Now that the tax year 2009 is over and the new year is here, many Americans are starting to make plans for tax preparation and filing of IRS form. Soon the April 15th deadline will be here and many people – despite their best efforts to get organized in time – will be faced with a deadline they cannot meet. But if you find yourself in that situation, don’t panic. There is a legitimate system for dealing with delayed tax filing, and every year thousands of taxpayers take an automatic extension on filing their taxes – a step that is perfectly legal and okay with the IRS.

 

You cannot simply skip the deadline without notifying the IRS, however, and if you do that you can expect to pay stiff penalties. You might even get audited if you forget to pay on time or miss the deadline due to your procrastination. But filing later is permitted, as long as you follow the rules.

What you want to do if you are going to need more time to prepare your tax returns is to file a form that the IRS provides for an automatic extension. You can get an automatic six-month tax extension – so that instead of filing in April you file six months later – by filling out and submitting an IRS Form 4868. You must file this Application for Automatic Extension of Time to File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return on or before April 15th in order to avoid the late filing tax penalty. After completing the form you should then mail it to the IRS Service Center where you normally send your tax returns.

Filing late – or getting the automatic extension – does not permit you to avoid paying your estimated taxes. You need to go ahead and pay those on time, otherwise you will be charged interest for any unpaid taxes, and that interest will be calculated from the April deadline, not the extended October deadline. For details and more information about how to qualify for the extension and file properly, just contact your local IRS office.

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