Filed an Extension? October 15 Is Closer Than It Looks

If you filed an extension back in April, your 2025 return is due October 15. That sounds far away. It is six weeks of mail, work, and life away, and most of it will disappear faster than you expect.

Here is the part that surprises people every year: an extension moved your filing deadline, not your payment deadline. If you owed tax in April and have not paid it, penalties and interest have been building since then. The sooner the return is done, the sooner that stops.

What to pull together now

You do not need everything today. You need to know what is missing today, because missing documents are what turn October into a fire drill. Start with:

• W-2s and 1099s for every job, contract, and account
• Mortgage interest statements (Form 1098)
• Business income and expense records if you are self-employed
• Receipts for anything you plan to deduct
• Last year's return, if we did not prepare it

Open the folder, the shoebox, or the email archive and check the list. If something is missing, request the replacement now. Brokerages and lenders take their time on reissues, and that wait is the number one cause of last-minute extensions gone wrong.

Upload as you go

You do not have to wait until the pile is complete. Our client portal lets you upload documents as they turn up, and we start working as soon as we have enough to begin. Clients who send documents in September get their questions answered while there is still time to act on the answers.

The bottom line

October 15 is a hard stop. There is no second extension for individual returns. Send what you have, flag what you are missing, and let us carry it from there.

Ready to knock it out? Book your consultation on our contact page or upload your documents through the client portal today.