Updated for 2025. This year, the deadline for federal tax filing is Tuesday, April 15th, 2025. If you file for an extension before midnight on that date passes, you can extend the time allowed to file your return by six months to October 15th, 2025. It does not extend the time to pay any tax due. There are many legitimate reasons to ask for such an extension, and the extension is granted automatically without needing to provide a specific reason. In the past, I had a Schedule K-1 that consistently arrived after 4/15, so I would file an extension to file instead of having to make an amended return (I later sold that holding).
Why is filing an extension important? The “Failure to File” Penalty is 5% of the unpaid taxes for each month (or part of the month) that the tax return is late (without extension). The “Failure to Pay” penalty is 0.5% of your balance due for each month (or part of a month). That’s a 10X difference!
The good news is that you can instantly e-file a federal and state tax extension (where available) for free. Advantages of using e-File include:
- You save the time and postage costs of paper mailings.
- You can estimate your tax liability using online software and/or calculators.
- You receive confirmation of receipt via e-mail or text, often within hours.
- The potential convenience of filing your state tax extension online at the same time.
TaxAct
Tax prep software allows you to e-File your Federal and State extension (where applicable) for free through them. I use TaxAct to file my extensions because after using them once, I just found them to offer the most easy and useful user interface. They guide you through the process for federal and every state, letting you choose between printing the form to mail or e-Filing the state extension if available. You don’t need to input payment information, or even use them to file your actual taxes, although you certainly could.
Directions
First, with your e-mail address and pick a password if you haven’t previously. You must start a new tax filing, but you don’t need to enter anything. Just look for the option to “File Extension” on the purple left menu bar, and follow their interview directions.
TaxAct supports the electronic filing of extension forms for the following states:
- Arkansas
- Arizona
- California
- Connecticut
- District of Columbia
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New York
- North Carolina
- Oklahoma
- Pennsylvania
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Virginia
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
Afterward, you can confirm the status of your extension e-file by going to efstatus.taxact.com. They will even send you a confirmation via e-mail or text message. I got my confirmation less than 3 hours after submission.
IRS Direct Pay
If you only have Federal taxes to worry about, the most direct way to file an extension would be to use . Even if you don’t think you’ll owe any taxes, you can just submit a non-zero payment of $1 (or whatever) and they will file an extension for you along with the payment (remember to note this payment when you later file). As shown in the screenshot above, just choose “Extension” as the Reason for Payment, “Form 4868 (for 1040, 1040A, 1040EZ)” as the Apply Payment To, and 2024 (or whatever applies in your case) as the Tax Period for Payment. You will probably have to answer some identity verification questions, so try to have your previous year’s tax return ready.
Most other tax filing software will also file extensions for you in a similar manner, including and H&R Block. I’m not completely sure about all of their state e-File offerings.
(Note: For the 2024 Tax Year, . This includes taxpayers in the entire states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.)
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