We have finally made it to April.  This may not mean much to you beyond the hopeful emergence of spring, but for those of us who work with taxes, it is when we finally (at least almost) start to crest the mountain that is tax filing season and get on the downhill side.

Granted, we still have a lot of work to do to get there, but the endpoint is in sight. This means that if you are one of the sizeable portion of the population that has been putting off filing your taxes, you better act quick if you still want an appointment before this year’s April 18 deadline.

As happens every year, we always see a rush over these final days and it is impossible for everyone who puts things off to these late dates to get their taxes finished in time. Fortunately for them, the IRS does have options to get an extension on your filing time. I wanted to take the time this week to discuss some of what that means, before it is too late.

The biggest thing to remember is that getting an extension to file does not mean you receive an extension to pay your taxes. Any taxes or penalties you may incur on an outstanding tax bill can begin to accrue on April 18 and this is regardless of whether you have received an extension or not.

Do not take this to mean that it could be better to not file your taxes, however. Yes, you may not want to know the answers that exist at the end of your tax return, but not filing it will only lead to more penalties. If your finances are not where you need them to be, you should do what you can to stop the situation from snowballing instead of avoiding it. You could try to ignore it after all, but chances are REALLY good that the IRS will not.

So if you need to file for an extension for any reason, you will also want to do what you can to make the best guess as to what your final tax bill will be and pay that on the April 18^th due date. Remember, we are talking about a bill that can be subject to interest charges, so the more you attack it before the interest starts to build, the less you are going to pay in the long run.

This means that even if you are in a position where you cannot currently pay all of the tax owed, paying as much as you can will only be a benefit in the long run. It will also be worth looking into other methods to fund paying the bill, where the charges associated with those could work out to being less than paying through the IRS. And there are also payment plans that can be set up through the IRS itself to help you eventually meet your obligations.

Overall, we understand the need for some taxpayers to get extensions on their tax returns, but when doing so it is important to have a plan for when the actual filing will occur and how to pay any bill that will exist. Again, there are options on how to best handle all of this, but the chances to figure this out before the clock runs out are dwindling.