What's Needed to File for a Tax Extension?

The deadline for filing your 2022 taxes is April 18, and if you haven't filed your tax returns yet, it may be too late. But, there's still time to file for an extension to give you until October 16, 2023 to file your state and federal tax returns.

5 pieces of information the IRS requires

When you file for a tax extension, there are five things you need to provide to the IRS.

Full legal name

When the IRS says it needs your full legal name, they mean your name as it appears on your birth certificate.

You might be used to going by Jane Doe, for example, or Jane C. Doe, but if what's on your girth certificate is Jane Constance Doe, that's what you need to use when filing for a tax extension.

Filing status

Your filing status is the category you fall into that determines what kind of tax return form you use when you file your taxes. It's closely tied to whether you are married or not, and there are four different types of filing status.

1. Single Filer

If you are unmarried, divorced, a registered domestic partner or you're legally separated according to the laws in your as of the last day of the tax year, you should file as a single filer.

1. Married, filing jointly

If you're married, and you want to report your combined income with your spouse and deduct your combined allowable deductions and credits on the same forms, you can file a joint return even if one of you had no income or deductions. The IRS holds both you and your spouse responsible for the taxes you owe as well as any interest or penalties that are due.

1. Married filing separately

To file with this status, both spouses must be on the same page because you both must either itemize your deductions or take the standard deduction. If your spouse itemizes, then you have to, too, even if the standard deduction would save you more. You’ll also have to decide which of you gets each deduction, which can get complicated.

1. Head of Household

Someone filing as head of household should be a single or unmarried taxpayer who pays at least 50% of the costs to support their household. They should also live with other qualifying family members who they support financially for more than half of the year.

1. Qualified widow or widower

If you lost a spouse recently, and you're supporting a child at home, you can use this filing status to save more on your taxes. Your spouse has to have died during the tax year, and you have to have been able to use the married filing jointly status before their death, even if you didn’t actually file jointly. You can file jointly in the year your spouse died and for the next two years, you can use the qualified widow or widower status, as long as you have a dependent child. This status can help you get a much higher standard deduction and a better tax bracket.

Entity type

As you are probably aware, a business entity is an organization that you create, so that you can more easily conduct business, and there are various types of business entities. You can choose to be a sole proprietorship, a partnership, an LLC, a corporation, etc. And the type of business entity you choose for your business is crucial to your tax situation.

Here's more on the different business entities, if you're not sure which one you should choose, either to start your business or to file your taxes.

Home address and SSN

Home address and Social Security Number are pretty self-explanatory, though they're no less important than the other pieces, when it comes to filing your taxes or filing for an extension.