--- title: When Are Taxes Due in 2018? This Year, It's Not April 15 description: The tax deadline in 2018 (for 2017 tax returns) is April 17, not April 15. Here's the reason why you get two extra days. authors: - name: Martha C. White role: Reporter url: https://money.com/author/martha-c-white/ education: BA, English, Princeton University at_money_since: 2015 articles: 355 covers: - Taxes - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Federal Reserve Rate Cuts - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Technology also_seen_in: - The New York Times - The Wall Street Journal - CNN - Kiplinger Personal Finance - Time social: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/martha-c-white/ published: '2018-01-19T16:23:37.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T07:39:27.000Z' section: Taxes tags: - filing taxes - IRS - tax day - tax returns - Taxes word_count: 311 canonical: https://money.com/when-are-taxes-due-2018/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![File Tax Return!](https://img.money.com/2018/01/180119-tax-deadline.jpg) Traditionally, tax day is April 15, but if you're a procrastinator, you're in luck because this year's tax deadline gives taxpayers a couple extra days. Are you wondering, when are taxes due? You're not alone: The question is a top search query people type into Google — probably because the answer can be a little bit more complicated than it first appears. ![](https://img.money.com/2018/01/tax-calendar-2018-updated.png) Tax Day is not April 15 this year. Instead, American taxpayers have until April 17, 2018, to file their 2017 tax returns. Why? As per the I.R.S., the regular April 15 tax day is postponed when that date falls on a weekend or legal holiday. This year, April 15 is a Sunday, which ordinarily would push the deadline to Monday. But Monday, April 16, is also the observation of [Emancipation Day](https://emancipation.dc.gov/), a legal Washington, D.C., holiday commemorating Abraham Lincoln's signing of the Compensated Emancipation Act, which ended slavery in the nation's capital on that day in 1862. Under federal tax law, District holidays get the same legal clout as their national counterparts when it comes to determining tax deadlines. The result is that the tax deadline for 2018 is actually Tuesday, April 17. ([Last year](https://money.com/when-are-taxes-due-2017/), filers got even more time to pay their taxes because Emancipation Day fell on a Sunday, so its observation was pushed forward to Monday the 17th, making Tax Day Tuesday, April 18 in 2017.) An April 17 tax day also gives you two more days if you need to [file for an extension](https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/extension-of-time-to-file-your-tax-return), but remember: This doesn't give you additional time to pay what you owe. So if you take the extension but don't make an estimated payment of what you owe, you could be looking at penalties and interest on top of any outstanding tax payment. And hey, it's only January: Why put it off when you still have three months until the deadline? ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/when-are-taxes-due-2018/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Taxes", "item": "https://money.com/taxes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Tax Preparation", "item": "https://money.com/tax-preparation/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "When Are Taxes Due in 2018? This Year, It's Not April 15" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/when-are-taxes-due-2018/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/when-are-taxes-due-2018/", "name": "When Are Taxes Due in 2018? This Year, It's Not April 15", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2018-01-19T16:23:37.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/when-are-taxes-due-2018/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/when-are-taxes-due-2018/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T07:39:27.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "When Are Taxes Due in 2018? This Year, It's Not April 15", "articleSection": "Taxes", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2018/01/180119-tax-deadline.jpg", "width": 3884, "height": 2524, "caption": "180119-tax-deadline" }, { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2018/01/tax-calendar-2018-updated.png", "width": 800, "height": 2093 } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Martha C. White", "url": "https://money.com/author/martha-c-white/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/martha-c-white/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/martha.png?w=350&h=430&crop=1", "email": "martha@money.com", "jobTitle": "Reporter", "alumniOf": "BA, English, Princeton University", "subjectOf": [ { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://www.nytimes.com", "name": "The New York Times" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://www.wsj.com", "name": "The Wall Street Journal" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://www.cnn.com", "name": "CNN" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://www.kiplinger.com/", "name": "Kiplinger Personal Finance" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://www.time.com", "name": "Time" } ], "sameAs": [ "https://www.linkedin.com/in/martha-c-white/" ], "worksFor": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2018-01-19T16:23:37.000Z", "description": "The tax deadline in 2018 (for 2017 tax returns) is April 17, not April 15. Here's the reason why you get two extra days.", "abstract": "The tax deadline in 2018 (for 2017 tax returns) is April 17, not April 15. Here's the reason why you get two extra days.", "@id": "https://money.com/when-are-taxes-due-2018/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-17T07:39:27.000Z", "wordCount": 311, "keywords": [ "filing taxes", "IRS", "tax day", "tax returns", "Taxes" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Tax", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Tax preparation in the United States", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_preparation_in_the_United_States" ] } ] } ] } ```