Orono High’s Nolan Groves had received only one scholarship offer as of last summer and he took it, committing to Yale in June. Then in his senior season last winter, he led the state of Minnesota in scoring with 34.1 points per game, adding 8.5 rebounds, 6.0 assist and 3.0 steals in 29 games.

Groves was named the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year and led the Spartans to the Class 3A state boys basketball tournament. With that rise, the combo guard began to wonder.

“He just kept developing as the year went on, and came to me and says, ‘Coach, I just feel like I’ve improved a lot. I just think I can play at a higher level,’ ” Orono coach Barry Wohler told the Pioneer Press on Tuesday. “A few months later, he de-committed (from Yale) and they are coming after him.”

As of Monday, Groves had received scholarship offers from the Gophers, Wisconsin and Texas Tech. Maybe the biggest change is the interest from Minnesota since Niko Medved took over as coach late last month.

“Ben Johnson showed zero interest, and it’s unfortunate,” Wohler said. “… Niko wants him bad.”

Groves’ plan is to visit Texas Tech in Lubbock on Thursday and head to Dinkytown on Monday. Wohler didn’t know if Groves has planned a visit to Madison. The players’ goal, Wohler said, is to make a decision in the next few weeks.

One factor is how the Gophers’ Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) fund trails that of Texas Tech — it’s why point guard Elijah Hawkins left the U for the Red Raiders a year ago — and is possibly behind Wisconsin’s, as well.

But Wholer said Grovers’ college choice will be about more than money.

“I think what’s important is the fit with the staff and the players,” Wohler said. “I think the style of play of all three teams he’ll fit. He’s a true combo guard. He can handle the ball for you if needed. He can score at all three levels, and he can guard. He’s a freshman coming in that’s already strong. A lot of times, that strength can be an issue defensively, but he’s really strong, so I think he’ll get on the floor.”

Groves’ lighter recruitment was a byproduct of him being a “late bloomer” in high school, starting his freshman year at 5-foot-10 and seeing the floor as a 6-1 sophomore because of his shooting ability. He ticked up to 6-3 as a junior but was not a focal point on summer team JSizzle.

Groves didn’t reach his current 6-foot-5, 205-pound frame until before his senior season, and that’s when he truly blossomed. He scored 40 points or more in nine games, including 57 in a win over St. Louis Park.

“He had an amazing year. He carried us at times offensively, but his mindset, work ethic and leadership is like nobody I’ve ever coached,” said Wohler, who is in his 18th year Orono. “He wouldn’t let us have an off game.”

Groves was a finalist for the Mr. Basketball Award that went to Alexandria’s Chase Thompson, who is headed to Clemson (the Tigers also showed some interest in Groves, according to 247Sports). His Gatorade Player of the Year honor came with recognition for a 4.4 grade-point average and volunteering as a Special Olympics basketball coach.

“He’s so focused,” Wohler said. “He’s a great, great leader. He’s kind of a quiet leader. He just probably is the best competitor I’ve ever coached.”

And the competition to sign him for next year is heating up.

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ORONOCO, Minn. — Running out of inventory and options as she looks for a path to save her company wrecked by tariffs, Beth (Fynbo) Benike is trying to crowdfund $229,000 to pay what she describes as a “ransom” on three months’ worth of Busy Baby products stranded in China, where they were made.

Benike, who last month was named Minnesota’s Small Business Person of the year by the Small Business Administration, said it was not an easy decision to turn to a GoFundMe campaign to keep her business afloat.

“This is the very LAST thing I ever wanted to have to do … I will not teach my kids how to quit when bad things happen. I’m going to set my ego aside and ask for help and keep fighting,” Benike wrote on the GoFundMe campaign that she launched on Sunday.

As of Tuesday morning, the campaign had collected more than $17,000, almost 8% of the overall goal.

The roadblock of tariffs struck as Benike is fully leveraged, with loans using her house as collateral. She took out additional loans to finance making more products to fulfill an expanded contract with Walmart.

Bringing the shipment of about three months’ worth of products to the U.S. isn’t a long-term solution to the tariff problem, but it would buy her some time to map out a plan to save her 8-year-old company.

“There are some viable potential paths, but none that I can execute quickly enough to save our business. I’ve got to pay the ransom and get our products here so we can have a little more time to figure this out,” she wrote.

The business at stake — Busy Baby — makes eight baby-related products, including a patented signature product, the Busy Baby Mat. The soft silicone placemat features suction cups to stay in place with stretchy tethers to attach baby toys.

Benike, who is a U.S. Army veteran, created the prototype for the placemat in her kitchen in Oronoco. Helped by economic development groups including the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation in Owatonna, she started to grow Busy Baby and even made an appearance on the “Shark Tank” TV show that features start-up pitches.

