TS Eliot, in the opening to his poem ‘The Wasteland”, begins by saying “April is the cruelist month……..”.
Many taxpayers might echo this sentiment, since April 15 is the due tax for most individual tax returns that are filed on Form 1040.

However, a taxpayer can postpone the filing of a Form 1040 for six months until October 15, 2014. There are some rules for obtaining a valid extension.

Request an extension using Form 4688, if you request by mail. If you pay by email or by phone you do not need to file an extension form.

Pay the taxes you owe by April 15, 2014. If you pay by email you go to the IRS website at PAY1040.com; If you pay by phone you will call Link2Gov at 1-888-729140. The credit cards accepted are Visa, MasterCard, American Expresss, and Discover.

But you may say, “How do I know how much to pay, if I have not completed my tax return by April 15?”
You will need to estimate since if you have not paid at least 90% of your tax liability by April 15, you will be assessed a late-payment penalty of 1/2 of 1 % of the unpaid taxes, to a maximum of 25%.

Most states that charge income taxes also have tax return extension processes. In some cases, the states will accept a Federal Tax Return extension if the state tax liability has been paid by the state tax filing deadline.