I e-filed my returns, so those were received on time, but I had to mail in a check with the voucher and I didn’t get it into the mail until today, a day late. Will the IRS notice the belated postmark and if so what will happen?
Probably.
The penalty for late payments is 5% a month, to a max of 25%.
I assume that it is not prorated on the month, but I am not sure.
I would say it is likely that you will be assessed a 5% penalty.
If you call and explain your situation, you do guarantee that they notice (taking it from 95% to 100%), but they may waive it for you.
ETA: it is a penalty on the taxes you have outstanding that you owe, not your entire tax bill.
Generally, no. At some point they’ll run a check folks whom are late, or haven’t filed, and may start assessing penalties, but in my experience, they’re pretty relaxed about simple, inconsequential errors.
Which is NOT how they once were reputed to be.
I can assure you, they don’t give two shits ad long as they get their money. Hell, you could be a month late and they wouldn’t care.
One year I waited for them to send me a letter back telling me I needed to send them money. I got the letter some three months after I filed. I sent the payment in with no issues. Can’t remember if I was penalized or not. But if I was, the amount was really small.
You DON’T want to be a say late filing though. At least that’s what the IRS agent told me.
Last year, something got screwed up and my checking account wasn’t debited for the taxes I owed. Within a week, I got a letter from the IRS asking for their money. I think they added a penalty, but since I didn’t owe a whole lot, it was an insignificant amount.
This year, I didn’t take any chances - I mailed my check in a week before it was due, and it cleared my bank before yesterday. I’m hoping next year, I won’t have to write a check at all, but our income keeps changing, so our tax bracket varies. Stoopit taxes.
5% a month is the penalty for Failure to File, not Failure to Pay.
The Penalty for Failure to Pay is 0.5% per month.
Both penalties are per month or partial month. So if you file one month and one day late, the penalty is 10%.
In addition to the Failure to Pay penalty, there is interest. This is a variable rate, currently 4% per year. But this is only calculated for the number of days that the payment is late, so it’s essentially 4/365 of 1% per day.
So, folks, the moral is if you can’t pay your taxes, file your return on time anyway. The penalty for not filing is 10 times the penalty for not paying.
Other details: Both penalties are capped at 25%. If the FTF and FTP penalties apply in the same month, the FTF penalty is reduced to 4.5% for that month. The minimum FTF penalty for returns more than 60 days late is $135 or 100% of the tax that should be shown on the return but was not paid on time, whichever is less. The FTF penalty can be stopped only by filing the return, not by paying the tax. The FTP penalty can be stopped by paying the tax.
For future reference, the IRS does have convenient electronic payment methods that you can use to avoid these problems. You can even schedule payments for a future date.
Reportedly the IRS does not closely check the postmarks on mail received for several days after the filing/payment deadline. The number of days is not public information. But you run the risk that your payment may have been delayed in the mail and will arrive after this period.
You may be wondering what happens if your postmark is illegible or missing. The risk is on you. Unless you can produce a certified or registered mail mailing receipt, it will be treated as paid the day it was received. Note that tracking, certificate of mailing, Priority Mail receipt, etc does not count.
In the days before e-filing, I took my envelopes with my tax returns and checks to the post office that had always stayed open to midnight on the 15th. Until that particular year. I decided to not panic (always a good choice) and dropped them in the mail slot anyway. I never heard a peep of complaint from the IRS or from my state’s tax bureau.
I think mine went in the mail, even without the voucher, after the last pickup from the box. But it was still 4/18.
My check was cashed fairly promptly and the Infernal Revenue Service hasn’t called asking for more. Given what I had to pay an extra 5% would be barely over $5, probably not worth their time.
I think one year we got a rather nasty note from the IRS for filing our request for an extension one day late. I don’t remember what if any penalties were involved.
They will notice. Unless you’re check is quite large they probably have bigger fish to fry.
FYI check was cashed & I never heard another word 
As a person who has never once mailed it in precisely on time, I will guess that they will not notice.
I don’t know that there is a definitive answer. In other words, I think it varies. I am self-employed and pay quarterly taxes. One year I forgot to send in my payment by June 15, thinking in my head it was due July 15 (you know, the month following the end of the second quarter, like they do for the 1st and 4th quarters, but not the 2nd and 3rd). So, I sat down and wrote my checks out on July 12 or so and realized I was almost a month late. Oh well, I figured they would let me know how much I owed as a penalty. I never heard a word from either the IRS or my state government about the late payment (and this was at least four years ago). Now, quarterly estimated payments are probably different than your April filing, but I suspect that this is correct:
I can’t imagine them looking at every envelope that comes in during the two weeks or so following the deadline.
Will they notice? Probably.
Will they care? Probably not.
One year I owed them a few thousand and simply didn’t have it. But it was the year I turned 59 1/2 so I would be able to get the money from my 401k, just not in time. I called the IRS, they told me to file on time and if I didn’t pay it all then, they’d just send me a bill. Which I did, they sent me a bill, I paid it, and all was cool.
This was actually covered in one of Cecil’ s columns. What happens if you file your income tax one day late? - The Straight Dope
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I’ve heard a IRS auditor being interviewed and was asked your question, their reply in generally not and it happens often, they don’t have the time or resources to chase after things like that plus it does increase satisfaction with the IRS, which is opposite of the image they would like to have. Though this was years ago.
Another thing I’ve heard said about the IRS, they want to maxium milk with the minimum moo from their cash cow, so they limit the amount of these things to keep the people quite, but audit enough to keep people honest.