File Your Taxes Late

File your taxes late? Yes, some tax rules are made to be broken. The rule I am talking about is filing your taxes by April 15th. Some people can prosper by not filing timely. Here is #1 of 3 of those situations:

1.  If you are making a Roth IRA conversion, filing an extension can juice returns. The rules allow taxpayers to reverse their conversion until October 15th, either with an extension or an amended return.
All taxpayers qualify for an automatic 6 month extension (From 4868) but it is not an extension of payment. If you owe tax and don’t pay it, the current rate of interest (4%) will be charged from April 15th till paid.

2. Multiple Roth IRA Conversions

3. Homebuyers

Since many of us use tax software or have tax preparers that use tax software programs, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of reviewing your return in detail. Many tax software programs have bugs that calculate passive gains and losses, AMT, and and other items incorrectly. I know because my spouse found a glitch that our CPA missed that was caused by software error (Thanks, Honey!). So take the time to review the finished return before mailing.