Filing Late Taxes for Dummies

It's eight months until the next scheduled income tax day (April 15th, that is) and already the natives are getting restless in the AN bullpen. They're not restless because of taxes, though; they're restless because of bogus advice about taxes. Yup: one of them was tracking down an old award recipient and came across yet more screwed-up tax advice hiding in plain sight at Sapling.com, one of the niche sites where Leaf Group dumps old eHow.com content. We now present Pam McCallum and her post, "Can I File Two Years of Taxes at One Time?"

McCallum's post was originally credited to Denise Caldwell, whose eHow bio bragged that she had worked for the IRS. We aren't certain that we'd admit that, just like we're not certain that Caldwell's PolySci degree would have merited a particularly high-level role at the agency. Whatever the case, it was clear from the get-go that McCallum / Caldwell hadn't learned much in any time spent with the IRS, at least based on her opening paragraph:

"Taxpayers can fall behind in filing their income tax returns for any variety of reasons. And it's often easier to prepare two returns at one time, while you already have all the tools and forms at your fingertips, than to do them separately."

We submit that the first sentence makes a modicum of sense, but what seasoned accountant would ever think that the second is true? For one, IRS rules – and therefore forms – are subject to change from year to year and for another, having your records for 2022 on hand does NOT mean that you have them on hand for 2021! When it comes to "tools," you certainly cannot use the 2022 version of TaxAct, H R Block, TurboTax, etc... to submit 2021 taxes! What a maroon!

McCallum's advice gets worse, however: after advising you that there's a late-payment penalty on any overdue taxes, Pam tells us that the taxpayer will be assessed interest:

"...if you owe tax as a result of a past due return, penalties and interest will be assessed. The failure to file penalty is assessed at a rate of 5 percent of the unpaid tax for as long as the tax remains unpaid, and the failure to pay penalty is assessed at a rate of ½ of 1 percent of the unpaid tax."

Well, Pam, which is it? We know, but you sure did mess up the bit about interest. What you should have said is that, interest "is assessed at a rate of ½ of 1 percent of the unpaid tax" per month. We'd like to think that a self-professed expert in taxation would get that right...

...but no. Hence the Dumbass of the Day award for McCallum / Caldwell.

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DD - TAXES