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“Tax Day” was on April 18 this year. That’s the day most people associate with filing tax returns and paying their tax bill to the Internal Revenue Service. However, there are actually other tax deadlines throughout the year that ordinary Americans need to know about.
For instance, there are several tax deadlines on Oct. 16 this year. That makes Oct. 16 an important date for many people. While it’s true that most people won’t have a tax deadline that day, it’s worth checking just to make sure.
Here are the tax deadlines that fall on Oct. 16 this year. Take a look to see if any of them apply to you.YATI Tip: Victims of the terrorist attacks in Israel and certain natural disasters have more time to file various federal tax returns and submit tax payments. This includes individual income tax returns, business tax returns, estimated tax payments, and more. Check out our 2023 tax calendar for more information.Related: Federal Tax Brackets and Rates for 2022 and 2023
1. Federal Tax Extension Deadline
Did you request a tax filing extension for your 2022 federal income tax return? If so, that tax return is due on Oct. 16, 2023. (To get an extension, you had to either file Form 4868 or make a tax payment electronically before the April 18 original filing deadline.)
That tax extension was only for filing your tax return, though. In most cases, it didn’t extend the date for paying taxes. As a result, you should have already paid any estimated tax liability for the year by the original April 18 due date. If not, you’ll have to pay interest and penalties on any unpaid tax.
YATI Tip: You’ll get credit for any payments made by the original due date when you file your tax return by the Oct. 16 deadline.
There are some situations where you might be able to delay filing your 2022 federal tax return beyond the Oct. 16 tax extension deadline. Generally, this might be possible if you were impacted by certain natural disasters, served in a combat zone, or live abroad. See our article on the 2023 Tax Extension Deadline for details.
Related: Standard Deduction Amounts for 2022 and 2023
2. State Tax Extension Deadlines
Don’t forget about your state income tax return. If you requested an extension to file your federal tax return, then you most likely had to extend your state tax return as well. A separate local income tax return is required in some locations, too. (In most cases, you need information from your federal return to complete your state or local return.)
Most states line up their extended filing deadline with the federal due date (Oct. 16 this year). However, check with the state tax agency where you live to verify the extended return due date in your state.
Of course, if you live in a state with no income tax—Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, or Wyoming—you probably won’t have to worry about a state tax return. (You might have to file an interest and dividends tax return in New Hampshire or a capital gains tax return in Washington.)
Related: 12 States That Tax Social Security Benefits
3. Excess 2022 IRA Contribution Withdrawal or Recharacterization
You can only squirrel away so much money in your individual retirement accounts (IRAs) each year. For the 2022 tax year, the most you could contribute to all your IRAs (both traditional and Roth IRAs) was $6,000 if you were not yet 50 years old by the end of 2022, or $7,500 if you were 50 or older by the end of the year. If you contributed too much to your IRAs, you’ll be hit with a 6% penalty.
However, if you requested an extension to file your 2022 federal income tax return, you can avoid the 6% penalty on 2022 excess contributions by either:
Withdrawing the excess contributions and any interest or other income earned on that amount
Recharacterize a Roth IRA contribution as a traditional IRA contribution, or vise versa
For excess contributions made for the 2022 tax year, you must withdraw or recharacterize the excess amount no later than the due date for your 2022 federal return, including extensions. So, if you extended the filing deadline for your 2022 return, you have until Oct. 16, 2023, to complete the withdrawal or recharacterization.
Related: IRA vs. 401(k): How These Retirement Accounts Differ
4. Solo 401(k) Plan Contributions for 2022
One way for a self-employed person to save for retirement is to set up a solo 401(k) plan. Generally, these retirement plans are only available to the owner of a small business with either no employees or just one employee who is the owner’s spouse.
YATI TIP: Solo 401(k) plans are sometimes called one-participant 401(k) plans, individual 401(k) plans, or uni-401(k) plans.
