The following is only for personal income tax extensions.
START HERE:
This year you do not have to worry about calculating your federal income taxes on your own. (You still have to calculate your own personal state income taxes, for which we've provided a simple formula here for you to do at the bottom of this page). In order to calculatte your federal income taxes, in case you can't file by April 15th, 2014, just download the above spreadsheet, fill in all the fields in blue, and see if the sheet calculates a federal income "tax due" for you at the bottom of the excel sheet. If there is a refund, nothing to worry about as you do not have to take an extension (see second & third bullet points of this link). If you owe, you can either mail the federal IRS 4868 voucher (or 2350, if you're living abroad) with that payment or use one of the following links below to make an electronic payment. The second page of the IRS 4868 extension voucher has DIFFERENT addresses for the IRS to mail your voucher to, depending on where you live. The third page of the 2350, has the IRS Austin address of where to send your mailing to. It is a street address, so you can use a private courier. If you are using FedEx, DHL, or UPS to overnight your payment and voucher, send it to the addresses mentioned on this IRS page. They are pasted here for you below as well.
| Austin - Internal Revenue Submission Processing Center | 3651 South Interregional Highway 35, Austin TX 78741 |
| Cincinnati - Internal Revenue Submission Processing Center | 201 West Rivercenter Blvd., Covington, KY 41011 |
| Fresno - Internal Revenue Submission Processing Center | 5045 East Butler Avenue, Fresno, CA 93727 |
| Kansas City - Internal Revenue Submission Processing Center | 333 W. Pershing, Kansas City, MO 64108 |
| Ogden - Internal Revenue Submission Processing Center | 1973 Rulon White Blvd. Ogden, UT 84404 |
If paying by mail, most of the vouchers have instructions as to how to pay them, but if you're paying the IRS, do NOT make the payment to the "IRS," but rather to the "United States Treasury", fully written out. Put the year of the taxes & 1040 on the memo line. American Residents living abroad can also use the electronic site links to at least pay their tax bills by April 15th of this year (see more for American residents living abroad below).
Online Payment Extension Sites
Penalty Information
Remember, if you think there is a miscalculation, or you are in doubt about a certain amount of your income, file the extension with a minimum $1 payment anyways. Because if you don't take the extension, and you owe, there is a 4.5% penalty PER MONTH, on the unpaid balance, up to a maximum of 25%, with interest, which accrues at an annual rate (usually around 3% to 4% per year). But if you take the extension, legally, the IRS can only charge you 0.5% per month, up to a maximum of 25%, along with interest. In other words, it will take the IRS a long time to hit the 25% maximum if they're only charging you 0.5% per month penalty on the outstanding balance of tax, until you make the full payment. So, it's cheaper to just take the extension. Many states operate this way also, so you can use the same general rule of thumb to take the extension of $1. The only caveat is that the IRS will charge you a minimum floor failure to pay penalty of either $135, or 100% of the tax due. So if you took the extension, and paid only $1 with the extension on a $9,000 tax bill, the IRS would charge you a minimum of $135 per month, since that's lesser than 0.5% of the $9,000 (0.005 x $9,000 = $45). The above explanation is a simplified explanation.
If you wish to know more, click here..
Americans (Citizens & Green card holders) Living Abroad
If you are normally exclude your all or part of foreign income on the US tax return because you are living outside of the US for at least 330 days in any 12 month period overlapping with the tax year, and/or your main place of work is outside the US & Puerto Rico, or if you are in the military or naval service outside the US and Puerto Rico in general, then you AUTOMATICALLY get a 2 1/2 month extension to file up till June 16th, 2014. You don't have to do anything until June 16th, 2014, afterwhich you will file for the extension up to October 15th, 2014, if necessary. The filing of a Form 2350 will allow you until October 15th of this year to file your most recent year's tax return, the same extended deadline which all other Americans living in the USA get, assuming they took their own extensions by April 15th. Put another way, you just would have until June 16th, 2014 to take that same extension (albeit, on the 2350 voucher) to get that same extended deadline for October. However, any payments you owe on income which cannot be excluded must STILL be paid by April 15th by making a check payment with the voucher or an online federal extension payment by that date. So be sure to calculate your taxes with our excel sheet at the top of this page!
State Tax Calculation for Extension Filing
Each state has their own peculiar formula for calculating their taxes, and their taxes range frrom 3% to above 11%, not including local taxes. The best thing to do, is first to find your state wages appearing in box 16 as a starting point for each state for which you must file an extension for. Then subtract a flat $500 exemption per person in your family, from those state wages, multiply the resulting figure by the income tax rate in your state. That will give you your taxes for that state. Subtract this tax amount from what you've already paid (box 17 of your w2) to that state, and the result, if negative is a liability. If it's positive, you're getting a refund, and no extension is needed. Remember, if you owe state income taxes from this little calculation, pick the correct voucher from the dropdown at the top of this page, follow the instructions on this voucher, and mail them the voucher and check payment. You can also use any of the online providers listed on this page to make the same state income tax payments.
To check the state tax rate in your state, click here.
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E.g., If you're married, and worked in NJ and CA, and your state wages for NJ are $8,000 and your CA state wages are $32,000, subtract $1,000 ($500 x 2 for two people in your family here in US) from each of the states wages, and multiply the resulting figures by the rates from each state. CA is 6.25% for income up to $36,675, and NJ is 1.4% up to $20,000. Assume you've already paid NJ $200 (box 17) and CA $1,200 (box 17).
NJ tax = 1.4% of ($8,000 - $1,000) = $98; $200 paid - $98 tax = $102 estimated refund.
No extension needed for NJ, in this case.
CA tax = 6.25% of ($32,000 - $1,000) = $1,937.50; $1,200 paid - $1,937.50
= -$737.50 estimated liability.
Print the California voucher from the drop down box here, write a check for $737.50 payable to the Franchise Tax Board of CA, and mail it with the voucher to the address on the check.
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