Tax Extension DeadlineThere are two filings
The company confirmation arrived. The household return never got one. The S corp return is due in the middle of March. An extension moves that filing to the middle of September. Your personal return is a separate form, and the company extension does not touch it.
Put both dates downWhy April is the date owners forget
The shareholder's K-1 comes from the 1120-S. If the company return goes to the middle of September, the K-1 often arrives after the personal return was originally due. The personal extension, filed by the middle of April, is what keeps that personal filing inside the rules while you wait. Most owners in this spot need both forms. Company first, in March. Personal in April. Filing only the company one feels finished and leaves the personal return exposed.
The IRS pages for Form 7004 and for the individual extension are the two sources, and they do not substitute for each other. Saturday, Sunday, or a federal holiday can slide a due day. It never folds the company return and the personal return into one filing.
Income that never arrived as cash
Income on a K-1 is not the same thing as cash that left the company for you. The personal return can show income you did not receive as a distribution. The extension does not fix that. It only buys the time to compute it from books that tie. Owners who distribute nothing and then meet a personal balance in October are not being punished for thrift. They are meeting the way the company form of tax works, late, because the books were not closed in time to see it.
Reasonable pay for an owner who works in the company is a separate conversation, and it belongs in the books before the K-1 is drafted. We do not invent a wage on the extension form. If payroll is not set up, we set it up with a provider you run. The extension week is a poor time to discover that the wage file and the books have never agreed.
One set of books for both forms
The company estimate and the personal estimate should come from the same closed month. Two people guessing from two files produce two numbers that cannot be reconciled in September. We would rather have one trail. The October personal filing is planned before the summer is spent waiting on a K-1 that the books could have predicted.