Tax-filing deadline is just 10 days away. Suppose your federal income-tax return shows a balance due. Should you skip paying it, knowing that a rebate is just around the corner? That’s the question a woman from Charlestown asked MoneyLine:

Q: I believe I will be entitled to [a] rebate of $300. On filing my taxes of 2007, I owe the government $297. Do I have to send in the $297, or will they just take it out of my rebate? . . .

— M.G., Charlestown

A: The Internal Revenue Service will take it out of your rebate.

But the IRS won’t just settle for the $297; the agency will also apply a failure-to-pay penalty, plus interest, said Robert J. Sclama, who teaches taxation at Bryant University’s financial-planning program.

Mainly for that reason, Sclama said he would recommend against the strategy you mentioned and urge you to pay what you owe by the April 15 deadline.

He offered the following example:

Suppose a married couple shows a balance due of $1,200 on their current return, the one covering 2007. Suppose, too, that they expect to receive a $1,200 rebate some time in June.

They file the return by the April 15 deadline, but don’t pay the $1,200 balance. They reckon that the IRS can simply use their $1,200 rebate to offset their balance.

The problem with this strategy is that the IRS would assess a failure-to-pay penalty, plus interest. In this example, the combination of penalty and interest might total 2 percent, or about $24.

So although the couple wouldn’t have to pay their $1,200 balance (it’d be offset by their expected rebate of $1,200), they would have to pay the extra $24.

True, $24 isn’t a lot. But why pay it at all? Instead, they can save themselves $24 by simply paying their $1,200 balance by the April 15 deadline, then collecting their $1,200 rebate a little while later.

Here’s another reason to pay what you owe by the deadline.

Suppose you make a mistake, from a tax standpoint, a few years down the road, and face a penalty from the IRS.

Suppose, too, that you ask the IRS for leniency, saying that the problem was the result of extenuating circumstances.

In determining whether to grant leniency and waive the penalty, the IRS will check your record to see if it’s clean. If it is, “The IRS may be inclined to help you out,” Sclama said. But if your record shows that you failed to pay tax when due, the IRS may not be so inclined.

“You don’t want to be on record that you did not pay your tax on time,” said Sclama, who runs his own tax-consulting and financial-planning practice in North Providence. Bottom line: “Pay the tax when it’s due,” he said.

Q: Doing a rough draft of my [federal income] taxes, I have to pay approximately $390. I don’t see any line on the 1040A to put the $300 [rebate]. I wonder if I should pay my tax as I normally would and then wait for the [rebate], or if there is a line where I can put the $300 and deduct [it] from my tax.

— R.C., Coventry

A: IRS computers will figure the amount of your rebate based on a variety of information that’s listed on your return, said IRS spokeswoman Peggy Riley.

There is no specific line on the return on which you can enter the amount of the rebate yourself, she said.

So you can’t do the offset yourself on the return you’re preparing now, she said. Instead, you’d have to wait to let the IRS do the offset for you. However, as outlined above, you’d also face a failure-to-pay penalty, plus interest.

So to avoid the penalty and interest, pay what you owe by the April 15 deadline, then celebrate once you receive your rebate.

Q: I just have a question about the . . . rebate for the elderly, or for [another] Social Security recipient. I have a cousin who receives approximately $60 for the SSI portion, and the rest is from Social Security. Will he be entitled to a rebate? And should he file?

— M.M., North Providence

A: Special rebate rules apply to someone who doesn’t normally file a federal income-tax return.

In general, someone in that category must have had at least $3,000 in “qualifying income” last year in order to receive a rebate this year.

He or she also must file a return, so that the IRS will have the information it needs to process the rebate (such as someone’s name, Social Security number and amount of qualifying income).

Social Security benefits count as qualifying income. But Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits do not, Riley said.

So your cousin should file a return only if the Social Security portion of his overall benefits last year was $3,000 or greater, Riley said. If that’s the case, he should receive a rebate.

TODAY’S TIP: Information from the IRS about this year’s federal rebate program is available in Spanish as well as English. For information in Spanish, use this IRS Web site:

www.irs.gov/espanol

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