A solo 401(k) plan operates mostly in the same manner as an ordinary 401(k) plan. However, with a solo 401(k) plan, self-employed people can contribute to their retirement savings with both employer and employee contributions.
Those contributions must be made by the self-employed person’s tax filing deadline—including extensions. So, if you’re self-employed and requested a filing extension for your 2022 tax return, you have until Oct. 16 to contribute to your solo 401(k) plan for the 2022 tax year.
For the employee contribution, self-employed people can put up to 100% of their earned income for the year into a solo 401(k) account, but these contributions can’t exceed the annual contribution limit. For the 2022 tax year, the contribution limit is $20,500. If you’re age 50 or older, you can add “catch-up” contributions of up to $6,500 (for a total of $27,000 for 2022).
As for the employer contribution, a self-employed person can stash up to 25% of his or her earned income in a solo 401(k) account each year.
Between employee and employer contributions, self-employed individuals can’t put more than $61,000 in total contributions into a solo 401(k) plan in 2022 ($67,500 if you’re at least 50 years old).
Related: Should You Max Out Your 401(k) Each Year?
5. SEP IRA Contributions for 2022
A Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) IRA is another option for self-employed people (and other small business owners) who want to save for retirement. If you’re self-employed, you make contributions to your own SEP IRA. Small business owners with employees must also contribute to each eligible employee’s separate account, but the employees can’t contribute their own money to their account.
The business owner or self-employed person decides how much to contribute to their own SEP IRA and, if applicable, to the separate accounts for each employee. However, contributions can’t exceed the annual limits. The contribution amount is a percentage of the account holder’s compensation. However, for small business owners with employees, the contribution percentage must be the same for all eligible workers.
As with contributions to a solo 401(k), a self-employed person or small business owner can contribute to an SEP IRA up to the deadline for filing their federal income tax return, including extensions. So, again, you have until Oct. 16, 2023, to contribute to a SEP IRA for the 2022 tax year if the deadline for filing your 2022 tax return was extended to that date.
For a self-employed person, the SEP IRA contribution limit for 2022 is 25% of compensation, up to $61,000. However, the limit is based solely on the first $305,000 of compensation.
Related:
Rocky has been covering federal and state tax developments for over 25 years. During that time, he has provided tax information and guidance to millions of tax professionals and ordinary Americans. As Senior Tax Editor for Young and the Invested from Jan. 2023 to Feb. 2024, Rocky spent most of his time writing and editing online tax content.
Before working for Young and the Invested, Rocky was a Senior Tax Editor for Kiplinger, where he wrote and edited tax content for Kiplinger.com, Kiplinger’s Retirement Report and The Kiplinger Tax Letter. Prior to his time at Kiplinger, Rocky was a Senior Writer/Analyst for Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting. In that role, he managed a portfolio of print and digital state income tax research products, led the development of various new print and online products, authored white papers and other special publications, coordinated with authors of a state tax treatise, and acted as media contact for the state income tax group (where he was quoted as an expert by USA Today, Forbes, U.S. News & World Report, Reuters, Accounting Today, and other national media outlets). Before that, Rocky was an Executive Editor at Kleinrock Publishing, which provided tax research products for tax professionals. At Kleinrock, he directed the development, maintenance, and enhancement of all state tax and payroll law publications, including electronic research products, monthly newsletters, and handbooks.
Rocky has a law degree from the University of Connecticut and a B.A. in History from Salisbury University.
This post may contain affiliate links, which, at no cost to you, provide compensation to this site if you choose to purchase the products or services being described.
Did you request a tax filing extension for your 2022 federal income tax return? If so, that tax return is due on Oct. 16, 2023. (To get an extension, you had to either file Form 4868 or make a tax payment electronically before the April 18 original filing deadline.)
That tax extension was only for filing your tax return, though. In most cases, it didn’t extend the date for paying taxes. As a result, you should have already paid any estimated tax liability for the year by the original April 18 due date. If not, you’ll have to pay interest and penalties on any unpaid tax.
