By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
The tax deadline comes late this year, but it is coming soon.
IRS spokesman Michael Divine says the federal government postponed the tax deadline after the coronavirus pandemic sent the economy into a tailspin.
“So, the decision was made to extend the filing deadline, generally for all taxpayers, who had any kind of filing requirements after April 1st and moving that out to July 15th,” Divine tells St. Joseph Post.
If you cannot make the July 15th deadline, you can file for an extension to October 15th.
Divine says if you owe the federal government and cannot afford to pay your taxes, file your return anyway.
“It’s always better to file the tax return even if you can’t pay, because the failure to file penalty is 10 times larger than the failure to pay penalty,” according to Divine. “So, file the tax return, pay what you can if you owe, and then work with the IRS to pay that off at a later date.”
While it might be tempting to wait until the last minute to file, Divine advises to fight that temptation.
“Let’s say that you wait and the power goes out or you lose your Internet connection and you can’t file that return before the deadline of midnight on the 15th. It’s technically a late return.”