Today is April 13, 2009. You know what that means–two days until the dreaded April 15. If you haven’t gotten your forms together yet, avoid stress by filing a tax extension, which gives you until October 15 to hand in your tax forms.
It beats filing late, which allows the government to charge you 5% of the total taxes you owe each month until you send your the return. After 60 days, they bump up the minimum penalty to $100/month or 100% of owed taxes–whichever is smaller.
You can find the tax extension form–cordially known as Form 4868–here, at the forms section of the IRS’ website.
Note that the IRS doesn’t let you off the hook for interest if you file a tax extension form, so try to delay sending in your taxes as little as possible.
You can also file by calling the IRS at 1-800-829-1040.
