• Blog
  • Latest News
  • Did You Miss the Tax Deadline? 3 Steps You Can Take Next

Did You Miss the Tax Deadline? 3 Steps You Can Take Next

Read the Article

What To Do if You Missed the Tax Deadline

The April 18th tax deadline has come and gone. If you missed the tax deadline, don’t worry, you can still file. Here are 3 steps to get your taxes done today and get your refund.

File Now – Don’t wait any longer! 

If you haven’t filed your taxes yet, don’t panic. You can still file today. If you are expecting a tax refund, which close to 80% of people do, you will not receive a penalty for filing late. Simply go online and use e-file with direct deposit to get your refund fast.

Don’t think you need to file? You may still want to.

Every year the IRS reports over $1 billion dollars in unclaimed tax refunds. Even if you made under the IRS income threshold for filing ($12,950 single, $25,900 married filing jointly for 2022), you should still file a tax return if you had federal taxes withheld from your paychecks or you are eligible for tax credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit.

You also need to file if you received an advanced premium tax credit to help you pay for health insurance in the Health Insurance Marketplace.

Use E-file with Direct Deposit

Even though you missed the deadline, you can still go online and e-file your taxes conveniently with TurboTax. E-file allows your tax return to be received and processed by the IRS quickly and easily. Plus you will also receive acknowledgement of receipt of your return.

If you mail in your tax return, it will take the IRS longer to receive and process your return. E-file with direct deposit is the fastest way to get your tax refund. The IRS states they will issue nine out of 10 tax refunds within 21 days or less from acceptance. 

Pay Any Taxes Owed

If you owe money, you’ll want to file as soon as you can to avoid a bigger failure-to-pay penalty. If you didn’t file an extension in April you’ll have a failure-to-file and a failure-to-pay penalty. Although you may have a penalty for filing late, your penalty will be smaller than if you don’t file at all. Filing as soon as possible will reduce what you owe in interest. The longer you wait to file, the bigger the interest penalty.

Some taxpayers put off filing because they owe money and they don’t know how they’re going to pay. If you put off filing for this reason, there are steps you can take that will be better and less costly for you. 

You should file as soon as possible, pay what you can, and then request a payment plan from the IRS. The IRS has several options to help you. You can request a short-term payment plan, long-term installment agreement, offer in compromise, or temporarily delay collections in some situations. You can set up a:

  • Short-term payment plan: You should select this plan, if you can pay what you owe within 180 days (up from 120 days under the Taxpayer Relief Initiative). 
  • Long-term installment agreements: This plan allows you to pay what you owe over six years. 
  • Installment agreement: If your total taxes, penalties, and interest is up to $50,000, you can request an installment agreement online.

TurboTax Has You Covered

Don’t worry if you missed the deadline, you can still file with TurboTax. TurboTax has you covered and will ask you simple questions about you and give you the deductions and credits you’re eligible for based on your answers. You can also come to TurboTax and *get your taxes done for you in a day with TurboTax Live Full Service. Your Full Service expert will do your taxes in real time and get your biggest refund guaranteed. TurboTax Live tax experts are available in English and Spanish, year-round.

*You must have your documents and meet the expert while they prepare your taxes.

Victims of recent federally declared disasters were given extensions to file and pay taxes. You can find out the specific extended deadlines in our IRS Deadline Extensions for Tax Year 2022 article.

Lisa Greene-Lewis

Lisa has over 20 years of experience in tax preparation. Her success is attributed to being able to interpret tax laws and help clients better understand them. She has held positions as a public auditor, controller, and operations manager. Lisa has appeared on the Steve Harvey Show, the Ellen Show, and major news broadcast to break down tax laws and help taxpayers understand what tax laws mean to them. For Lisa, getting timely and accurate information out to taxpayers to help them keep more of their money is paramount. More from Lisa Greene-Lewis

8 responses to “Did You Miss the Tax Deadline? 3 Steps You Can Take Next”

  1. Filed my taxes before deadline and saw it was rejected after due date. A number happened to be wrong on my as. I fixed and sent again and now it was excepted. Do I still need to file an extension or is it fine because my information was in already??

    • Hi Jenna,

      No need to file an extension. You tax return is still considered filed as timely (on time) even though it was rejected. The date it was originally submitted and rejected is considered the filing date.
      You may check the status of the tax refund via IRS “Where’s My Refund?” tool.
      Please note you will need the following information when checking on your refund status:
      Social security number or ITIN
      Your filing status
      Your exact refund amount

      Thank you