Accountant warns people who miss tax day of the consequences

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — You’ve had a few months to get ready, but the day is finally upon us. It’s tax day. Even though most people have gotten their taxes done already, some people may miss the deadline.

All taxes must be filed and post-marked by April 17. If you are unable to, accountants say the best thing to do is to file a return or report your income and report your deductions. Wesley Casteen is an accountant and he says if you do not file your taxes, it could lead to you losing hundreds of thousands of dollars because of two penalties.

“There’s a failure to file penalty and a failure to pay penalty. The failure to file penalty is actually much more significant, as much as ten times more than the failure to pay penalty. So, as  I said before, if you can file the return, you’re better off to file the return and deal with balance due rather than not filing the return and hope it goes away,” accountant Casteen.

He also says the IRS will assume the most negative consequences. Casteen advises anyone who miss the deadline to recognize any issues to prevent this from happening again next year.

Earlier in the day, the IRS payment site went down on tax day.