Today is Tax Day, the federal deadline for individual tax filings and payments. Tax Day is typically on April 15 but it was moved this year because it conflicted with a local holiday in D.C.
The IRS expects to receive tens of millions of last-minute filings electronically and through paper forms.
The executive director of the National Society of Tax Professionals, Nina Tross, says if people haven’t filed their taxes by now they’re better off filing an extension.
Tross adds that filing an extension has “zero effect” as long as filers have paid their income taxes by Tax Day.
Tross warns that rushing a return to meet the deadline only to have to amend it later is likely to draw a second look by the IRS.
The IRS reports that it has already received more than 100 million returns this tax filing season. The average refund this year is $3,175, according to the IRS.