Arkansas Tax Deadlines: Filing, Estimated Payments, and Property Tax

Three Arkansas tax deadlines matter for most individuals: income tax returns and payments are due April 15, personal property must be assessed with your county by May 31, and property tax bills must be paid by October 15. Miss any of them and penalties start the next day. These are the Arkansas tax deadlines you need to plan around, along with the quarterly estimated payment dates that apply if your income isn’t fully covered by withholding.

April 15: Income Tax Return and Payment

Full-year residents file Form AR1000F by April 15 following the close of the tax year.¹ Part-year residents and nonresidents with Arkansas-source income file Form AR1000NR on the same date.² When April 15 lands on a weekend or legal holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day.

Any balance you owe is due the same day, whether you file on paper or electronically. Arkansas does not grant extra time to pay just because your paperwork isn’t finished. If you need more time for the return itself, pay what you reasonably expect to owe by April 15 and request a filing extension on top of that payment.

Filing Extensions to November 15

An extension pushes your filing deadline to November 15. You have two ways to get one:

If you already filed a federal extension with the IRS, Arkansas honors it automatically. No separate state form is required.¹
If you have no federal extension, file Form AR1055-IT with the Department of Finance and Administration by April 15, and include payment for any tax you expect to owe.¹

The extension covers filing only. Interest and failure-to-pay penalties start running on any unpaid balance after April 15 even when your extension is valid.¹ Estimate as accurately as you can and send the payment in April rather than waiting until November.

FEMA disaster declarations are a separate matter. When one is issued for Arkansas, the IRS typically postpones filing and payment deadlines for affected counties, and the state generally follows. Relief is automatic for taxpayers in the declared area, so there’s nothing extra to file. The current list of eligible Arkansas counties and revised dates sits on the IRS disaster relief page.³

What Late Filing and Late Payment Cost

Arkansas charges separate penalties for filing late and paying late, and both can run in the same month on an individual income tax return.

Late filing: 5% of the unpaid tax for each month or partial month the return is overdue, capped at a combined 35%.⁴
Late payment: 1% of the unpaid tax for each month the balance stays outstanding.⁴

When both apply in the same month they stack, but the combined total across both penalties cannot exceed 35% of the tax owed.⁴ On top of the penalties, Arkansas assesses 10% annual interest on any outstanding tax balance, running from the original due date through the day you pay.⁵

The math adds up fast. On a $3,000 balance filed and paid three months late, you’d see $450 in filing penalties (5% × 3 months), $90 in late-payment penalties (1% × 3 months), and roughly $75 in interest, totaling about $615 in added charges. Filing on time and paying whatever you can toward the balance is always cheaper than waiting.

Quarterly Estimated Payment Dates

If you expect to owe more than $1,000 in Arkansas income tax after withholding and credits, you need to make quarterly estimated payments using Form AR1000ES. This typically covers self-employed workers, landlords, investors, and anyone whose income isn’t fully subject to employer withholding.⁶ The four installments are due:

First quarter: April 15
Second quarter: June 15
Third quarter: September 15
Fourth quarter: January 15 of the following year

When one of these dates falls on a weekend or legal holiday, it rolls to the next business day.⁶ Arkansas penalizes underpayment at 10% per year, calculated quarterly, when any installment falls below 90% of what was actually due for that period.⁴ Taxpayers with uneven income can calculate the penalty on an annualized basis, which sometimes reduces or eliminates it.

May 31: Personal Property Assessment

This is the deadline most people don’t know about. Before you can be billed for property taxes on vehicles, boats, trailers, and other tangible personal property, that property must first be assessed with your county assessor. The assessment window runs from January 1 through May 31 each year.⁷ If May 31 falls on a weekend or postal holiday, you get until the next business day.

Miss it and the county adds a 10% penalty to all taxes due on that property, plus 50 cents per delinquent listing.⁸ The penalty follows through to the tax bill you’ll pay the following year. There’s one carve-out: property acquired between May 2 and May 31 can be assessed within 30 days of the acquisition date without penalty.⁷

Assessment is handled through your county assessor’s office, in person or online. You cannot skip this step and just pay the tax bill later. The assessment is what tells the county what you own, and the bill is built from there.

October 15: Property Tax Payment

Once your property is assessed, the county collector sends a bill the following year. Property taxes on both real estate and personal property are payable from the first business day of March through October 15.⁹ You pay through your individual county collector, though the Property Tax Center at Arkansas.gov links to each county’s payment portal.

The cycle works this way: property assessed in 2025 generates a bill payable between March 1 and October 15 of 2026. Any balance not paid or postmarked by October 15 is delinquent, and the collector adds a 10% penalty to the unpaid amount.¹⁰ Payment can be made online, by mail, or in person at the county courthouse.

The 10% penalty is only the first consequence. Unpaid real property taxes eventually move to the Commissioner of State Lands, who can sell the property at public auction to recover the delinquent taxes, penalties, interest, and sale costs. The minimum bid must cover the full amount owed; if no one bids that much, the Commissioner can offer the property at a private sale afterward. After the sale, the former owner has 10 business days to redeem the property by paying everything owed, including notification costs. If no redemption happens in that window, the Commissioner issues a deed to the buyer.¹¹ A single missed year rarely gets that far, but once the process starts it moves without much warning.

1
Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. Instructions for Form AR1055-IT
2
Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. Arkansas 2025 Individual Income Tax Forms and Instructions
3
Internal Revenue Service. Tax Relief in Disaster Situations
4
Justia Law. Arkansas Code 26-18-208 – Additional Penalties and Tax
5
Justia Law. Arkansas Code 26-18-508 – Interest on Deficiencies
6
Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. Estimated Tax Declaration Vouchers and Instructions
7
Justia Law. Arkansas Code 26-26-1408 – Time for Assessment
8
Justia Law. Arkansas Code 26-26-201 – Delinquent Assessments
9
Arkansas.gov. Property Tax Center
10
Justia Law. Arkansas Code 26-35-501 – Time to Pay
11
Justia Law. Arkansas Code 26-37-202 – Procedure to Sell