Are you someone who can’t complete your 2011 federal tax return by the 17th of April, 2012? If answered yes, you need not worry as you can buy yourself more time this 2012. The good news for such people is that the April 15th deadline has been extended a few days in 2012 due to the holiday weekend. If you want to tactfully avoid any kind of penalties from the IRS due to late filing, all you need to do is to file a federal tax extension. There’s a twist there and it is that the extension only extends the due date of the paperwork but if you still owe money, you still have to file the extension and make the payments by April 17th, 2012. You must be aware that IRS tax debt can have a bad impact on your credit record as the government will run after you in order to recuperate the money. Therefore, educate yourself on the ways in which you can file a federal tax extension.
Filing the Federal tax extension form – Knowing the steps
Filing a tax extension is simple enough and you have to know the exact steps through which you can execute the entire process of filing the tax extension. Once you file the extension for tax returns, you can easily extend the date to October, 17th and can earn extra 6 months to complete all the formalities. Don’t end up with paying huge penalties on your IRS taxes. Instead follow the steps by which you can file a tax extension form.
- Get an idea of the taxes owed: Initially, you would need to get an idea of the amount that you owe on your taxes as you’ll require sending them through payments before the 17th of April. Assemble all the tax documents so that you can get a clear idea of the total amount that you may owe to the IRS or the Internal Revenue Service.
- File Online Tax Extension form: The next step that you need to take is to file the online Form 4868 and fill out precisely. The first part of the form 4868 comprises of all the personal information that you may have to give as a responsible taxpayer. The second part needs to give information about your individual income tax. You have to provide information about the total tax liability in the year 2011 and the total amount that you’ve paid in 2011.
- Ensure that you return the form by 17th April: As soon as you provide all the information through the form, you have to mail back the form to the appropriate address that is mentioned at the bottom of the form. This may vary with the state in which you live. Remember that you may be subject to unnecessary penalty fees or late payment fees if you don’t file the extension in time.
Thereby you complete the total process of filing an extension. You just have to follow the steps mentioned above and you’ll surely be able to get some more time to organize your finances.
