Will I have to pay a penalty for filing late?

If you have a refund, you are not subject to any penalties.

There is a failure to file penalty (also known as the late filing penalty) for taxpayers who file after the April 15 deadline, and owe the IRS taxes.

The Failure to File penalty is based on how late you file your tax return and the amount of unpaid tax as of the original payment due date (not the extension due date).

You are subject to:

• 5% of unpaid tax per month or part of a month the return is late, for up to 5 months
• The penalty is applied for a full month, even if the return is filed less than 30 days late
• When filed more than 60 days after the return due date (including extensions), a minimum late filing penalty is applied

The minimum filing penalty is the LESSER of two amounts: 100% of the tax required to be shown on the return that you did not pay on time, OR a specific dollar amount subject to change annually due to inflation. Below are the specific dollar amounts:

• $485 for returns after 12/31/2023
• $450 for returns due between 1/1/2023 and 12/31/2023
• $435 for returns due between 1/1/2020 and 12/31/2022
• $210 for returns due between 1/1/2018 and 12/31/2019
• $205 for returns due between 1/1/2016 and 12/31/2017
• $135 for returns due between 1/1/2009 and 12/31/2015
• $100 for returns due before 1/1/2009

If after 5 months you still have not paid, the Failure to File penalty will max out, but the Failure to Pay penalty continues until the tax is paid, up to its maximum of 25% of the unpaid tax as of the due date.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 21st, 2021 at 3:58 pm and is filed under Late Tax Filing FAQ, Tax Related Questions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.