Last minute tips for filing taxes by deadline

The tax deadline is Tuesday and somehow the IRS website went down, but that doesn't mean you don't have to pay.

For those of you that are just starting to tackle the task of filing your taxes, the deadline is midnight.

"Whether you're using a local CPA office or an online service like TurboTax, the deadline is all the same…April 17 at midnight.

The same goes for all of you who plan on just filing for an extension, because if you owe money, that too is due at midnight.

Thomas Hudson, a local CPA with Twilley, Rommel, & Stephens, says, "If you end up owing money that money is actually due on April 18th and not at the extension deadline of October 15th. You're extending for time to file, not for payment due so if you end up owing money it's due [Tuesday] despite you may may not knowing what that exact amount is."

Hudson says it's an extension to file taxes, not an extension to pay the federal or state governments. 

"You need to kind of make some sort of payment if you're unsure otherwise you're going to start accruing interest and penalties on the total amount that you owe, so if you can minimize that number then it minimizes the penalties that you could potentially pay."

So whether you filed for an extension months ago or are just getting around to it on Tuesday, the best thing to do to avoid any penalties: find out if you owe any money by looking at last year's taxes, or your income from this year and try and make a good estimate.

Now whether you want to just file your taxes or file for an extension, many tax preparation websites like TurboTax can make it easy and depending on your income, free.

And that's important because many tax experts are saying it's a good idea to start thinking about next year's return.

They say President Trump's new tax reform law, that's already in effect for 2018, will change withholdings, double standard deductions and do away with personal deductions.

Those same experts say that there will also be a lot of unknowns, which is why it's important to be proactive.

"What people should do this upcoming year is kind of run a check up to see if, check their withholdings from their paycheck, their state withholdings, their federal withholdings and maybe run that through some sort of calculator right now to see if they're on track to get a correct payment into the government," says Hudson.

Hudson adds that it's hard to determine how it will affect each person individually because each case is different.