You’d have to do it preemptively though as the last opportunity to over is via a Jan 15th estimated tax payment. You can’t retroactively overpay, the money needs to be there before you file your taxes.
You don't have to make an estimated tax payment. You can also file an extension, and when you do that you can make a payment with IRS direct pay as well. Also just because you filed for an extension, that doesn't mean you have to file your tax return later, so you can just file your tax return when you would regularly payment. You can file for an extension much later than Jan 15th, I think the deadline is sometime in April.
Definitely do NOT misfile your return such that you get a large refund as I Bonds and then file a corrected return where you pay back. It's not legal and it's not worth it.
I didn’t say misfile. I suggested making an estimated tax payment so that you have net credit at the IRS. It’s the same as applying your refund to the following year’s taxes. There’s no filing or claim of income, you’re simply parking money there to cover potential taxes.
To do what I’m suggesting correctly, you’d calculate your tax liability or surplus before the last estimated tax payment date (Jan 15th) and make an estimated payment for the difference between that and the amount of I series bonds you’d like to purchase.
Do you have a source for this? Where is it stated that one cannot overpay taxes for the purpose of getting a bigger return? Many people do this as a “savings” account as they’re not very good with savings so it sort of forces them to save since they don’t have access to the money.
I believe he was suggesting misfiling, as in under reporting income or overreporting deductions in order to generate a fraudulent refund, which you could then fix/repay in cash (but keep the bonds).
You’d have to do it preemptively though as the last opportunity to over is via a Jan 15th estimated tax payment. You can’t retroactively overpay, the money needs to be there before you file your taxes.