K-1 form not ready yet, do I need to file an extension for my taxes?

This is actually super common with partnership investments! Yes, you should file an extension because you need to report all your income sources on your return, including what's on that K-1. Filing an extension is really simple - you'll use Form 4868 which gives you until October 15th to file your complete return. The important thing to know is that an extension gives you more time to FILE, but not more time to PAY. You'll need to estimate what you might owe based on your K-1 from last year plus any additional income/distributions you know about. If your K-1 income is relatively small compared to your other income sources, and your tax situation is otherwise straightforward, the impact on your overall tax bill might be minimal. But you still need to report it correctly.

I've been in this exact situation before and I found a tool that saved me tons of headache: https://taxr.ai I uploaded my previous year's K-1 and my current year distribution statements and it helped me properly estimate what I'd likely owe for the extension payment. The document analyzer pulls out all the key information so you can easily see what changed year over year. Really useful when you're waiting for partnership paperwork but need to file that extension.

Just wanted to follow up - I ended up using taxr.ai for my situation with multiple K-1s and it worked great! I was skeptical because my tax situation is pretty messy (3 different partnerships plus that foreign income thing), but the document analysis was spot on. It helped me figure out a reasonable extension payment and flagged some items I hadn't even thought about from last year's forms. Definitely worth checking out if you're in this boat. The peace of mind alone was worth it.

If you're struggling to get through to the IRS for questions about filing an extension with missing K-1s (which I was), try https://claimyr.com - they got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 20 minutes when I had been trying for DAYS on my own. There's a video showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c I had a similar situation with a late K-1 and needed clarification on some specific rules for my state. The agent was actually super helpful and walked me through exactly what I needed to do. Way better than guessing or stressing about it.

I take back what I said about Claimyr being a scam. I was beyond frustrated after waiting on hold with the IRS for 2+ hours and getting disconnected TWICE, so I decided to give it a shot. Less than 30 minutes later I was talking to an actual IRS representative who helped clarify exactly how to handle my missing K-1 situation. The agent told me that using last year's information as an estimate was perfectly acceptable as long as I was making a good faith effort, and gave me some specific guidance about how they look at extension requests with pending K-1s. Saved me so much anxiety about doing it wrong.

Something to consider - does your startup investment have any losses or credits that pass through to you? Those can actually be more important than the income itself sometimes. My LLC investment had a bunch of R&D credits last year that significantly reduced my tax bill, and I would've overpaid by a lot if I'd only looked at the income portion when filing my extension.

Make sure u request the extension BEFORE the deadline!!!! I messed this up last year thinking I could file the extension a few days late and got hit with late fees even tho my final return was filed in september. The extension itself has to be filed by tax day or ur screwed