Important Tax Dates for Business and Individuals

If you are looking for free/cheap tax prep software you’re in luck, here’s a couple of options for you! The IRS has a Free File program. If your adjusted gross income (AGI) was $79,000, you may be able to file for free. If your income is too high, there are other options like Turbotax or Tax Slayer if you wan DIY. I think filing your own return could be doable if you have a simple situation like single, w-2 only, no dependents.

Once you start adding dependents, other sources of income like business revenue or investment income, or you have money going between retirement accounts things start to get more complex as more tax forms are involved. At that point I would recommend going to a professional to make sure your situation is handled correctly. I give my professional stamp of approval to my friend Mercedes. She’s an Enrolled Agent I first met in the Master of Tax program at GSU and I’ve been sending my friends and family to her for years since then. If you want cheap/DIY, you have options, but if you want to make sure you're taken care of by the best, you go with Mercedes. You can reach out to her and find more info about her services here.

Now the important tax dates coming up!

March 15

Partnerships must file Form 1065 and provide each partner with a K-1.

S Corps must file Form 1120-S and provide each shareholder with a K-1.

Multi-Member LLCs are generally taxed as a partnership unless they’ve elected to be taxed differently.

Both partnerships and S Corps can request an extension, per Publication 509 “to request an automatic 6-month extension of time to file the return, file Form 7004.”

April 1

Electronic filing deadline for Forms 1097, 1098, 1099, 3921, 3922, and W-2G.

April 15

Individuals must file Form 1040, or a version of it, and pay any tax due.

Sole Proprietorship meaning you have a legitimate business, it’s just not necessarily registered as anything else. Your business income and expenses would generally go on schedule C and must be filed with your individual tax return.

Single Member LLC would generally default to getting taxed as a sole proprietorship and also go on schedule C, unless you’ve elected to be taxed differently.

You can request a 6 month extension of time to file by filing Form 4868 and paying what you estimate you owe in tax to avoid penalties and interest (Publication 509).

Corporations must file Form 1120, Form 7004 can be filed to request a 6 month extension.

Important Notes

Remember, extension to file does not mean extension to pay. You can get an extension to file the actual return, but you should estimate and pay any owed taxes by the deadline to avoid possible penalties.

As we are approaching these filing deadlines, my inbox is flooded with questions like “I got this form in the mail, should I report this?” or “do I need to report the money I got for X?”

Here’s what the IRS has to say about that: [taxpayers are]…”generally required to report all earned income on their tax return, including income earned from digital asset transactions[crypto], the gig economy [Uber/Doordash], and service industry as well as income from foreign sources.” (IR-2024-63)

Hope this helps, see you next week!

Neyra