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Updated 10 months ago,
- Tax Accountant / Enrolled Agent
- Houston, TX
- 5,942
- Votes |
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Short guide to April 15th for procrastinators
Judging by the many recent posts on this forum, my title should attract a wide audience :)
Is April 15th the last day to file my taxes?
No. You can file what is known as an extension and get yourself an automatic (i.e. no questions asked) delay until October 15th. The extension itself DOES need to be filed by April 15th. Also, this year of 2022, the actual deadline is Monday, April 18th, thanks to an obscure holiday.
Where can I find a great accountant to prepare my taxes before the deadline and avoid an extension?
You can't. All the good ones are quite busy in early April and will need to file an extension. Quality help is worth waiting for.
How do I file an extension?
The extension itself is super easy: Form 4868. However, do NOT send it by email, considering that the IRS is currently buried under a mountain of millions of unopened mail pieces dating back to the beginning of Covid. File it electronically, and the IRS offers FREE eFiling of extensions via one of its partnering companies.
If you owe the IRS money - there is NO EXTENSION!
You are supposed to estimate what you might end up owing the IRS when your taxes are finally done and make this payment on April 15th, preferably here on the IRS website. Miss this deadline, and you will owe interest and late penalties, on top of the amount of taxes due.
How do I know if I will owe and how much?
You don't. But you still have to pay your estimated tax liability. For real estate investors, arriving to an accurate estimate is extremely hard. Still, some kind of an estimate beats no estimate. Here're some online calculators: from Intuit/TurboTax, from H&R Block, from NerdWallet, from TaxAct, and you can find dozens more online. I cannot endorse any of them. Choose any two of them and see if they produce similar numbers.
Warning: avoid unfamiliar sites, as many of them are scammers phishing for your personal information.
Just remember that the real numbers will be different in the end. If you overpay, you will get back the difference. If you underpay, you will owe interest and late penalties on the difference.
I heard I needed to contribute to an IRA before April 15th.
You heard it right. You cannot contribute to an IRA for the prior year after April 15th. There're different kinds of IRAs, and you may not qualify for some of them. Since you can't be sure until your taxes are finished, here's my advice: contribute to a Roth IRA, as much as you can, up to the annual limit of $6k ($7k if you're over 50). If this turns out to be the wrong type of an IRA, you will be able to change it later.
Anything else must be done before April 15th?
Yes:
- file state tax extensions if you have state income tax
- make estimated state tax payments
- file amended 2018 returns if needed, unless you filed a 2018 extension in 2019
- make1st quarterly estimated payment towards your 2022 taxes
- adopt a dog from your local shelter