Fastest Ways to File an Extension
You can file an extension, safely, quickly, and painlessly using IRS Form 4868. Simply fill in your name and SSN, and mail it to the IRS.
From the IRS Web site: Form 4868 (PDF), IRS Mailing Addresses.
Extension forms postmarked by April 17th will be accepted by the IRS, and gives you an extra six months to file your taxes. An extension of time to file, however, is not an extension of time to pay. If you owe the IRS, you can submit your payment using Form 4868. Indicate how much you are paying on Line 7 of the extension form.
Readers often ask if they need to fill out Lines 4, 5, and 6 of Form 4868. These are the lines where you report your estimated tax liability, payments made, and an estimate of your balance due. If you don't have an estimate of your tax bill, that's okay. You can leave those fields blank and put zero on Line 7. Filling out Form 4868 on paper took me 1 minute. Cost to file: 39 cents for postage.
You can also file your extension online using Web-based tax software. A key advantage here is you can file on April 17th after the post office closes, and the IRS will still process your extension. Just be sure to e-file the extension before midnight.
I visited the following tax software sites to find out how quickly I could file an extension. Results are sorted by price.
TaxACT.com - 4 minutes, cost: free. Click "File extension free" on their home page.
CompleteTax.com - 3 minutes, not including the payment section of the process. Cost: $9.95. Select "Prepare an extension" link under the "Prepare Your Return" tab on their home page.
TaxCut.com - 3 minutes, not including the payment section of the process. Cost: $19.95. Click "TaxCut Extension" from the "TaxCut Online" menu on their home page.
TurboTax.com - "TurboTax currently does not support electronic filing of your extension," is the error message I got when I tried to file an extension using their Web-based software. You can, however, use TurboTax to print out Form 4868 for mailing to the IRS. It took me 4 minutes to prepare Form 4868 using TurboTax. Finding the extension form on TurboTax takes some digging around. Here's instructions for finding the extension form from the TurboTax support site.
Bottom line? Preparing Form 4868 on paper was the fastest way to request an extension, but using TaxACT was the cheapest (saving me the cost of a stamp).
What if you owe taxes? Do you just pay interest on any taxes owed?
I’m so glad I found this article. I just spent 3 hours trying to input info into Turbo tax just to send an extension, only to find out I didnt have the right version. Very upsetting! It took me less than 5 mins to e-file my extension after finding this article. THank you thank you thank you
Went through 10 websites accessed through IRS site, wasting a lot of time trying to file a simple extension–each was costly or inoperable. Found this site which recommended TaxAct, and was finished within 10 minutes, at NO cost. Thanks so much for this help!
Yeah, I really don’t like it when software companies charge for the filing an extension. The worst case scenario, is you spend a couple minutes writing in your information on the Form 4868, and mail it in. Now, if only the IRS would set up an online extension website, that would be a real timesaver.
Wow! This info really saved me some time and hassel of trying to find the best way to file for an extension. It worked great too! Thank you!!!
The only thing about TaxAct is that you can’t make a payment via credit card.
The free e-file is nice though.
Turbo Tax DOES have a VERY fast site (2 minutes) just for extensions worked great!
https://extension.intuit.com/extexp/ExtFiling.html
Thanks so much for this! I was doing internet searches forever before I found this, what a big help!