If I owe money to the IRS, do I have to pay it by April 18 even if I file for an extention? Or does the extension give me a chance to get the money I need?

[ThomasM]

The IRS expects you to pay what you owe by April 18.  The extension is only for filing the return, not for paying.  If you pay after the deadline, they will charge you penalty and interest.

One thing you can do to avoid the penalties is to go ahead and file and sign up for an installment agreement, where you'll pay an amount every month.  A payment plan, in other words.

You can do this in TurboTax in the File section, when TurboTax asks How do you want to pay your federal taxes?  You'll check the box that says I want to request an installment payment plan.  This will relieve you from any penalties, but interest will continue to be charged at (currently) 4% per year.  In contrast, if you file an extension, the late payment penalty is .5% of tax owed per month, with a max of 25%.

Installment agreements do have user fees attached, depending on the payment arrangement (see those here https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc202.html).  You can also select a "full payment plan" which gives you 120 days to pay your total amount, with no user fees, but penalties & interest do apply.  The above link discusses this as well.

[alyssar124]

This will not make you avoid paying extra! Turbo Tax does not notify you that when you sign up for an installment plan with the IRS, the IRS will charge you a "user fee" of $107.. aka stealing from the tax payer! How can all these other companies do autopay or direct deposit and not charge you $100 each time??

Turbo Tax NEEDS to notify their users that this additional fee will happen if they do sign up for the installment plan.. It is 1/3 of what I owe, I refuse to pay this user fee and find it abhorrent Turbo Tax did not make this known.