our EXTENSION PROCESS

An extension gives you until October 15th to file without receiving a penalty for late filing. The penalty only applies if you owe.

This does not give you an extension on paying. Payment is still due by April 18th. If it turns out that you do owe, and did not prepay your taxes, you will incur a late payment penalty & interest, but it pales when compared to the late filing penalty. An extension costs you nothing and is the safe play.

There is no fee to file an extension if you file your taxes through us. However, if you choose to complete your taxes elsewhere after we’ve already filed your extension, we will charge a $25 service fee.

Once your extension is filed and accepted, we will upload your extension acknowledgement form to your portal.

Question: Is it better to have someone unfamiliar with travel taxes do it wrong or in a rush, or file an extension with us and have it done right? We schedule tax appointments for our clients in the order in which they submit their documents and workbooks in our system. Our staff does not stop working until all returns are filed! There is an advantage to filing extensions with us: your return will be filed correctly, and we stand behind the return.

We do hundreds of extensions each year, so you are not alone. Many of our clients travel or are from other countries, so gathering all the documents is difficult. After tax season, we will take a day off (April 19th), and then pick up where we left off. Those who send in their completed workbook and other information will be put in a queue and kept in order, so still send us your information ASAP.

There is the IRS Late Payment fee & interest which, in most cases, is very minimal and only applies if you owe. The Late Payment Fee is a little less than 1% of your unpaid taxes, calculated monthly.

The reason that you pay interest is essentially because the government expects their money to be sent to them throughout the year (by quarterly estimated payments or paycheck withholding). When you don’t pay on time, the government is loaning you the money, so you get to pay the interest. Penalties are imposed to encourage compliance.

Note: A handful of states have a significant failure to pay by April 18th penalty. Our extension questionnaire will identify those states.

Example: In the case that you owed the IRS $1000, total late payment & interest fees would be +/- $7.46 per month

The IRS Failure to File penalty only applies if you don't file your return OR an extension by the due date (April 18th). If you do not owe, or if you file an extension, it does not apply. It is only applied if there is a balance due on your return. The penalty is 5% on the balance owed, calculated per month, up to 25%.

Each state has its own individual quirks. Aside from DE, DC, & NY, they all accept the IRS extension. The failure to file penalty is generally larger and easier to avoid by just sending in an extension.

You must file a state extension for your home state and any state you worked in if it does not follow the federal extension or has an automatic extension.

Some states have no income tax - therefore you do not need to file an extension or tax return for those states: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire*, South Dakota, Tennessee*, Texas*, Washington, Wyoming, DC (for non-residents), and most US territories.

*May have a filing requirement for investment or business income.

PA, OH, MI, IN, NY, MD, & MO state residents need to file a municipal extension. Please check with your local taxing authority to see what you need to do. You may find your Department of Taxation state websites here.

If your state requires an extension, we will submit it for you if we have your information in-house for each state you worked.

If you have all your forms uploaded to our office by midnight of April 10th, 2024 (and we are unable to schedule a tax appointment before the filing deadline), we will do an extension for you (IRS & states only).

To be honest: No. If you do not owe anyone, why should they worry? After all, they get to keep all your lovely money! You can only get it back if you file. And after 3 years, it is theirs for keeps. (Exception is VT – they take $50 out of your refund if you do not file or do an extension.)

Definitely file an extension. Some states have drastically increased their failure to pay penalty. Our extension questionnaire will help identify these states for you. We highly recommend you send a payment to reduce your failure to pay penalty. See video to come.