INDIANA – Today is Tax Day — the day the IRS expects you to file your 2023 return and pay whatever you owe unless you’re among the millions of people who, for different reasons, are granted more time to file later this year.
If you can’t file your return by today, you should apply for an automatic six-month extension. Taxpayers who choose the six-month extension option don’t need to explain why they want more time to the IRS.
Most filers have until 11:59 p.m. today before being possibly penalized for failing to do so. However, you should still pay all your taxes owed for 2023 by the April 15 deadline, or you may be hit with a failure-to-pay penalty. Specifically, the penalty will be 5% of your unpaid taxes for each month — or part of a month — that your return is late.
The IRS notes that this penalty will not exceed 25% of your unpaid taxes. If you are owed a refund (like most tax filers), the IRS typically issues them within 21 days of accepting your return.
Another large group of people who don’t have to file by Tax Day are those who live in or do business in a locality that was declared a federal disaster area last year.
The IRS has already received more than 80 million income tax returns for 2023, data shows, but that is only about half of the total returns it expects to be filed.
