How To Get A Federal Income Tax Extension?
Need more time to file your federal income tax return? You can quickly file for an automatic six-month extension that will postpone your deadline until October 15th, 2018. Here is everything you need to know about how to get a federal income tax extension.
How To Get A Federal Income Tax Extension?
Typically, Tax Day is April 15th unless it falls on a holiday or weekend like 2018. Because April 16 is Emancipation Day (a legal holiday in Washington, D.C. marking the abolition of slavery), your federal income tax extension is due Tuesday, April 17.
What is Form 4868?
IRS Form 4868 is a 1040 extension formally titled the Application for Automatic Extension of Time to File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return. If you submit your application to the IRS by midnight on April 17, 2018, you will receive an additional six months to file your tax return without incurring IRS penalties.
Who Can File For A Form 1040 Extension?
Any taxpayer can get an automatic federal tax extension for filing their federal income tax return. The government will not ask why you need the additional time. If you think you might be late filing your income taxes for any reason, you can ask good ole Uncle Sam for extra time.
IRS extension Form 4868 can extend the filing deadline for the following forms:
Form 1040, Form 1040A, Form 1040EZ, Form 1040NR, Form 1040NR-EZ, Form 1040-PR or Form 1040-SS.
Will The Federal Income Tax Extension Postpone The IRS Payment Deadline?
Unfortunately no, you are expected and obligated to pay any owed taxes by the 2018 Tax Day. If you are unable to make your tax payment, you will need to pay penalties and interest. It is recommended that you pay as much of the owed taxes as possible to lower your penalty cost.
What You Will Need to File a Federal Income Tax Extension
Assuming you file on time, you will automatically receive six months to file your return to the IRS, and you will not be subject to late-filing penalties. You will have until October 15th, 2018 to file your tax return.
To file for a tax return extension, you will need:
- Your name and address
- (Spouse’s name if filing jointly)
- Your Social Security Number (SSN)
- (Spouse’s SSN if filing jointly)
- Estimated total tax liability for the 2017 tax year
- Total 2017 tax withholdings and tax payments
- Estimated tax payment owed to the IRS (if any)
How To File For An Income Tax Extension?
Step 1: Calculate Estimated Taxes Owed
You will need to estimate the amount of taxes you owe for the previous year. You can do this by simply subtracting the total tax amount withheld from your paycheck and your estimated tax payment from the tax amount you owe to the IRS.
Before you estimate your liability amount be sure to reduce your income by all applicable exemptions and deductions.
Use the 2017 tax tables to estimate the amount you owe on your tax return. If you do not pay the full amount you may owe interest and penalties.
Step 2: Create Your ExpressExtension Account
You can create a free account with our sister product ExpressExtension and click “Create Personal Tax Extension” from your account Dashboard. At this point, you can pay your income taxes.
The application for your automatic income tax extension of time required very minimal information. However, we will guide you through step-by-step to ensure your information is filed correctly.
You will need the following income tax information:
- Name
- Address
- Social Security Number
Step 3: Submit Income Tax Extension to The IRS
Once you have completed and reviewed your Form 4868, you can then submit directly to the IRS. When the IRS accepts your form, you will be notified immediately via email.
Please keep in mind that while Form 4868 does provide you with an extension of time to file you are still required to pay 100 percent of your owed taxes. The deadline for submitting your personal income taxes is April 17th, 2018.
