October 15 Is Coming. Here Is What to Do If You Filed an Extension.

If you filed an extension in April, your 2025 return is due Thursday, October 15, 2026. That is about three weeks from now.

Most people who are reading this already know the date. What they usually do not know is the part below, which is the reason not to wait.

The extension was never an extension to pay

This is the single most common misunderstanding, and it costs people real money.

Form 4868 gave you more time to file. It did not give you more time to pay. Whatever you owed for 2025 was due April 15, and interest has been running on it ever since.

So if you have been putting off filing because you are worried about the balance, waiting has been making the balance grow, not shrink.

File even if you cannot pay. Here is the arithmetic.

There are two separate penalties, and they are not the same size:

• Not filing costs 5% of what you owe, every month, up to 25%.
• Not paying costs 0.5% per month.

Read those two numbers again. The penalty for not filing is ten times the penalty for not paying.

Which means: if money is the problem, file anyway. File on time, pay what you can, and we sort out the rest with the IRS afterward. There are payment plans, and they are not hard to set up. What you do not want is to owe the 5% penalty on top of a balance you were already struggling with.

One more thing on that. If a return is more than 60 days late, there is a minimum penalty — a few hundred dollars — even on a small balance. A return you thought was too small to bother with can still cost you.

What if I am getting a refund?

Then there is no penalty, and you can relax a little. But the money is sitting with the IRS instead of with you, and it is not earning you anything there. File and get it.

What we need from you

Less than you think. Your W-2s and 1099s, any 1098 for mortgage interest or tuition, and — if you are self-employed — your income and expense totals plus your mileage.

If you drive for an app, your annual summary from the platform covers most of it. If your records are a mess, bring the mess. We have three weeks; that is enough time, and it is a lot more than we will have if you call on October 13.

If you have not filed for earlier years either

Say so. It is more common than you would guess, and it is fixable. Prior-year returns can still be filed, and if a refund is involved there are time limits worth knowing about before they pass. Nobody here is going to lecture you about it.

Start now

Call or text and we will set up your portal today. Upload from your phone, review the return with me, sign electronically, and be done before the deadline instead of on it.