alt Hacker News> For COVID-19, a federal disaster declaration was in effect from January 20, 2020, through May 11, 2023. [...] As noted, tens of millions of taxpayers have been assessed penalties or interest for late filings or payments during these years.
I'm a little surprised that many people are late with their tax filings.
It’s not late filings as much as late payments (late quarterly estimated taxes, under-withholding beyond safe harbor rules, etc.)
Lots of people who are self-employed or who make a high W-2 income and receive irregular payments/gains (bonuses, RSU vests, capital gains) fall into this category.
Late filings are almost trivial to avoid; late payments are significantly harder to entirely avoid as, depending on your tax situation, many of the payments are due 12, 9, 6, or 3 months earlier than April 15.