BRYAN, Texas — Today is Tax Day and many have still not filed their taxes. With the IRS seeing a backlog in tax filing, we spoke with a local tax office to get tips on why people wait to file and how you can avoid penalties.
"Normally, they come in and want an estimate," said Andrea Boxley, tax preparer at Royalty Tax Services. "They want to see how much they’re going to get back, the best route to take, so they kind of fish and shop around with different agencies and different companies and tax preppers to see what’s the best route, who’s the best knowledgeable for them."
As people see which may be the best route for them, the tax business manager at Royalty Tax Services shares why people are getting extensions.
"People get a time extension because they want to thoroughly go through their taxes," said Patrick Warren, tax business manager at Royalty Tax Services. "They don’t want to rush. Let’s say they are a business owner and they just have a catalog of things they may have purchased and want to be able to maximize tax breaks so they just need a little additional time. That's it."
If you are planning to file your taxes today, make sure you have all documentation with you to ensure a smooth tax filing process.
“You definitely want to make sure you have all of your documents, everything you need already settled," said Boxley. "That’ll help save you some time if you need to come into the office. We’re willing to take that time to make that adjustment to make sure you've filed correctly.”
Royalty Tax Services even created an app during COVID when people could not come in person but has still proven to be efficient today. It only takes 15 minutes.
"Most people couldn’t come in," said Warren. "They couldn’t move around. They still wanted to get their taxes filed. We get all the documentation and if you have any questions, you can always pick up the phone and ask. We can docusign your documents to you and we can file it. It takes no time to do it."
There is still time to file your taxes. Some local tax offices will be open past 11 p.m. to ensure everyone has filed.
Warren shared how you should go about paying your taxes if you owe.
"I would recommend paying when you do it," said Warren. "I wouldn’t even tell anyone to pay upfront. Pay when you’re actually filing because you don’t know what your tax bill is going to be until all of your documents are actually prepared. So if you’re going to get an extension, pay for everything upfront."
According to Warren, it is better to go ahead and pay ahead of time to avoid future penalties that will cost you more later.
"That penalty though can be up to 25 percent so you would want to do everything you can to avoid it," said Warren. "Go ahead and file that extension. I wouldn’t want to be 25 percent on anything."
Warren then breaks it down into simpler terms as to why you would want to pay now versus later.
"My phone bill could be late, I’m going to pay it right now because if I have to pay 25 percent later, it might be 200 dollars," said Warren. "You know and then that’s $250 later. I’m not wanting to risk that. I’m going to pay it today and save my extra 50 bucks."
If you need an extension, the IRS states that filing an extension does not penalize you.