Tomorrow is the deadline for filing S Corps, and LLC's and Partnerships.

The penalty for filing late is $210 per month X the number of shareholders or partners. This can really stack up quickly and bring on the hurt if you have other owners in your business.

The best way to avoid the penalty is to file before the deadline.

I'm tempted to stop here. But that would be snarky of me. But really, if your books are in order you should have no problem filing the return within the 8 1/2 month extension period.

Honestly I'm sure few know about the huge penalties they face.

It's possible to get out of the penalties if you have a good excuse or you can use the First Time Abate rule if your record is clean. But why go through that?

The other option is to file the best return you can.

You have 3 years to fix it and amend the return. This is allowed and done more often than you think.

Once your books are closed for the year show it to a CPA for a once-over.

If you are inclined have the CPA do the return for you. Be sure to get back to them as quickly as you can with answers to their questions.

I have 6 business clients that have yet to answer my final questions. Looks like it will be another late night for me on a filing deadline.