Video: Your Extension of Time to File 2021 Taxes Is Running Out
The tax extension deadline is getting closer. TurboTax Tax Expert and CPA Lisa Greene-Lewis walks tax filers through last-minute tips ahead of the October deadline.
When a significant natural disaster hits – such as a hurricane, earthquake, tornado, flood, wildfire, blizzard, or the like – the IRS will extend upcoming federal tax deadlines for affected taxpayers if a federal disaster is declared. The extended due dates apply to most federal tax returns and payments, including those for income taxes (including estimated tax payments), payroll taxes, and excise taxes. If you’re impacted by a natural disaster, check our IRS Disaster Relief page to see if you qualify for an automatic tax filing or payment extension.
Video Transcript:
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[00:00:04.89] TRACY-BYRNES: If you put your tax return on extension in April, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to pay attention to it. The deadline is coming up. Now, it's generally October 15, but because that's a Saturday this year, you actually get the weekend now to finish up your tax return.
[00:00:18.51] It is due. Full stop. No fail. Midnight October 17, Lisa Greene-Lewis, CPA and TurboTax expert, is here with us to remind us of what we need to do and some of the things that tripped us up back in April. But let's start with, what do we have to remember to do, Lisa?
[00:00:34.02] LISA GREENE-LEWIS: So, the first thing you want to do, same as if you filed in April, gather all your documents in one place, but this is it. This is the last chance you have. So, you want to have documents that report your income, your expenses, anything related to your dependents like their Social Security numbers, have that all in one place.
[00:00:54.25] TRACY-BYRNES: Get your stuff together. And then there was a bunch of things that tripped people up. One of them was the advanced child tax credit. Some people got money, some people didn't, you had to get a form. What was the story? Refresh our memories.
[00:01:07.24] LISA GREENE-LEWIS: Yes. So, with the advance child tax credit, you received half of the credit. So, when you go to file your taxes, you're eligible for the other half, but you want to report the correct amount that you received so that your tax return isn't held up. So, you want to have letter 6419 in front of you so that you can input the correct amount.
[00:01:31.84] TRACY-BYRNES: Right. And thankfully, TurboTax will figure that out for you. Because otherwise, it gets super complicated. Same with the last stimulus payment. That tripped people up as well.
[00:01:43.04] LISA GREENE-LEWIS: Yes. So, if you're eligible for the last stimulus payment, let's say you had a baby, you may be eligible for the last stimulus payment and when the IRS issued it, they did not know that, so you can claim that on your return. And also, if you received a portion of it you have to input the correct amount that you received. And you would have received a letter 641975 from the IRS that reports the correct amount that you receive, so you want to have that in front of you.
[00:02:13.54] One thing to remember, you don't need to know these tax rules. You can come to TurboTax, and you can fully hand your taxes over to a TurboTax Live expert, and they'll do your taxes from start to finish.
[00:02:27.07] TRACY-BYRNES: All right. So that goes back to get all your documents together. Start thinking about this, because October is going to sadly come sooner than we all would like.
[00:02:34.42] And finally, we had an opportunity, if we didn't itemize, to get a little bit of a charitable deduction, didn't we, in 2022?
[00:02:43.49] LISA GREENE-LEWIS: Yes. So, there was another provision undercover relief that allowed you to claim cash charitable contributions up to $300, if you're single, 600 married filing jointly, and you could do that even if you claim the Standard Deduction. So, this will be the last time that you're able to do that.
[00:03:02.39] TRACY-BYRNES: Yeah. So, while no one wants to go back to the covered days, these things are important for your tax return purposes at least so don't forget about them. Lisa Greene-Lewis, thank you so much for reminding us.
[00:03:13.97] LISA GREENE-LEWIS: Thank you for having me.
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