Taxpayers who live outside the U.S. and Puerto Rico and whose main place of work is outside the U.S. and Puerto Rico already have an automatic two-month filing extension. See the IRS Instructions for Form 4868 Application for Automatic Extension of Time To File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return for more information.

You must attach a statement to your return explaining that you qualify for the automatic extension:

1. From within your TaxAct return (Online or Desktop), click Federal. On smaller devices, click in the upper left-hand corner, then click Federal.
2. Click Miscellaneous Topics in the Federal Quick Q&A Topics menu to expand, click Additional Information for E-Filing to expand, then click Explanation for Automatic 2 Month Extension for Taxpayers Out of Country.
3. Enter an explanation that shows one of the following applies to you:
   • You are living outside the United States and Puerto Rico and your main place of business or post of duty is outside the United States and Puerto Rico; or
   • You are in military or naval service on duty outside the United States and Puerto Rico.
4. Click Continue to attach the explanation to your return.

Taxpayers in military service on duty outside the U.S should refer to IRS Publication 3 Armed Forces' Tax Guide for guidelines for the extension deadline.

If you qualify for the automatic two-month extension but would like to request an additional four months by filing Form 4868, see Filing a Federal Individual Tax Return Extension - Form 4868. To indicate that you are out of the country, check the box on the screen titled Form 4868 - Out of the Country. For this screen to appear, the date entered for Today's Date must be 4/19/2020 or later.

Note that any link in the information above is updated each year automatically and will take you to the most recent version of the document at the time it is accessed.