The Tax Filing Deadline for S Corps on Extension is Fast Approaching

If you have an S Corp based business then you are just a few days from your filing deadline.  You can’t extend the extension, so what if you’re still just not able to file?  What do you do?  Technically, you should be ready to file, so you’ll get no sympathy from Uncle Sam unless you fall under very rare special circumstances.  In a nationally declared disaster area, deployed in the military under certain special circumstances and a few other super rare groups.  Chances are very high that you don’t get more time, so what to do?  The penalty for not filing is substantial.  However, the penalty for making an error and having to amend later is zero.  S Corp returns give their owners a K-1, which is used to prepare the personal return of the business owner.  If the business owner’s S Corp is extended then likely so is the personal 1040.  If an unprepared S Corp owner was to best guess his or her numbers and file the S Corp on time, but then sometime in the next month have to amend the S Corp and that was all done before the October 15^th personal filing deadline, then the penalty for not filing would be traded for the headache and expense of doing two S Corp returns in a four week period.  Your accountant might also want to fire you, but that’s another problem altogether, and if they have let you wait this long, then perhaps it would not be a bad idea to be moving on to another preparer anyway.