Tax Extension DeadlineTwo ways to file it
The night before the date, the search is still open. You can file it yourself, and we can file it with you. Both are real. Neither one produces the estimate out of thin air.
See both pathsThe personal path
Form 4868, filed by the April due date, carries an individual return to the middle of October. You can file it electronically, by mail, or by paying online and marking the payment as an extension payment. Keep the electronic confirmation or the proof of mailing with your copy. You will not get a letter saying the extension was granted unless the request is denied.
The IRS extension page is the source for that window, and for the fact that the payment stays on the April date. We read it again whenever a page on this address states a day. If the fifteenth lands on Saturday, Sunday, or a federal holiday, the IRS page moves the filing to the next open weekday, and we follow that page rather than a preference of our own.
The business path
Form 7004 is the application most entities use. A partnership and an S corp are on the March calendar, and six further months land in the middle of September. A C corp is on the April calendar, and six further months land in the middle of October. The form is filed by the original due date, and the extension is automatic when the form is complete. The IRS page about Form 7004 is the source for which returns it covers.
A limited liability company is not on that list under its own name. The election decides whether it is disregarded, a partnership, an S corp, or a C corp. If you have never looked the election up, do that before you memorize a date. The page for that check comes before any calendar row.
Where both paths stop
Both paths still ask for an estimate of the tax. If you already know the number, file the form and keep the confirmation. If the number would be a guess because the month is open, the honest next read is the page that builds the estimate from a partial year. Filing a blank confidence is how a short form becomes a long letter later.
Payroll does not belong on either form, but a year with wages still has to agree with the books. Wages keep moving through the company that already pays your people. From the closed month we hand that company the file it needs, and we do not take the payday run. The extension does not set it up, and it does not move a deposit date.