In this instructional video, Loma walks entrepreneurs through the essential U.S. federal income‑tax calendar and rules. She explains that the standard filing deadline is April 15 (or the next business day if the 15th falls on a weekend/holiday) and that extensions push the filing deadline to October 15, but never extend the payment deadline. Taxpayers who expect to owe any amount must pay by the original April deadline to avoid penalties and interest. If the tax bill is $1,000 or more, the IRS expects quarterly estimated payments (due April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15) and may assess an additional penalty for underpayment. Loma clarifies how over‑payments are refunded, how under‑payments trigger penalties, and how the $1,000 threshold triggers estimated‑tax requirements. She discusses refund timing, noting that returns without Earned Income Credit (EIC) or Child Tax Credit are processed as soon as the return is approved, whereas refunds that include EIC or Child Tax Credit are not scheduled until mid‑February and may arrive late February to early March. The video also covers the difference between filing extensions and amendments, advising viewers to gather all tax documents before filing to avoid the more complex amendment process. Loma introduces tax‑refund offsets, where the IRS can retain part or all of a refund to satisfy delinquent student loans, child support, or other government debts, and explains how to check for offsets via the U.S. Treasury’s automated system. Finally, she warns that refunds not claimed within three years are forfeited, emphasizing the importance of filing on time each year.
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Hi, my name is Loma. I teach entrepreneurs business and money management skills. We're going to go over filing deadlines, payment deadlines, refund deadlines, extensions, estimated payments, and amendments. So let's get started. Generally speaking, all tax returns are due April 15th. The only time the due date changes is if the 15th falls on a weekend or on a holiday, and then it would be the following business day is when your tax return would be due. Now, if you don't think you'll be able to get your tax return filed by the deadline, you can file an extension. The extension will give you until October 15th, and again, if the 15th of October falls on a weekend or a holiday, it'll be the following business day. Now, this extension is only for filing your tax return. It does not give you an extension on making a payment if you owe taxes. The IRS is used to receiving their money upfront and ahead of time. For example, if you're a W-2 earner and you get a paycheck, you notice that they take taxes out of your check. That money that they take out is a prepayment of the taxes that you'll owe for the following tax year when you file. So for example, we're looking at a 2021 tax return here because 2021 has just passed, but the entire year you were working in 2021, all of the tax that they took out was in preparation for this tax return that you're about to file. And And again, you have until April 15th, or as I mentioned before, the following business day if it falls on a weekend or a holiday. It's important to note that if you think that you're going to end up owing any taxes, even if it's just a dollar, your deadline to make the payment is still April 15th. You cannot get an extension for the payment that you owe. You actually have to pay that even if you haven't filed your tax return. So for example, if you know you made a lot of money and you are expecting to owe taxes, you have to go ahead and pay the IRS an estimated amount of what you think that you'll owe by April 15th. If you don't, they're going to hit you with a penalty for paying late. They're going to hit you with interest. They're going to hit you with all sorts of fees if you don't pay by April 15th. So it's really important if you owe taxes, or if you even think that you're going to owe taxes, you need to go ahead and make that payment. Understand that if you do end up overpaying, they will refund the difference. After you've submitted your tax return and they've had a chance to process it. But if you underpay the IRS and you don't pay enough, for example, if you owed $200 and you only paid them $100, they're going to hit you with a penalty for the $100 that you were short, and you don't want that. You'll get hit again with penalties and interest on that amount. Another rule that's important to know about is if your tax bill ends up being $1,000 or more, you you're going to get hit with another penalty fee. The IRS doesn't like for anybody to owe them more than $1,000 when they file their tax return. If you end up owing more than $1,000, that's when the IRS is going to expect for you to start filing estimated taxes. Estimated payments and quarterly payments are the same thing. If you do owe estimated payments, your payments are due April 15th, June 15th, September 15th, and January 15th. And when you file your tax return, you would enter those amounts and dates so that you can get credit towards your overall bill. If for your situation, this is your first time owing $1,000 or more, when you're filing your tax return and you get to that part, the software is going to help you maneuver through the possibility of getting the penalty waived. But if you're one of the lucky ones that get a refund every year, then this does not apply to you. Filing an extension also doesn't apply to anybody that's expecting a refund. So the IRS only has the extension request available for people that owe taxes. It doesn't apply to people that are due a refund. Basically, the