So, I did my tax return on TurboTax, printed it out with the intent of mailing it. I find out I owe $197. There is a post office near my house that is open until midnight on April 15 so you can mail your return up until the last minute. So at about 10:30 p.m. April 15, I fold up my tax return, attach my W-2 forms, address the envelope and put a stamp on it. I even looked at the instructions about who to write the check out to, include your SSN on the check, etc. Then went to the post office and mailed it WITHOUT the check enclosed!!! I realized it a couple hours later, after it was too late. I just totally forgot it, I don’t know how. DUH!!! :smack:
So this morning (April 16), I mail the $197 check, along with a copy of my 1040 form and a letter explaining what happened and mailed it. So they will get two tax return forms from me: one with W-2s and no check, and one with a check and no W-2s.
What is going to happen to me? Will I have to pay a late fee??? Will they be able to figure out what happened and consolidate all my paperwork with the check?
Oh my GOD!!! You’ll have to change your name and move up here to Canada. We’ll hide ya!
Seriously, I dunno about the IRS but the CCRA (Canadian equivalent of IRS, sounds vaguely Russian, doesn’t it?) would probably charge a late fee plus interest for the few days or something. Nothing too bad.
Don’t worry anymore, they’re after the big sharks, not the little fish.
They’ll probably hit you with a day’s interest. I think they charge 5% per day. They are NOT forgiving about that. But worst case scenario, if you didn’t send in the check at all, would be they’d just send you a bill. There may be a late fee, but in any case it shouldn’t be much – assuming, of course, that the “seasonal” employee (i.e. temporary) who opens the mail actually manages to connect up your check with your return. Don’t be scared; they’re trying to be “user-friendly” these days. Which means that (theoretically) they don’t punish you for innocent mistakes. Except when they feel like it, of course.
Just don’t EVER cross out any of the legal language by your signature. They will brand you as a tax protestor, audit you every year from now until the Second Coming, and take away at least one of your limbs and your firstborn.
You might want to call the IRS and explain what happened to one of their customer service people. One year I forgot to include something (I can’t remember if it was my W-2 or a form, but I know it wasn’t a check since I was due a refund); when I called to ask what to do I was told not to mail a duplicate return with the missing form. I got a letter from them a week or two later requesting the missing form; no penalty for late filing since the original was mailed timely.
MrsB did that last year, so she called Canada Customs and was told to do exactly the same thing you did. No extra fees, because she did file on time, but we’re talking about a different country up here
Yay, taxes. Guess what I’m doing tomorrow on my day off…
If you don’t send a check and you know you owe money, they will just send you a bill. I have done this before. I can’t recall if they charged me interest on it though. I don’t believe so, but this was a few years ago.
So, just out of curiosity, what day are income taxes due for filing in Canada? Is it a set date like it is here in the U.S. (April 15, unless it falls on a weekend in which case it is the following Monday) or is it something like the nth Tuesday of whatever month?
Oh, heck - it’s no big deal. That’s what you generally do if you don’t have the money to pay right then and there anyway. They’ll hit you with some fees, interest, etc. but it’s not horrible. Basically, they just contact you and want you to make payment arrangements. You don’t even have to pay all at once (I took about a year to pay a $900 tax bill once). In my experience the IRS is generally pretty helpful and forgiving if you seem to be an honest person trying to pay their taxes and not a criminal committing fraud. And I have some experience with this - I not only didn’t have the money for that $900 tax bill, but I also just plain didn’t pay taxes for three years in a row. When I finally went to file all three years at once it was all very painless. Of course, I did hire H&R Block to do it for me for convenience, but it wouldn’t have made much difference if I had just done it myself.
Of course, the one year I couldn’t afford to pay and set up a payment plan was the year I moved from one apartment to another across a parking lot, and my brilliant mailman managed to NOT notice the forward order on the ONE important piece of mail, my IRS bill, and next thing you know they’ve slapped a lien on my checking account and every check I just wrote bounced sky-high…sigh…fortunately, I was living in Austin at the time and had a friend who worked in the “We’re the Nice IRS People” section, who managed to get the lien lifted the next day. But it took WEEKS to straighten out with my creditors. Sheesh.
I’ve been a court reporter in Tax Court for 17 years now; wanna hear some IRS horror stories?
I used to work for a tax prep office, and we had this question come up a couple of times. Our recommendation was to send the errant check to the same addy, making sure to put your Social Security number on the check and add a note explaining things. The checks never went uncashed.
Remember to keep copies - and include notes - about everything that’s happened. The IRS is very big, and the person who got the W-2s will NOT be the same one that gets the check. When the check clears the bank, get a copy of it (if not the original). Make sure it’s a two-sided copy that will show the deposit information.
Do NOT lose sleep over this. So you’re a few days late. Big deal. If they choose to charge you “interest,” you’ll get a little letter explaining your penalty. You pay it just like you would any bill. It’s like what they do if they find an error on your taxes. It could come months later. They aren’t going to put out a warrant for your arrest, or repossess your house, and take your first-born child. I commend you for being so conscientious that you’re fretting, but believe me it’s not necessary.
There are people who are making serious efforts to defraud the IRS and people who don’t pay for years. Believe me, sending in the check a few days late is nothing.
