It may seem odd to be writing about taxes in a blog devoted to a world cruise. But, when that cruise starts on 22 January and ends on 14 May you suddenly realize that you won’t be able to collect all the 1099s and other documents from the mail in order to have accurate information for the return. Plus, doing the return and filing by 15 April might be more than a little difficult.
So, the alternative is to file for an extension but even that requires you to pay what you owe; it just extends the time to file the paperwork itself. That means even without the 1099s or other reports you have to make reasonable estimates of what they will be in order to compute a good estimate of what is owed in order to file the extension.
This year planning for next year’s estimates is also very difficult thanks to the new tax law signed by the President. It changes many of the things tax payments in the past revolved around, particularly for those of us living in high-state-tax states like California. Without IRS guidance on what the new law actually means and how it will be enforced we are all just making educated guesses.
Thankfully, Nancy, a local CPA has been very helpful and the planning was finished before the end of the year so the various payments could be completed on time.
23 days to go.