Many of you are looking at your tax information which may or may not be complete. You aren't sure whether you want to pull all that information together, organizing it for me to prepare a timely tax return. Basically, many of you suspect you may owe monies to Uncle Sam. Here's the push and reminder that you may need. An extension is an extension of time to file - not an extension of time to pay. Many people put off what they can do tomorrow but don't realize that filing late when you owe taxes is costly.

If you file an extension and owe taxes when the return is completed, your extension is not valid and interest is computed from the date it should have been paid - namely, April 15th. An extension is now granted for an automatic 6 month. This means your return will be due October 15th.

The cost: You will owe interest on any tax not paid by the regular (unextended) due date of the return - namely, April 15th. The interest runs until you pay the tax even if you had a reason for not paying on time. Additionally, there is a late payment penalty of ½ of 1% of any tax not paid by the regular (April 15th) due date. This amount is charged for each month or part of a month the tax is unpaid with a maximum penalty assessment of 25%.

If you think you are paying too much in taxes already, why put off paying the amount you owe by doing an extension when you suspect you owe.

Source: www.articletrader.com