April 15, 2013 Is the Last Chance to Get a 2009 Tax Refund

2013 was the last year to get a refund for your 2009 tax return!

You always have three years after the original due date of a late tax return to file it and get a refund, completely free of penalties. That means to get a refund from the 2009 tax year you have to be sure to file by Tax Day 2013, April 15.

Sounds simple enough, right? The trouble is, there’s often confusion surrounding the exact date that you can still get refund. Is it the exact date three years after the return’s due date, or is it the Tax Day three years after the Tax Day that the return was originally due on?

It sounds like splitting hairs, but earlier this year it had some real consequences. Tax Day 2009 (when 2008 returns were originally due) was on April 15, but Tax Day 2012 was on April 17. The IRS itself declared that people would have until April 17 to get their 2008 refunds. But evidently there was some internal confusion at the agency, because many people who filed their 2008 returns on the 16th or 17th were denied refunds, and had to haggle with the IRS.

Thankfully for this coming year the situation is much more cut and dry. The tax deadline in 2010 (when 2009 taxes were originally due) was on April 15. In 2013 Tax Day is also on April 15. That makes it pretty simple. If you want a 2009 refund you must have your return in to the IRS by April 15.

But there’s a larger tax lesson to be drawn here from the trouble several tax procrastinators had getting their 2008 refunds earlier this year: waiting until the last minute to file taxes never pays off.

Even some people who filed the week leading up to April 15 had issues with the IRS not accepting their return because the agency claimed it got there too late – even though it was clearly postmarked before April 15. These people still got their refunds, but they also had to deal with IRS incompetence. Essentially, procrastination brought them a massive headache.

The smartest thing to do is always to file well before the deadline. January and April tend to be pretty hectic months at the IRS, so February and March are really the best times to file.

Really there’s no reason not to file. If you’re due a 2009 tax refund, you won’t owe any late penalties or interest. So, you can get your money without suffering any major fees.

The only drawback is that you have to paper file all past year tax returns. You can still use online services like PriorTax to make preparing your return faster and more accurate, but you will have to print it out, sign it, and mail it to the IRS yourself.

Photo via Alan Cleaver on Flickr.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 17th, 2012 at 3:32 pm and is filed under Tax Deadlines, Taxes for Prior Years. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.