alt Hacker NewsIt’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.
I suppose. I've had years in the past where I had sporadic self-employment income, and I filed estimated payments only for the quarters where I had income, maybe even was late or combined a couple of quarters every now and then. I never got penalized as long as the amount I owed for the year had been paid by April 15. Maybe I was a small enough fish that they just didn't care.