Just want to say happy 9/15 to all my brothers and sisters out there in US corporate taxland. I was lucky and got sent home at 6:30pm!
And all you people with personal taxes on extension, don't forget - you have one month left to finish your 1040's!!!!! You know, the ones you should have done in April, but were too busy playing Ricks!!!
I "really" don't understand delaying until October! My brother does his, my parents, and our sister's taxes extended. You STILL have to do them, AND you have to file an extension in April anyway, and a payment if due. As Nike says, "Just Do It!!"
In my limited experience with personal taxes, the majority of people on extension were people putting it off because they were simply too busy, too lazy, or a little of both. In a lot of cases, however, additional time really is required to gather the documents necessary to file a complete and accurate return. And there are lots of weird little situations where this can happen. More people than you realize have self-employment income that needs to be reported (many of these people work regular day jobs, too, where they get a W2 also). So that can require gathering dozens or hundreds of receipts, invoices, check stubs, etc. But I am lucky and always do mine in February.
It sounds like you understand a bit more than I thought. I usually file late for several reasons, but I make quarterly estimated payments. My CPA is the best. She is also my wife. She's the best at that too.
All that documentation has to be collected sometime anyway, so why not before April 15th instead of Sept. 15th? If they were filed into catagories all along during the preceding business year, why wouldn't they be ready for the April deadline? I'm not trying to be combative,; I'm trying to understand. My sister/brother-in-law are just lazy about it, and my Dad relies on my brother, who is really busy at tax time.
A lot of these people are working 60, 70, 80+ hours a week to produce this income and run their own business, so it's often best to take advantage of the typically slow summertime to do this kind of stuff.