Two Countries, Two Calendars

A US citizen or resident alien whose tax home is outside the United States on the regular due date gets an automatic two-month extension to file, moving a 15 April deadline to 15 June. No form is required to claim it. A further extension to 15 October is available by filing Form 4868, but it must be requested BEFORE the automatic two-month date has passed — the two extensions stack in sequence, they are not alternatives.

The automatic two-month extension applies to FILING only. Interest accrues on any tax not paid by the regular due date — generally 15 April — regardless of any extension granted. Someone who uses the June or October date as a payment date rather than a filing date is accruing interest the whole time without knowing it. This is the single most expensive misunderstanding on this board.

FinCEN Form 114 is due 15 April with an automatic extension to 15 October that every filer receives without requesting it. That extension is granted by FinCEN independently of anything done about the income tax return: it does not require Form 4868, and the two-month abroad extension has nothing to do with it. The practical effect is that FBAR and an extended return can share the 15 October date by two entirely separate routes, which is why people assume one form governs both.

For an individual not subject to tax audit, the statutory due date for filing an Indian income tax return is 31 July of the assessment year. That date is extended by administrative circular frequently rather than rarely — the 2025 filing season was pushed from 31 July to mid-September. An extension is an administrative decision announced when it is announced, so it cannot be planned around: work to 31 July and treat any extension as found time. A belated return can generally be filed until 31 December of the assessment year, with consequences that make it a fallback rather than a plan.

The statutory date is not uniform across all non-audit individuals: for the 2026-27 assessment year the simpler return forms and the forms used by those with business or professional income carried different due dates, a month apart, even where no audit was required. Which form applies depends on the composition of your income, not on your residency status. This board therefore shows the common individual date and names the divergence rather than assuming which form is yours.