IRS is in a hurry to get people's money and commitments to payments that are owed to them. But if they owe you, if they owe you a refund, they're not exactly in the same hurry. So they don't require you to file an extension if you're due a refund. If you're behind on filing your tax return and you were due a refund, if it's further back than 3 years ago, then you're going to end up losing that refund. I know that sucks, but you do not get that refund if you waited too long. 3 years is the max. So it's really important to file your tax returns on time every year so that you can get your refund. So you might be wondering, when is it a good time to file an extension? If it doesn't give you more time to pay your taxes, what good is it? Well, some people's tax returns are a little bit complicated, and they know that they owe, and they need a little bit more time to organize their information to go ahead and put it into the software and submit their tax return. And for those people, an extension is helpful. Another reason to file an extension, and again, this only applies to people that owe taxes, is if you need more time to get all of your tax documents together. Say for instance, you were expecting certain tax documents like a 1099 from a contract job or, or any other situation where you don't have all your W-2s, what you can do is you can file an extension, and that'll give you time for your information to populate on the IRS's website and in your IRS account online. Because all the W-2s that were due January 31st, they're supposed to be in the system by October so that you can get your transcript from your online IRS account and get the W-2 information that you need to file your tax return. Because it's always important to make sure you have all of your tax documents before you actually file your tax return. As I mentioned before, if you file your tax return, you don't have all of the documents you need before you file, you're going to end up filing an amendment, and it's just like filing your tax return all over again, but it's a little bit more complicated. So try to avoid having to file an amendment if possible. There are a couple of more important notes I wanted to make sure I went over with you. The first one is about something called an offset. An offset happens when the IRS keeps part or all of your refund. If you're delinquent on student loans or government loans or child support, or you're behind on other government obligations, you should be aware that they have the ability, because they are the government, that goes for the state as well as for the federal government, that they have the ability to send a request to the IRS to offset your tax refund. Let's say, for example, you owe the government $700 and your tax refund was $1,000. The IRS would withhold the $700 and send it to the government department that asked for that money, and then the remaining $300 would be sent to you by the IRS. And this is called an offset. An offset doesn't happen every time that you're delinquent on government loans or child support and things like that. It only happens when that government entity decides that they want to try to collect on that money through your tax refund, if you actually are getting tax refund. If you end up owing taxes when you file your tax return, then this situation wouldn't end up affecting you. It would only apply to you if you have a tax refund coming and there's an offset already scheduled for your account. If you do have an outstanding delinquent loan with the government or you owe back child support, you won't necessarily be able to stop this offset from happening and taking your tax refund unless you just don't file, but then you risk the chance of losing your refund because you only have 3 years to claim the refund. So I wouldn't necessarily say you should not file just because there's an offset against you. The way to find out if there's an offset against your account, all you have to do is call the US Treasury. When you call this number, follow the prompts for finding out if you have an offset. You won't have to speak to a person. It's all automated. They'll let you know who you owe, and they'll provide you the contact information to reach out to them. If an offset has been scheduled, the only thing you can do is contact that department that ordered the offset in the first place. And see if you can work something out and have them remove that offset, because it's not going to go away. When you owe the government, you got to pay them. At the very least, I would just recommend that you call the U.S. Treasury every year during tax season before you file your tax return, just to find out whether or not they do have an offset order in the system. And the very last thing I wanted to go over with you is about when you can file your tax return and when you can expect a refund. The exact filing date changes every year, but it's generally the last week of January. And if you're expecting a refund, refund that's based on Earned Income Credit or Child Tax Credit, the IRS waits until mid-February before they start scheduling refunds for anybody that's due Earned Income Credit or Child Tax Credit. If your refund consists of Earned Income Credit or Child Tax Credit, just know that your refund won't even be scheduled until mid-February, and you might not receive it until the end of February or even early March. But if your refund does not have Earned Income Credit and it doesn't have any Child Tax Credit, then you can expect the IRS to schedule your refund once they finish processing your tax return and approve your tax refund. Click the link to take my quick tax quiz.
