All Corp & Partnership Tax Returns due Sept 15th
Business Taxes are Due September 15, 2014
Did you know that you can be penalized for not filing your 2013 business taxes by the extended deadline?
Remember, you are REQUIRED to file your business return even if you had ZERO activity for 2013. Don’t throw away your money on unnecessary penalties! AND THEY ARE HIGH!
Late Filing Federal Penalties
C Corporations:
The IRS has the ability to assess a penalty equal to 5% f any income tax that remains unpaid. Moreover, the corporation will reach the maximum 25 percent penalty after the fifth month that the return remains unfiled. If you file your return more than 60 days after the due date or extended due date, the minimum penalty is the smaller of $135 or 100 percent of the unpaid tax.
Subchapter S Corporations:
The IRS has the ability to assess a penalty equal to $195 PER SHAREHOLDER for each month the return is filed late(max of 12 months). Therefore, the maximum penalty for an S Corp with ONE shareholder is $2,340 if filed more than 12 months late.
Partnerships, including multi-member LLCs:
The IRS has the ability to assess a penalty equal to $195 PER PARTNER/LLC MEMBER for each month the return is filed late(maximum of 12 months)
Now for the GOOD NEWS!
USE Your First-Time Penalty Abatement Waiver. The IRS’s first-time abatement penalty waiver (FTA), although introduced several years ago, is infrequently used by qualifying taxpayers since many taxpayer are unaware of it. An FTA can be obtained for a failure-to-file, failure-to-pay, or failure-to-deposit penalty. A taxpayer may claim an FTA for only a single tax period. To qualify, taxpayers must not have been assessed any other penalties of a “significant amount” on the same type of tax return within the past three years and must be in compliance with all filing and payment requirements.
The AICPA wrote a great article on best practices on requesting penalty relief. Check it out!