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The Tax Extension Deadline for 2011 Taxes Is October 15, 2012

File before the federal tax extension deadline to avoid penalties and e-file your 2011 return

If you requested a tax extension in April, the last chance to get your 2011 return in to the IRS is October 15, 2012.

It’s also the last chance to e-file your return. After the 15th, the IRS e-file system shuts down to prepare for the 2012 returns that will start arriving in January. Everyone who hasn’t filed by the deadline will have to paper file and mail their return in, regardless of whether they requested an extension.

File before the October 15 deadline to take full advantage of e-filing, which gets your return to the IRS faster, speeds up processing, and gets your refund into your hands within 10-21 days, as opposed to the many weeks that paper filing often takes.

Those who requested an extension have thus far been enjoying an extra six months to file without any penalties or interest. On October 16 both of them kick in and start to accumulate. If you let them get out of control they can end up being quite costly. Continue reading “The Tax Extension Deadline for 2011 Taxes Is October 15, 2012”

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A Brief History of Tax Day

This year the IRS filing deadline does not fall on its normal gloomy day

April 15 is a day that will live in infamy. In 1865, it was the day that Abraham Lincoln died, after being shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth in Ford’s Theater the night before, less than a week after Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. And it was in the early morning hours of April 15, 1912 that the Titanic sunk two and a half hours after striking an iceberg, killing 1,517 and separating Jack and Rose only a few hours after they had discovered their one true love.

In America, April 15 has the further distinction of being Tax Day (at least most years). Why is this exactly? Is it because the government wanted to make sure the federal tax due date fell on an appropriately somber day? Or was it just an arbitrary decision made by a government that consistently fails to apply reasoning or foresight to its actions?

The latter, unfortunately. This is America, after all. When income tax was first introduced to America – aside from a brief cameo during the Civil War, which interestingly appears several times in our tale – the 16th Amendment adopted in 1913 designated March 1 as the day that income taxes would be due. Then when Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1918, it pushed the date back two weeks to March 15. The date changed again in 1955 when Congress made revisions to the tax code and decided to make the deadline a whole month later on April 15.

Why, you may ask. Well the government has been coy about supplying a concrete answer but the IRS has stated that it wanted to spread out tax season to make it easier to process the ever increasing number of returns flowing into the agency. It has also been suggested that the government pushed the date back so that it could hold on to refund money longer. Continue reading “A Brief History of Tax Day”

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Tax Deadline Delayed for Kentuckians in Federal Disaster Area

May 31 is the new 2012 tax deadline for those in the 21 Kentucky counties affected by the February 29 storms

After the severe storms, tornadoes, strong winds, and flooding that hit parts of Kentucky on February 29, 2012, President Obama declared 21 counties in the state Presidential Disaster Areas. The IRS has responded with relief in the form of a delayed tax day 2012.

Taxpayers who either live or own a business in the disaster area have a little over a month longer than normal to file their returns and take care of other tax-related business. The new deadline for these taxpayers to file both their federal return with the IRS and their state return with the Kentucky Department of Revenue is May 31, 2012.

Multiple tax deadlines falling between February 29, 2012 and May 31, 2012 have been pushed back to May 31, including the deadlines for filing an individual income tax return, making income tax payments, and making contributions to IRAs for the 2011 tax year. Both failure-to-file and failure-to-pay penalties that would normally go into effect during the postponement period will be waived until May 31.

The Kentucky Department of Revenue will match for state taxes all of the extensions made by the IRS for federal taxes. Continue reading “Tax Deadline Delayed for Kentuckians in Federal Disaster Area”