She now co-owns the company with her brother Eric Fynbo. They have a warehouse/distribution center in Zumbrota with five employees. Millions of Busy Baby mats are now being used in houses around the world.

President Donald Trump’s tariffs on China were not a surprise, and Benike had budgeted $31,000 to cover the tariff she expected on her current shipment of products in China. However, she did not anticipate the tariff climbing over a few days to 145%.

Given that making products here is not financially or logistically in a timeline to save Busy Baby, Benike said she is looking at transforming her business into a global brand to sell to international customers instead of in the U.S.

Paying the tariff and getting her product shipment to the U.S. will give her the time to hammer out that plan or other options for keeping Busy Baby busy.

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By CORA LEWIS

NEW YORK (AP) — If you’ve waited till the last minute to file your taxes, don’t panic. You still have time to get it done.

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And if you’re worried that you still might not be able to finish in time, you can file for an extension, which will give you until Oct. 16 to file your return.

What do I need to file my tax return?

Generally, every tax-filer needs the following at hand

— your Social Security number

— W-2 forms, if you’re employed

— 1099-G forms, if you’re unemployed

— 1099 forms, if you’re self-employed

— Savings and investment records

— A sense of any eligible deductions, such as education expenses, medical bills, charitable donations, etc.

— A sense of relevant tax credits, such as the child tax credit, retirement savings contributions credit, etc.

To find a more detailed document list, visit the IRS website.

Tom O’Saben, director of tax content and government relations at the National Association of Tax Professionals, recommends gathering all your documents in one place before you start your tax return, as well as having your documents from last year if your financial situation has drastically changed.

Theresa Grover, site coordinator for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, also recommends taxpayers create an identity protection PIN number with the IRS to guard against identity theft. Once you create a number, the IRS will require it to file your tax return.

How do I file for an extension?

If you run out of time to file your tax return, you can file for an extension to take more time by using your preferred tax software, with the IRS Free File tool, or via mail.

However, it’s important to remember the extension is only to file your tax return, not to pay owed taxes. If you owe taxes, you should pay an estimated amount before the deadline to avoid paying penalties and interest. If you expect to receive a refund, you’ll still receive your money when you file your taxes.

The deadline to file for an extension is Tuesday, April 15, which will give you until Oct. 16 to file.

How can I avoid mistakes filing my taxes?

Many people fear getting in trouble with the IRS if they make a mistake. To avoid common errors:

— Double check your name on your Social Security card.

When working with clients, O’Saben always asks them to bring their Social Security card to double-check their number and their legal name, which can change after marriage, for example.

“You may have changed your name but you didn’t change it with Social Security,” O’Saben said. “If the Social Security number doesn’t match the first four letters of the last name, the return will be rejected and that will delay processing.”

— Search for tax statements if you’ve opted out of paper mail.

Many people like to opt out of snail mail, but paper mail can also include your tax documents.

“If you didn’t get anything in the mail doesn’t mean that there isn’t an information document out there that you need to be aware of and report accordingly,” said O’Saben.

— Report all of your income.

If you had more than one job in 2022, you need the W-2 forms for each — not just the one from the job you ended the year with, said Christina Wease, interim director of the tax clinic at Michigan State University.

What resources are available?

For those who make $73,000 or less per year, the IRS offers free guided tax preparation that does the math for you. If you have questions while working on your tax forms, the IRS also offers an interactive tax assistant tool.

Beyond TurboTax and H&R Block, taxpayers can also hire licensed professionals, such as certified public accountants. The IRS offers a directory of tax preparers across the United States.

The IRS also funds two types of programs that offer free tax help: Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and the Tax Counseling for the Elderly program (TCE). People who earn $60,000 or less a year, those who have a disability, and those who speak limited English all qualify for the VITA program. Those who are 60 or older qualify for the TCE program. The IRS has a site for locating organizations hosting VITA and TCE clinics.

If you have a tax problem, there are clinics around the country that can help you resolve these issues. Generally, these tax clinics also offer services in other languages such as Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese.

The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.

By Allison Martin, Bankrate.com

The tax-filing deadline is typically April 15 each year. If you can’t make that deadline, it’s easy to get a six-month extension for filing your return, though your tax payment is still due by April 15.

But what happens if you don’t file taxes by either of those deadlines? The consequences are very different depending on whether you’re expecting a tax refund or you owe the IRS money.

What happens if you don’t file and you don’t owe taxes?

If you don’t owe any taxes or if you’re owed a refund, there’s no penalty for not filing your tax return. But you won’t receive your refund until you do file.

There won’t be a penalty for filing late — just get your paperwork to the IRS so they can process your taxes and issue the refund. You have up to three years after the due date of your return to claim your tax refund.

