{"id":72032,"date":"2025-04-15T10:25:57","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T17:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=72032"},"modified":"2025-04-15T10:25:57","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T17:25:57","slug":"the-tax-filing-clock-is-ticking-but-dont-despair-if-youre-not-prepared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=72032","title":{"rendered":"The Tax Filing Clock is Ticking: But Don\u2019t Despair If You\u2019re Not Prepared"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Sunita Sohrabji<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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People expecting a refund do not need to file by April 15, and can file at any time without accruing a penalty for IRS and California state taxes. United Way Bay Area offers free tax help for low-income filers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Taxes\"
(Canva-generated AI image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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One out of every 3 Americans traditionally wait until April 15 to file their taxes.<\/p>\n

Residents of San Francisco and San Jose, California rank high on the list of national\u00a0\u201ctax procrastinators.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0In a survey of states, California ranks 13 with the number of tax procrastinators, while Wyoming and Alaska take the lead.<\/p>\n

For San Francisco Bay Area dawdlers,\u00a0free tax filing help<\/a>\u00a0is available via United Way Bay Area. Both in-person and online services are offered to low-income people residing in 8 Bay Area counties. And while many of the sites require an appointment, several sites offer help on a walk-in basis.<\/p>\n

No Penalties<\/h2>\n

More good news: neither the\u00a0Internal Revenue Service<\/a>\u00a0nor the California state Franchise Tax Board will penalize you for filing late if a refund is due. California, in fact, grants an\u00a0automatic extension\u00a0<\/a>to Oct. 15, regardless of whether you are due a refund or owe taxes.<\/p>\n

UWBA offers 4 options: self-filing, using the organization\u2019s \u201cTax Slayer\u201d software; self-filing with virtual help via Zoom; remote assistance in which a tax professional prepares the return; or in-person tax help at any of UWBA\u2019s 30 established sites (several will remain open after April 15). Services are offered in English, Spanish, Mandarin, Korean, and Vietnamese. Interpreters can be made available for other languages.<\/p>\n

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Nicole Harden, Vice President of Economic Success, United Way, Bay Area. (Photo courtesy of UWBA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Last year, UWBA served over 35,000 people, who received over $52 million in refunds, said Nicole Harden, UWBA\u2019s Vice President of Economic Success, in an interview with American Community Media.<\/p>\n

In-Language Support<\/h2>\n

\u201dWe serve many families, folks that are accessing the earned income tax credit \u2014 EIC. We want to make sure that they\u2019re able to get their refunds. And we have services across different kinds of sites. We\u2019re in college locations, community-based agencies that serve families and community, and churches and other local service buildings that provide services to targeted populations,\u201d said Harden. The organization also provides tax services to foreign students.<\/p>\n

UWBA\u2019s tax program is staffed by volunteers, who spend weeks learning how to prepare simple tax returns. At the end of their training, volunteers gain the status of certified tax preparers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe train our volunteers to be able to answer questions and participate in an intake so that we\u2019re able to glean if people are eligible for other types of credits that maybe they didn\u2019t know about,\u201d said Harden. \u201cLike, are you in school or is your child in school? There\u2019s education credits. We want to make sure that we\u2019re getting the most accurate return and also helping people access the most credits that are available to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

IRS Sharing Info with ICE<\/h2>\n

As of April 7, the IRS\u00a0has agreed to share information<\/a>\u00a0with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including names and addresses. Such actions are generally against the law. But under this new provision, data can be shared in some cases without notifying the filer.<\/p>\n

Harden believes this will have a chilling effect on the immigrant community, raising concerns among those who have filed. She expects to see a drop-off in filings this year.<\/p>\n

Undocumented immigrants use Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers \u2014 ITINs \u2014 to file their taxes. \u201cFor decades, there\u2019s been an understanding that ITIN information would not be shared outside of the IRS. And so undocumented immigrants contribute billions in federal, state, and local taxes annually using the ITIN numbers,\u201d said Harden.<\/p>\n

Immigrants Are Contributors to Economy<\/h2>\n

\u201cThese taxpayers are vital contributing members of our communities and our economy, and they have been assured by the IRS for decades that their tax information remains confidential. Efforts that discourage them from filing their taxes are not only immoral, they also have a negative impact on the economy. And we remain committed to supporting all community members, including undocumented immigrants, to access the resources they need to achieve financial stability,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Undocumented immigrants paid almost\u00a0$97 billion<\/a>\u00a0in state and federal taxes in 2022, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. That amounts to about $8,889 per person, noted ITEP. California alone raised $8.5 billion in state taxes from undocumented people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BySunita Sohrabji Apr 14, 2025 People...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,9,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-opinion","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72032"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72033,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72032\/revisions\/72033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}