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The IRS is giving taxpayers alternative options if they miss the April 15 deadline to file federal income taxes. While still urging people to file their taxes as soon as possible, the IRS stated that there are ways to avoid penalties for late filings.

What are the options for people who file their taxes late?

People who file at the last minute have the option to ask for an extension, ABC News reported. Taxpayers can visit the IRS online payment portal and check an extension-request box. The other option is to mail the extension request. People who choose this option need to fill out Form 4868, which requires taxpayers to estimate the amount they owe for the filing year. The form can be sent to an address found on the IRS website. A tax extension gives people an additional six months to submit their tax forms without being penalized. This means taxpayers can have until Oct. 15 to send their forms.

An automatic extension is also given to taxpayers who live in a federally declared disaster area, as well as military members “stationed abroad or in a combat zone and citizens living outside the country.”

What is the penalty for filing late taxes?

People who file late and don’t ask for an extension may face penalties that equals to at least 5% of the taxes they owe for each month; the maximum penalty can go up to 25%. Interest and penalties may continue to add up until the full balance is paid, Newsweek reported.

People who can’t pay the full balance can reduce interest by paying as much as possible. Those who have paid on time in the past three years or people who have set up a payment plan for any amount they owe, may be be able to get penalty relief, per the IRS. The agency may send late notices by mail.

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Lil Nas X posted several clips from a hospital bed on Monday evening. The artist said he’s experiencing temporary paralysis on one side of his face.

“This is me doing a full smile right now by the way,” Lil Nas X said in a video posted on social media. “It’s like what the f***. Bro, I can’t even laugh right, bro. What the f***. Ah! Oh my God.”

What Lil Nas X said in a video he posted on social media

He recorded himself wearing a hospital gown and baseball cap while he showed both sides of his face.

“We normal over here. We get crazy over here,” he added in an Instagram Story, People reported.

He then followed up on his initial posts and said he was “OK,” while asking his fans to “stop being sad,” according to the BBC.

“I’mma look funny for a lil bit but that’s it,” Lil Nas X said, indicating that the condition is only temporary.

Lil Nas X didn’t confirm if his partial face paralysis was caused by Bell’s palsy

Lil Nas X did not disclose what caused the condition. It could be Bell’s Palsy or Ramsay Hunt Syndrome — which are two temporary conditions tied to partial paralysis of the face. Many fans have commented on his posts, suspecting that he may have the latter.

Justin Bieber previously had Ramsay Hunt Syndrome and had to cancel some of his 2022 tour dates. He eventually fully recovered.

Lil Nas X has been promoting his EP titled Days Before Dreamboy, which dropped last month. The eight-track project precedes the drop of his forthcoming studio album. The artist said he has been taking a different approach to making music.

“I wanna be myself more than ever this era. I want to be completely free out there, only doing the things that I wanna do. If I do not want to do it, I’m not doing it,” he told People in March.

“If I don’t want be there, I’m not gonna be there,” Lil Nas X added. “I think it’s more important than ever to really stand in myself and my power and recognize where I’m taking my energy and where I don’t want to take it.”

The fate of a wrongfully deported man to El Salvador hangs in the balance as that country’s president joins President Donald Trump in refusing to allow Kilmar Abrego Garcia to return to the United States after being wrongly deported.

The two leaders appear willing to deny Garcia his liberty and potentially his safety despite having no criminal record and a lack of evidence against him.

President Trump and President Bukele push an unproven ‘terrorist’ narrative to incarcerate the wrongfully deported man

Trump spoke to reporters alongside El Salvador President Nayib Bukele in the first visit by the leader of the Central American country to the White House after the controversial deportation of numerous individuals to El Salvador. During their joint press conference, Bukele was asked about returning Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who lived in Maryland before he was mistakenly deported despite a court order for him to remain in the United States.

Bukele responded to reporters by repeating an unproven accusation against Abrego Garcia: “The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?”

When asked about the possibility of releasing Garcia within El Salvador, Bukele replied, “We’re not very fond of releasing terrorists into our country.”

COLLINS: Can President Bukele weigh in on this? Do you plan to return Garcia?BUKELE: How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? Of course I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterousTRUMP: These are sick people pic.twitter.com/y2FhtZsAhL— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 14, 2025

NBC News reported that Bukele’s comments, cosigned by Trump and members of his administration, repeat unproven accusations made against Abrego Garcia. The Trump administration has repeatedly labeled him a member of the MS-13 gang, based on a judge’s 2019 ruling. However, Abrego Garcia has always denied gang affiliation with MS-13 or any other group; no evidence has been presented to suggest otherwise.

NBC stated court filings show Abrego Garcia has never been charged with a crime in either country. Nevertheless, he is currently being held in El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, a prison accused of subjecting inmates to torture, malnutrition and other human rights abuses, per the outlet.

Law, politics and diplomacy at the heart of Abrego Garcia’s case

Bukele’s comments extend the weeks-long legal and political fight over Abrego Garcia, who fled El Salvador for the United States as a teenager, stating that he had suffered violence and been threatened with death at the hands of gang members. Despite not initially being authorized to enter the United States, a judge in 2019 granted Garcia the right to stay in the U.S., ruling that he would likely face gang violence if he returned to El Salvador. Garcia was living in Maryland with his wife, a U.S. citizen, and their child when ICE arrested him in March. He was then mistakenly deported to El Salvador alongside over 100 Venezuelan gang members deported by the Trump administration under the Alien Enemies Act, a controversial and rarely used law.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court recognized that Abrego Garcia should not have been deported and ruled unanimously that the Trump administration must “facilitate” his return to the United States. Despite the directive, administration officials have pushed various narrow interpretations and false readings of the decision to avoid taking steps to bring Garcia back to the U.S. The administration has also ignored the fact that it’s actively paying the El Salvadoran government to house deportees in its prison, undercutting the argument that the United States has no power to influence that nation’s decisions concerning what to do with Abrego Garcia.

For now, Trump and his Salvadoran counterpart both seem content to keep Abrego Garcia locked away. Meanwhile, the legal and political fight to free Abrego Garcia and return him to the United States continues.