Your tax payment was due on April 18th this year. If you haven't made your payment it is now considered past due and you will be charged interest and penalties.

An extension only gives you more time to file your tax return. It does not give you additional time to pay your income taxes. So how do you know what to pay if you haven't completed your tax return?

You can use your previous years return as an estimate. If you owed $1000 the previous year, pay as much as possible of that $1000 towards this years return. This will lessen the penalties and interest assessed for any balance paid after the due date.

The next step will be to file your return as soon as possible so that you will know if you owe more or (hopefully) you didn't owe at all.

To avoid this in the future you should make Estimated Tax Payments each quarter. Your tax professional can help you determine what this amount should be. But if you self-prepare you will want to take the amount you owed this year and divide by 4. This is the simplest way to come up with your estimated tax payment amount but I highly recommend finding a tax professional to help you.

Estimated Tax Payments are due as follows:
Payment 1 - April 15
Payment 2 - June 15
Payment 3 - Sept 15
Payment 4 - Jan 15 (following year)

Remember, you CAN file an extension to file later but you CANNOT file an extension to pay any tax due.

Every year goes by faster than the last. That's just how it is, especially if you have kids. June is here, summer vacations, summer camps and the perfect time to do a mid-year financial check up!

These are a few things you should do before July 1:

• Check your last pay stub to determine that you've been withholding the proper amount of taxes so far. If you don't know how much that should be contact your tax professional. Ideally, you'll want to only withhold enough to not owe anything next year.
• If you're self employed, make adjustments to your estimated tax payments based upon your year-to-date profit & loss statement. If you're earning significantly more this year, you may need to send in a bit more with your next quarterly payment.
• Create a holiday budget and start saving now! If you're not sure how much to budget, just think about how much you spent last holiday season. Take that number and divide it by the number of paychecks you have remaining until Thanksgiving.
• Evaluate any major life changes. Marriage, divorce, births and deaths can all have a dramatic impact on your tax planning. You may owe more or less depending on your life event and you should try to determine ahead of time how to proceed.

As always, if you're unsure how to accomplish any of these goals, talk with your tax professional or you can contact me! Trust me, summer will be much more enjoyable when you have these four items off of your to-do list.