Doing your taxes.
OK, it’s not that fun, but lots of people will be spending this Saturday and/or Sunday and possibly much of Monday doing just that. They got a filing reprieve in April by requesting an extension via Form 4868. That added time, however, is up on Oct. 16.
Actually, the 16th is itself a bonus. The final filing deadline is usually Oct. 15, but since that fell on Sunday this year, tax procrastinators got one more day.
The good news for these folks: The extra time this year was for six months by filing just the one extension request, instead of the dual request method of years past.
The bad news for these folks: If they owed Uncle Sam any tax money, they had to send it with their extension request. If they didn’t send in the due taxes, or at least a close approximation thereof, the news gets worse. They’re also facing some penalty and interest charges.
But you’re not in that situation, right? You filed Form 4868, did a down-and-dirty calculation and sent in the necessary bucks back in April. So all you’ve got to do now is complete the proper 1040 form — the long one, 1040A or 1040EZ, although if you’re able to use that last one you should have been able to fill out that one-pager months ago.
Final filing flourishes: The process doesn’t have to take up too much of your weekend. The IRS is still accepting, and in fact encouraging, filers to submit their October returns electronically.
William Perez over at About: Tax Planning has some tips here for putting the finishing touches on your return. You also might want to run through these 16 common filing mistakes to make sure you don’t make one of them in this final tax crunch time.
And if the reason you put off the deed until now is because you’re having trouble coming up with Uncle Sam’s money, then check out this story for possible payment options.
Good luck and get to it. The sooner you’re done, the sooner you can enjoy the rest of your weekend!