YATI Tip: You’ll get credit for any payments made by the original due date when you file your tax return by the Oct. 16 deadline.
There are some situations where you might be able to delay filing your 2022 federal tax return beyond the Oct. 16 tax extension deadline. Generally, this might be possible if you were impacted by certain natural disasters, served in a combat zone, or live abroad. See our article on the 2023 Tax Extension Deadline for details.
Related: Standard Deduction Amounts for 2022 and 2023
Don’t forget about your state income tax return. If you requested an extension to file your federal tax return, then you most likely had to extend your state tax return as well. A separate local income tax return is required in some locations, too. (In most cases, you need information from your federal return to complete your state or local return.)
Most states line up their extended filing deadline with the federal due date (Oct. 16 this year). However, check with the state tax agency where you live to verify the extended return due date in your state.
Of course, if you live in a state with no income tax—Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, or Wyoming—you probably won’t have to worry about a state tax return. (You might have to file an interest and dividends tax return in New Hampshire or a capital gains tax return in Washington.)
Related: 12 States That Tax Social Security Benefits
You can only squirrel away so much money in your individual retirement accounts (IRAs) each year. For the 2022 tax year, the most you could contribute to all your IRAs (both traditional and Roth IRAs) was $6,000 if you were not yet 50 years old by the end of 2022, or $7,500 if you were 50 or older by the end of the year. If you contributed too much to your IRAs, you’ll be hit with a 6% penalty.
However, if you requested an extension to file your 2022 federal income tax return, you can avoid the 6% penalty on 2022 excess contributions by either:
One way for a self-employed person to save for retirement is to set up a solo 401(k) plan. Generally, these retirement plans are only available to the owner of a small business with either no employees or just one employee who is the owner’s spouse.
YATI TIP: Solo 401(k) plans are sometimes called one-participant 401(k) plans, individual 401(k) plans, or uni-401(k) plans.
A solo 401(k) plan operates mostly in the same manner as an ordinary 401(k) plan. However, with a solo 401(k) plan, self-employed people can contribute to their retirement savings with both employer and employee contributions.
Those contributions must be made by the self-employed person’s tax filing deadline—including extensions. So, if you’re self-employed and requested a filing extension for your 2022 tax return, you have until Oct. 16 to contribute to your solo 401(k) plan for the 2022 tax year.
For the employee contribution, self-employed people can put up to 100% of their earned income for the year into a solo 401(k) account, but these contributions can’t exceed the annual contribution limit. For the 2022 tax year, the contribution limit is $20,500. If you’re age 50 or older, you can add “catch-up” contributions of up to $6,500 (for a total of $27,000 for 2022).
As for the employer contribution, a self-employed person can stash up to 25% of his or her earned income in a solo 401(k) account each year.
Between employee and employer contributions, self-employed individuals can’t put more than $61,000 in total contributions into a solo 401(k) plan in 2022 ($67,500 if you’re at least 50 years old).
Related: Should You Max Out Your 401(k) Each Year?
A Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) IRA is another option for self-employed people (and other small business owners) who want to save for retirement. If you’re self-employed, you make contributions to your own SEP IRA. Small business owners with employees must also contribute to each eligible employee’s separate account, but the employees can’t contribute their own money to their account.
The business owner or self-employed person decides how much to contribute to their own SEP IRA and, if applicable, to the separate accounts for each employee. However, contributions can’t exceed the annual limits. The contribution amount is a percentage of the account holder’s compensation. However, for small business owners with employees, the contribution percentage must be the same for all eligible workers.
As with contributions to a solo 401(k), a self-employed person or small business owner can contribute to an SEP IRA up to the deadline for filing their federal income tax return, including extensions. So, again, you have until Oct. 16, 2023, to contribute to a SEP IRA for the 2022 tax year if the deadline for filing your 2022 tax return was extended to that date.
For a self-employed person, the SEP IRA contribution limit for 2022 is 25% of compensation, up to $61,000. However, the limit is based solely on the first $305,000 of compensation.
Related:
