Unless you are a recluse, you have heard how diligently, arduously and with the upmost determination our President and members of Congress have been working on resolving the budgetary fiscal issues. While these political duels are being fought in DC between vacations, the IRS has announced that if last minute changes are made to the tax code, it may not be able to program its computers until mid or late-March (see our December 21 blog posting).
This may be what is referred to as trickle-down economics. Once the IRS programs its computers, then the tax preparation software companies need to program their software, and the taxpayers would then need to rush to meet the April 15 deadline. For those of you who may be thinking that the government may extend the statutory due date beyond April 15 to say May 15, that is a precedent that I doubt would occur. Taxpayers can file an automatic extension of time to file their 2012 tax returns until October 15, 2013, but these extension approvals are only to file, not to pay any remaining tax liability. All taxes are due by the April 15 due date, regardless of when the return is actually filed. For those taxpayers who fail to pay their 2012 tax liability by April 15, 2013, they will be subject to interest and penalty assessments, monies that can surely be used to pay down the budget deficit.
For those taxpayers who are thinking that their tax preparer will automatically file an extension to file request for them to grant them an automatic extension until October 15, the IRS thinks otherwise. The IRS recently announced that it is against IRS Circular 230 rules for any tax preparer to automatically file an extension for a taxpayer without the taxpayer’s (written) authorization.
Please be sure to read the disclaimer page on our blog. This blog is for educational purposes only and should not be considered as the rendering of tax advice.
