Wright: Hi, welcome to this tax topic from the Internal Revenue Service. As the income tax filing season deadline approaches, the Internal Revenue Service hears a lot of the same questions from many of the last minute taxpayers who visit a taxpayer assistance center. Shelly Dunn is a territory manager for the IRS who supervises ten of those walk-in tax assistance centers.

Dunn: Right now the most popular question we’re being asked is how do you file for an extension before the April 15th deadline.

Wright: Well, there’s good news for taxpayers who want to file an extension form.  In these days of high fuel costs, taxpayers can save some money as well as their valuable time by just using a computer instead of visiting an IRS taxpayer assistance center in person. You can file an extension for six additional months to get your paperwork done by going to www.irs.gov. Just click on Free File from the front page of the IRS Web site. You’ll get a list of IRS partners who can file that extension form for you electronically. 

It’s convenient, it’s fast, and it’s free. You’ll even get a confirmation of filing your extension to keep with your records.

Now remember, it’s just an extension until October 15 to file the paperwork and not extra time to pay. 

Now if you just want to get the extension Form 4868, or for that matter you want to download pretty much any IRS form that you might need to file your tax return, you can do that too at IRS.gov.

You know, there’s another question that’s pretty popular these days down at the IRS.

Dunn: We’re getting a lot of questions on the stimulus rebate. One of the most popular questions at this point is how much am I going to receive and when am I going to receive it.

Wright: IRS.gov can help you with those questions, too. Right on the front page there’s a link to the Rebate Information Center. You can click and use a calculator that will tell you how much your economic stimulus payment will be. There’s also a chart that will tell you when your rebate will be deposited into your bank account if you signed up for Direct Deposit, or when to expect the paper check to be mailed to you based on the last two digits of your Social Security number.

You’ll find the answers to the most commonly asked questions, including the two most popular questions being asked by last minute taxpayers on IRS.gov. So save yourself a trip and some of your valuable time. Log on to IRS.gov for your last minute tax help.

From the Internal Revenue Service, I’m Larry Wright.