have everything included,” Warren said.
Another thing to look out for is if you are self employed through something like Uber, Lyft, or DoorDash.
These individuals are required to fill out a Schedule C tax form.
“That is tricky for a lot of people if they’re trying to do it on their own. They don’t understand the deductions they can take, and sometimes, they take deductions they shouldn’t take. It’s better to only take the deductions that are legitimate and are ordinary and necessary,” Warren said.
During tax filing season, some people may try to game the system. Warren highly recommends not taking out false deductions or claims, as this could lead to federal charges, such as fraud.
Taxpayers in disaster-areas in the states of California, Alabama, and Georgia have their deadline extended to October 16.
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