If you fail to file your federal income tax return and pay your tax by the due date, you may have to pay one or more penalties, plus interest.
Although you are allowed an
automatic extension for filing your
return if you mail in the appropriate
form, you are generally not allowed
an extension for paying your taxes.
Interest is charged on any unpaid
tax from the due date of your tax
return until the date of payment.
The interest rate is determined
every three months.
FILING LATE:
If you do not file your return by the
due date (including extensions),
you may have to pay a failure-to-file
penalty. The penalty is based on the
tax not paid by the due date (without
regard to extensions). The penalty is
usually 5% of the tax due for each
month or part of a month that a return
is late, but not more than 25%. If
you file your return more than 60
days after the due date or extended
due date, the minimum penalty is
the smaller of $510 (in 2025, $485
in 2024) or 100% of the unpaid tax.
(Exceptions: You will not have to pay
the penalty if you show that you failed
to file on time because of reasonable
cause and not because of willful neglect. Also, you will not be subject
to a late filing penalty if you do not
owe any tax.)
PAYING TAX LATE:
You may have to pay a failure-to-pay
penalty of one-half of 1% of your
unpaid taxes for each month (or part
of a month) the tax remains unpaid.
The penalty can increase to 1% if
you’ve been sent several notices to
pay the overdue tax and still have not
paid. In general, this penalty cannot
be more than 25% of your unpaid tax.
You may not have to pay the penalty
if you can show that your failure to
pay was due to reasonable cause and
not due to willful neglect. This failureto-
pay penalty is added to interest
charges on late payments.
COMBINED PENALTIES:
If both the failure-to-file penalty and
the failure-to-pay penalty apply in any
month, the 5% failure-to-file penalty
is typically reduced by the.5% failureto-
pay penalty. However, if you file
your return more than 60 days after
the due date or extended due date,
the minimum penalty is the smaller
of $510 (in 2025, $485 in 2024) or
100% of the unpaid tax. You may not
reduce the failure-to-file penalty by
the failure-to-pay penalty.
