Taxpayers who requested a six-month extension from the April 18, 2023 federal filing deadline had until October 16, 2023 to submit their 2022 return to the IRS. An extension grants extra time to file, but it does not grant extra time to pay. Any tax owed was still due on the original April due date, and interest and late-payment penalties continued to accrue on unpaid balances between April and October.

For homeowners, the October deadline matters more than most people realize. A primary residence typically drives several of the largest line items on a Schedule A, and missing the filing window can mean forfeiting refunds tied to those deductions or compounding penalties on top of an already-large tax bill.

Mortgage Interest Deduction

Homeowners who itemize can deduct interest paid on acquisition debt secured by a primary or second home. Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act rules that applied to the 2022 tax year, interest is deductible on up to $750,000 of mortgage debt for loans taken out after December 15, 2017, or up to $1 million for older grandfathered loans. Your lender reports the interest you paid on Form 1098, which you will need before you file. If you extended, make sure your 1098 matches what you are claiming on Schedule A line 8a.

Property Tax Deduction (SALT Cap)

State and local taxes, including real estate property taxes, are deductible on Schedule A, but the combined deduction for state income or sales tax plus property tax is capped at $10,000 per return ($5,000 if married filing separately). For many homeowners in higher-tax states, property taxes alone can exceed the cap, so plan your itemization accordingly. Only taxes actually paid in 2022 count toward the 2022 return, regardless of what year they were assessed for.

Home Office Deduction

W-2 employees cannot currently claim unreimbursed home office expenses on a federal return. The home office deduction is available only to self-employed filers and certain business owners who use part of the home regularly and exclusively for business. Eligible filers can use the simplified method, which allows $5 per square foot up to 300 square feet (a $1,500 maximum), or the regular method, which deducts actual expenses like a share of utilities, insurance, and depreciation. If you are filing Schedule C or Schedule F on an extended return, Form 8829 is where the regular-method calculation lives.

Residential Energy Credits

2022 was a transition year for federal energy tax credits because the Inflation Reduction Act was signed in August 2022. For property placed in service during 2022, the Residential Clean Energy Credit (Form 5695) was worth 30 percent of the cost of qualifying solar electric, solar water heating, small wind, geothermal heat pump, and fuel cell systems. A separate, smaller credit covered certain energy-efficient home improvements like insulation, exterior windows and doors, and qualifying HVAC equipment, subject to lifetime caps that applied under the older Nonbusiness Energy Property Credit rules in effect for 2022. Keep manufacturer certifications and receipts with your records.

What to Do If You Missed October 16

If you were due a refund and missed the extended deadline, there is no failure-to-file penalty, but you only have three years from the original due date to claim the refund before it is forfeited to the Treasury. If you owed tax and missed the deadline, the failure-to-file penalty is generally 5 percent of the unpaid balance per month, up to 25 percent, on top of the failure-to-pay penalty and interest. File as soon as possible to stop penalties from growing, and consider an IRS installment agreement if you cannot pay in full.

Disaster-Area Relief

The IRS automatically postponed filing and payment deadlines for taxpayers in many federally declared disaster areas during 2023, including parts of California, Alabama, Georgia, and other states affected by severe storms. If your address of record was in one of those counties, your deadline may have been later than October 16. Check the IRS disaster-relief page for your specific area before assuming you were late.

Homeowners generally benefit from filing even when a refund is small, because an on-time return protects the recordkeeping trail for future sales, refinances, and energy-credit carryforwards.

2023 Tax Extension Deadline: What Homeowners Need to Know