Most Americans get a tax refund after filing their tax return. This happens because you’ve paid more in taxes over the year than you owe. Often, this is because most employers withhold money from each paycheck, which goes toward your taxes, but that withholding typically doesn’t account for tax credits and other tax benefits you may be eligible for, so the government has to pay you back in the form of a tax refund.

Every year, the IRS announces that hundreds of thousands of taxpayers are about to miss the deadline to claim their tax refund; the most recent announcement, in March 2024, said that $1 billion in unpaid refunds from 2021 was about to be relinquished by taxpayers.

If you didn’t file in the last few years, consider getting a tax return filed soon so you can get any money that’s owed to you.

What happens if you don’t file, and you owe taxes?

If you owe a tax bill and you haven’t filed your tax return, then the first step is to file your tax return, or a tax extension, as soon as you can, even if you can’t pay your bill just yet. You want to get your tax return filed because the failure to file penalty is much steeper than the failure to pay penalty.

Failure to file penalty

If you don’t file a tax return and you owe money to the IRS, you’ll face a failure to file penalty of 5% each month on any unpaid taxes, capped at 25%, plus interest. Here’s how it breaks down:

—First month: 5% of tax liability

—Second month: 5% of tax liability (after 60 days of being late, the minimum failure to file penalty is $485 or 100% of your tax liability, whichever is less)

—Third month: 5% of tax liability

—Fourth month: 5% of tax liability

—Fifth month: 5% of tax liability

There are some situations, including natural disasters and military service, for which the IRS will forgive failure to file penalties. But unless you fall under one of those exceptions, expect to pay the penalty.

State laws vary considerably, so check what your local laws are for failure to file. (Check your state’s income and sales tax rates.)

What happens if you pay taxes late?

Failing to pay your tax bill by the April 15 deadline also comes with a penalty and interest, though that penalty is lower than the failure to file penalty.

Failure to pay penalty

Each month that you fail to pay your taxes in full will result in the IRS assessing a penalty of 0.5% of your total tax liability. This will continue each month, maxing out at 25% of your total tax bill. (A six-month extension to file your tax return doesn’t apply to your payment. You don’t get more time to pay; you only get more time to file your return.)

There is also interest owed on any outstanding taxes. The interest will be determined by the current federal short-term interest rate plus an additional 3%. The short-term rate changes every three months, so your interest rate may go up or down depending on how long it takes to pay your tax bill in full.

For the first and second quarter of 2025, the interest rate for underpayment is 7% (see this IRS page for interest rate updates).

State laws vary considerably, so check what your local laws are for failure to pay.

What happens if you haven’t paid your taxes in years?

If you’ve avoided paying your taxes for a while, the IRS may seek to recover those funds from you in a number of ways, including garnishing wages from your paycheck, placing a lien on your home or other high-value property or coming directly for your bank account. The IRS will also withhold future tax refunds until your tax bill has been paid down.

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There are other potential penalties, as well. In some cases, if you owe more than $62,000 in taxes in 2024 (the dollar amount adjusts for inflation each year), the government may refuse to issue you a passport. The IRS may also choose to refer your outstanding tax payment to a private collections agency, which will likely be more aggressive in attempting to recover the funds. The IRS can seek to have people jailed for unpaid tax debt, but that’s highly unusual.

Generally, the IRS has 10 years to collect on unpaid taxes. However, there are exceptions to this, and situations where that 10-year period can get extended.

Steps to take if you’re behind on taxes

Dealing with outstanding tax debt can be stressful, and for some people it may feel easier to ignore the situation. But addressing the issue can save you anxiety and money in the long run. Here are two steps to get started:

—Determine how much you owe: Before you can start paying, you need to know just how much you owe the IRS. You can determine this by requesting your transcripts from the IRS. Even if you haven’t filed taxes in years, you will be able to see the information the IRS has on hand and see how much the agency says you owe.

—File your taxes: If you haven’t filed your taxes yet, do that. Contact your employers and ask for a copy of your tax documents. They should be able to provide these records. Upon filing, you may find that you are owed a refund. If you have a history of good tax compliance, it’s possible to get some of the fees abated under administrative penalty relief, but specific rules apply.

What to do if you can’t afford to pay taxes

If you can’t afford to pay your taxes, your best bet is to contact the IRS to work out a payment plan. The agency is more interested in collecting what it can than penalizing you, and is likely to work with you to set up a payment plan or an installment agreement.

If you can’t pay your tax debt in full, research the IRS’s resources for dealing with tax debt. You may qualify for an offer in compromise, which lets you pay less than you owe, or you might qualify to delay collection of your debt.

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