Don't Mess With Taxes

Next Tuesday is April 15. If you haven’t filed your 2024 tax return, then you know you have some work to do.

You are not alone. Every year, millions of individuals put off their filing until the last minute. If that’s you, and you are committed to finishing your Form 1040 by April 15, here are some tips to make sure it’s not a lost tax weekend.

The first tip is get more time. That’s right. Don’t rush to finish by April 15. You’ve gone this long without filing your tax return, so why push yourself into an urgent panic? Instead, get more time — six more months to be precise — to complete your taxes.

The Internal Revenue Service is happy to give you until Oct. 15 to file as long as you submit Form 4868, Application for Automatic Extension of Time to File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return. It’s very short. That’s the form in its entirety below.

See more tax forms and more about them at Tax Forms 2024 and Tax Forms 2025.

But note the form’s official name. It’s for an extension to file your return, not an extension to pay any tax you owe.

As the red-circled line 7 on the Form 4868 image above indicates, Uncle Sam wants at least some of your due tax money with the extension request.

You can find more on the process of getting the extra filing time, as well as on ways to pay what you owe when your do file for more time to finish up your forms, in my post, and weekend filing tip #1, File for an extension if you can’t finish your taxes by April 15.

If, however, you're committed to finishing your Form 1040 by Tax Day, here are nine more tips that can help make sure that you meet your goal and end up with the lowest possible tax bill. Like the filing extension tip above, the following bold-faced tips are links to more on the advice.

Check the statements you need to file your tax return. The focus of every tax filing season is Form 1040. To fill out that form completely and accurately, you need other documents. There are myriad tax statements with specifics on last year's income and possibly deductible expenses. Your personal financial and tax circumstances determine the ones you got, or in some cases are still waiting to get. Having them on hand will speed up your filing task.

Understand your Form 1099-K. This document, officially titled Payment Card and Third Party Network Transactions, might be among those tax statements you’re reviewing. You probably got one or more 1099-K forms if you were successful last year selling products or services through apps and marketplaces. The 1099-K tells you and the IRS which receives a copy how much you made this way if it was more than $5,000. Remember, however, that even if you made less, any amount is taxable income and tax law says you must report it, too.

Know what’s new on your 2024 tax return . Even when there aren't weren’t any major tax law changes last year (thank you, Capitol Hill, for giving us a break!), we taxpayers are still likely to encounter some new items when we start working on our returns. A review of the form before you start filling it out will help you avoid surprises that could slow your filing.

Answer pre-filing checklist questions. You've got all your tax statements, but don't file just yet. How you answers the basic tax questions in this list of could help you submit a 1040 that's as complete and correct as possible. They also could mean you don't overlook any tax breaks.

Tips for first-time tax return filers. Filing your first-ever tax return this year? Welcome to the taxpaying club. I know it’s an organization you really didn’t want to join, but these seven tips could help make your tax filing initiation a bit easier.

Don’t make common tax filing mistakes. To err is human. To err when doing your taxes also is all too common, and too often very costly. A check of these 10 filing mistakes that the IRS sees on returns every year will help ensure you don’t make any of them.

Don’t overlook valuable tax breaks. Some filers leave tax savings on the table by missing out on tax breaks. Don’t be one of them. Here are 10 tax deductions and credits, including some that don't require itemizing, that many taxpayers overlook every filing season.

Claim tax breaks without itemizing. Many of the overlooked tax breaks are part of income adjustments known popularly as above-the-line tax deductions. The beauty of these tax write-offs is that you can claim them without having to itemize. These 24 above-the-line deductions are found in Part II of Form 1040’s Schedule 1. Among the tax-saving items are claims for educators’ expenses, student loan interest, and certain retirement plan contributions.

Don't wave audit red flags. The chances of getting audited were already low, and have dopped even more now that Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the Trump administration have slashed the IRS’ audit staff. But why take chances? The IRS still has ways to ferret out tax cheaters. So, don't invite remaining IRS examiners to take special interest in your tax return by waving any of these 10 tax return audit red flags.

And here are five more tips that focus on ways to file your 1040 and pay any tax you owe.

Free File 2025 is back with the same eight tax software companies that were part of the no-cost tax return preparation and e-filing program the previous year. You can use Free File this 2025 filing season if your adjusted gross income (AGI), regardless of your filing status, is $84,000 or less. If your AGI is larger, check out Free File’s Fillable Forms option.

IRS Direct File, the IRS’ own free online tax prep and e-filing program sans a commercial (and potentially costly) tax software middleman, is available to qualifying taxpayers in 25 states this year. In addition to expanding jurisdictions, Direct File this year offers more options that apply to more taxpayers’ situations.

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) trained volunteers offer free face-to-face tax prep and e-filing if you qualify and need more personal tax assistance. VITA and TCE locations are sponsored by community and national organizations across the country and help eligible taxpayers fill out and file returns at no- or low-cost.

Ways to e-pay your taxes. Regardless of how you file your return, if it shows you owe taxes, paying Uncle Sam electronically is a fast and easy way to go. Most who e-pay the IRS do so via credit or debit card. But there are other electronic ways to pay.

Look into an IRS payment plan. If your tax bill is just much for you to pay in full, an IRS payment plan could be the answer. Uncle Sam’s tax agency offers a variety of ways to pay your tax bill over time, and you can apply online.

Finally, a shameless plug for the ol’ blog. These last-minute tax filing and payment tips are, as regular readers already have realized, from the monthly tax tip collections. You can find more in each of the January, February, March, and April pages.

And if you are getting an extension, bookmark them — and check out the upcoming month’s tax tips when we flip to calendar pages — for when you are ready to file your return.

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