Late filing your taxes? If you had a rough or disorganized year, you may have neglected to file on time.
Hopefully you filed an extension and will be ready in October. Maybe you're only late this year, a year or two, or 10 years, but you need to catch up to avoid serious penalties.
If you lost your tax records you first might want to hire someone to take care of that for you, particularly if your business is rapidly growing. But you can order tax records from the IRS and reconstruct the financial information from past years.
If you must pay and it's a lack-of-money issue, filing is still almost always the best option. The IRS can impose a penalty of up to 25 percent of the tax due on a late tax return.
Filing the return will also get the clock started on the 10-year statute of limitations for the IRS to collect any tax due.
More information about filing late from the IRS is at IRS.gov.
As far as state tax refunds go, small businesses might want brush up on what Illinois might owe you.
