Tax Day: Here’s what you need to know if you haven’t filed your return yet — and even if you have

Editor’s note: This is an updated version of a story that was originally executed April 14, 2023.

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It is April 18, the official deadline to submit its federal and state tax declarations by 2022. (It is also apparently the National Animal Crackers Day for those they celebrate).

Whether you have submitted your tax declaration or that it is still necessary, the good news is that this season of tax presentation has gone much more than the last three, which were hurt by the pandemic.

“This is the first tax season since 2019, where IRS and La Nación were standardized,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel in a call with journalists.

For example, Werfel said that since January, thanks to an infusion of some funds after years of budget cuts, IRS employees have been able to respond to 87% of the filing calls with questions. Last year, less than 15%responded. And the waiting times in those phone calls fell only 4 minutes this season of presentation of 27 minutes the last presentation season.

The agency also added a list or new online tools for files, he added.

These online tools can be especially useful today if you are fighting to get your return before midnight. Or, if you have realized that you must present an extension. Either way, here are some key things that you should know:

Not everyone has to present on April 18: If you live in a federal declared disaster area, you have a business there, or you have relevant fiscal documents disturbed by companies in that area, IRS has already extended the presentation and payment deadlines for you. This is where you can find the specific extension dates for each disaster area.

Thanks to many extreme weather rounds in recent months, for example, tax filters in most California, which represent 10% to 15% or all federal filters, have already been granted an extension until October 16 to present and pay, according to an IRS spokesman.

If you are in the Armed Forces and currently or is recently parked in a combat zone, the presentation and payment deadlines for their 2022 taxes are probably extended at 180 days. But its specific deadlines for extended presentation and payments will defend the day the combat zone is left (or left). This IRS publication offers more details.

Finally, if you earned little or no money last year (generally less than $ 12,950 for individual fillings and $ 25,900 for married couples), you may not be asked to present a return. But you may wish anyway if you think it is eligible for reimbursement thanks to, for example, reimbursable tax credits, such as tax credit for cattle. (Use this IRS tool to measure if you must present this year). It is also likely to be eligible to use the IRS free file (allocated to those with gross revenue or $ 73000 or return) so that it will not cost.

Your payment check may not be your only source of income: If he had a full -time job, he may think that it is the only income he obtained and has to inform. But that is not necessarily so.

Other sources of taxable and reportable enhancement include:

Organize your tax documents: At this point, it should have resorted to all cases of cases of cases that are required to send you (your employer, bank, brokerage, etc.).

If you do not remember having received a printed copy of a tax form in the mail, consult your email and your online accounts: a document can have an electronically leg.

These are some of the tax forms that you can have recurring:

“Keep in mind that this is not a form for some taxable income, such as prosecuted to rent your holiday property, which means that your response to inform you on your own,” according to the Illinois CPA society.

A last minute form of reducing your tax bill 2022: If it is eligible to make a deductible contribution of taxes to an anger and Harbor has not done so for last year, until April 18 it will contribute up to $ 6,000 ($ 7000 if it is 50 years or more). That will reduce your tax bill and increase your retirement savings.

Check your return before sending it: Do this, whether you are using tax software or working with a professional tax coach.

Small errors and supervision delay the processing of your return (and the issuance of your reimbursement if you are one). You want to avoid things such as having a typographic error in your name, date of birth, social security number or direct deposit number; Choosing the incorrect statement (for example, married to single); Making a simple mathematical error; or leave a field in white.

What to do if you can’t file before April 18: If you cannot present the time on time, complete form 4868 electronic or paper and send it no later than today. A six -month automatic extension will be granted to the file.

Keep in mind, however, that an extension to the file is not an extension to pay. Interest will be charged (it is currently executed at 7%) and a fine for any amount that still owes 2022, but has not paid before April 18.

So, if you suspect that you still owe taxes, maybe it had some income outside your work for which the tax was not with hero or had a large capital gain last year, it approaches you a lot and sends that money to the IRS at the end of Toeday.

You can choose to do it by mail, attach a check to your extension application form. Make sure your envelope is matcilled no later than April 18.

Or the most efficient route is to pay what should electly in Irs.gov, said CPA Damien Martin, Fiscal Partner of EY. If you do that, the IRS points out that you will not have to present a 4868 form. “The IRS will automatically process an extension of the time to present,” says the agency in its instructions.

If you opt for electronic payment directly from your bank account, which is free, select “extension” and then “fiscal year 2022” when the option is given.

You can also pay by credit or debit card, But a processing rate will be charged. In doing so, he thought, it can become much more expensive than only one rate if he charges his tax payment, but does not pay the bill of his credit card as a whole each month, since he is likely to pay a high interest rate of the pending balances.

If you cannot pay what we have in its entirety, the IRS has some payment plan options. But it could be intelligent to consult first with a certified public accountant or a tax coach who is an enrolled agent to ensure that he is making the best decision for his circumstance.

If you still must income taxes to your status, remember that you may have to carry out a similar exercise of requesting an extension and making a payment to the income department of your state, Martin said.

Use this interactive tax assistant for the basic questions you may have: The IRS provides an “interactive tax assistant” that can help him answer more than 50 basic questions that persecute his individual circumstance on income, deductions, credits and other technical questions.

If you have already presented its return, it is probably a shoe to have it in the rearview mirror. But you can still have some questions about what is to come.

What about my refund? If a refund is due, the IRS generally sends it within 21 days after the reception of its return. When his arrives, it can be smaller than last year, even if his financial life did not change much. This is because they expired a number or exemptions of tax related to COVID.

Until now, the average paid reimbursement was $ 2,878 for the week that ended on April 7, below $ 3,175 at the same point in the presentation season last year.

Will I be audited?: The reasons and methods to audit a taxpayer can vary, and many audits result in “without change”, which means that it does not end due to anything else to IRS. But one thing is common for the fixed majority of US tax files.: Audit rates are too low.

For filing archivators who report income between $ 50,000 and $ 200,000, only 0.1% of them were audited in 2020, according to the latest IRS data. Even for very high income files, audit rates were quite low: only 0.4% for the income they reported or between $ 1 million and $ 5 million; 0.7% for those with income between $ 5 million and $ 10 million; And 2.4% for income with income at $ 10 million.

Looking towards the future, the IRS commissioner pointed out in a press call that the agency will use money from the inflation reduction law to strengthen their compliance efforts to concentrate more on auditing people of high income defined as earning $ 400,000 or more. As for the fillings with income below that level, he said he did not anticipate any change in the probability that they were audited.