It seems like there is a mad rush to get tax information put together in time to get it sent to the CPA, or to the point where you can convince yourself that you can whip it out with Turbo Tax.

As I’ve mentioned about a week ago, corporate taxes are due on March 17th this year due to the 15th falling on a Saturday.

But what if I need more time?

There’s always an application for extension if you haven’t received the requisite forms or just flat need more time.  IRS Form 7004 is the Application for Automatic Extension of Time to File Certain Business Income Tax, Information, and Other Returns.

The form will buy you an extra 5 or 6 months, depending on what other forms you are filing.

There’s a catch however.  The form will buy you an extension for filing the forms, but not for paying the taxes themselves.  When you file the form, you’ll need to file it with an estimate of the taxes you owe, and the payment of any taxes you owe.  Anything short of that and Uncle Sam will hit you up with penalties.

So what does it buy me?

Well, time for one.  But again, only on the filing itself, not the tax.  If you have a good estimate on what you’ll end up owing, you can use this return to put off the details for 5 or 6 months.  So if for some reason you’re waiting on that long-lost 1099 form that was supposed to be delivered already but got lost in the mail, you’re not out of luck.  You just need to pay what you think you owe, and follow up with the final filing later.

Business, Taxes corporate taxes, Form 7004, IRS

Does this irritate anyone else besides me?  Today it was revealed that the Treasury Secretary appointee, Timothy Geithner, failed to pay $34,000 in taxes from 2001 to 2004.

He claims that he didn’t think he needed to pay them because he was working for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is an international entity.  While this may be true (the IMF actually pays the taxes for the employee), the IRS considers that the employee is actually self employed and must pay their own portion of social security and medicare taxes.

And this guy is going to run the treasury?

It seems to me that if the guy doesn’t know what taxes he’s legally required to pay (even years after the IRS actually sent him a bill), does he really have any business running the treasury of the United States of America?

What’s even further aggravating is that Democrats say we should look past this little problem due to the extreme challenges Geithner faces in his new position.

So effectively, the rules don’t really apply to those who hold a really, really, demanding position with extreme challenges.

If a schmuck like me owed that much to the IRS, I’d be in jail.

Is it really so difficult to find people in our government who have ignored or bent the rules for their own personal political or financial gain?

Maybe so.

The fact that these issues are downplayed is all the more irritating, considering these people aren’t even in office yet.

Finance, Politics IRS, penalties, Taxes, Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary