Extensions

During this time of the year, I spend a lot of time complaining to Steve about taxes. But why should I just annoy him with it when I can share the uninteresting blather with everyone!

I spent several hours this past week preparing extensions for our tax clients who just can’t get their act together by April 15th. It’s a tedious process and completely useless. The extensions are automatic. Neither the preparer nor the taxpayer needs to sign them and as long as they’re received by April 15th, they’re automatically accepted. Talk about a waste of time for the preparer, time for the IRS employees who need to enter them and not to mention paper!

It’s not like extensions let you get away with much. If you end up owing taxes, you’ll owe interest and penalties that start accruing April 15th whether you file an extension or not. Everyone has an incentive to get their taxes done on time. Those who owe should want to avoid penalties and interest and those who are getting refunds undoubtedly want to get their money as soon as possible. Why not have the IRS simply publicize that you no longer need to file a piece of paper to get an automatic 6-month extension… and all those whose returns are not filed by April 15th will owe interest and penalties from that date if they have a tax liability?

Seems like one easy way to simplify the process, if just a tiny bit.