I filed my taxes today, they were due in April. I owed about $1,500. Since I owed, how much will be withdrawn from my checking account?

[Opus 17 · Accepted solution]

I believe that the IRS will only debit the authorized amount, but then they will send you a bill for penalties and interest.

The penalty for late filing is 5% of the amount owed for up to 5 months, then 0.5% after that.  Since you are just under 5 months late, there will be a 25% penalty for late filing.

The penalty for late payment is 0.5% per month, but is not charged for any month when you are being charged the 5% late filing penalty.

Then you owe interest (around 4% annual percentage rate) on the total amount owed.  So the total penalties and interest should add up to around $435 more or less.

[Opus 17]

[Whoops! Extra comment.  If you had an approved extension to file, the late filing penalty does not apply, only the late payment penalty and the interest.]

[freedomforall-la]

Thank you so much for the quick response.  I saw the amount I owed on my tax return but I was wondering about the total of the late filing fees and WHEN they would be debited. I did have an approved extension to file so that saves me a lot of money.  I appreciate you helping me understand the difference between the penalty for late filing, which doesn't apply, and the penalty for late payment, which does apply.  Many thanks

[Opus 17]

So you owe 0.5% x 5 months on $1500 plus 4% APR on the whole amount, it should be around $100.

[freedomforall-la]

That $100 is completely do-able, what a relief. Thank you again.