April 15 Filing Deadline Reminders

This is a reminder that the federal filing deadline for individual returns is this Wednesday, April 15, 2015.

April 15 is also the deadline for the following:

• Filing an automatic six month extension (Form 4868) – Remember the six month extension is for filing the return only. Any tax due must be paid by April 15, 2015 to avoid any penalty and interest.
• First individual estimated tax payment for 2015
• Making a contribution to an IRA for tax year 2014
• Filing federal partnership tax returns (Form 1065)
• Filing estate or trust income tax returns (Form 1041)

Also, for returns rejected on April 15, 2015, the return will be considered timely filed if it is retransmitted and accepted by April 20, 2015.

The original filing deadline is later for the following taxpayers:

• U.S. citizens and resident aliens who live and work abroad, as well as members of the military on duty outside the U.S. have until June 15, 2015 to file. Any tax due must still be paid by April 15, 2015.
• Members of the military and others serving in Afghanistan or other combat zone localities can wait until at least 180 days after they leave the combat zone to file returns and pay any taxes due. For more details see Extensions of Deadlines on page 24 of Publication 3 (Armed Forces’ Tax Guide).

Reminder of Recently Introduced Helpful Online Tools for Individuals

The IRS has released several online tools on their website in the past year. These tools allow an individual to make a direct debit payment online for estimated payments/amount owed with an extension/balance due on a current or prior year federal return, get the status of their amended return, or get information on a prior year federal tax return.

Direct Pay

If an individual would like to make a direct debit payment to the IRS for a current or prior year balance due or look up what payments they have made, they can use the Direct Pay online tool on the IRS website.

In order to make a payment, all the individual needs to do is:

• Provide their tax information
• Verify their identity
• Read more

Where’s My Amended Return?

If an individual has filed an amended return they can now find out where it is in the IRS processing stream by using the “Where’s My Amended Return?” look-up tool. The status will be available on this application three weeks after it was mailed to the IRS.

Three weeks after it has been mailed to the IRS, the following information is available about the amended return once the Social Security Number, date of birth, and ZIP code has been entered:

• Confirmation that the IRS received the amended return
• An update on the amended return’s current status
• Read more

Get Transcript (Prior Year Return Information)

If the taxpayer needs a copy of a federal return for a prior year, the IRS has made available an online tool that allows them to retrieve a copy of their return information for the three prior tax years (and current year after it has been filed). The taxpayer has the ability to download the return and/or print a copy of it immediately online. This new application eliminates the previous constraint to wait five to ten days while the IRS processed the request and mailed a copy of the taxpayer’s prior year return information.

Click here to read the entire CrossLink Tax Update that includes more information on helpful online tools for individuals.

IRS Security Summit Working Group Kick-Off Meeting

The tax software industry, IRS, and state tax administrators will be holding their kick-off meeting to discuss ways to address identity theft, refund fraud, and data security on April 2, 2015 in Washington, D.C. The goal of these working groups is to collaborate on finding solutions that will help mitigate identity theft in the tax system.

Petz Enterprises is glad to be part of this discussion and happy that IRS Commissioner Koskinen is making identity theft a priority.

Our goal has been, and will continue to be, bringing whatever resources are necessary to help combat tax related identity theft. By working with the IRS and state tax agencies, we will continue to be at the forefront of this issue.

Our customers have benefited from the security features that we have included in our product to help protect them from this very serious problem, and we will continue to look at adding more in the future.

We are looking forward to working with the IRS, State governments, and other members of the tax industry to help address the issue of identity theft and security in these working groups over the next few months.