Tick-tock clicks the clock for tax-filing procrastinators, and,
with only three days left before the April 15 deadline, local tax
preparers are swamped like always.
But not as badly as in prior years.
Tick-tock clicks the clock for tax-filing procrastinators, and, with only three days left before the April 15 deadline, local tax preparers are swamped like always.
But not as badly as in prior years.
The troubled economy has led many people to try and file without professional help this year, Georgia Domingue, of H & R Block, said.
“People can’t afford to get them done so they’re doing it themselves,” she said. “We’re seeing a lot of amendments during the off season because people aren’t sure of what they’re doing and they make mistakes.”
Those who do wait until the last minute to file, are usually trying to avoid the inevitable, Domingue said.
“Most of the time the people that wait until the last minute owe money,” she said. “They wait because they don’t want to think or dwell on it. For some people, out of sight is out of mind.”
Hollister resident Marcia Perkins is a habitual late filer. Even though she had her paperwork ready for weeks, she chose Friday afternoon to finally head to her accountant.
“I’ve been thinking about doing it,” she said as she chuckled and headed into the office. “I just haven’t gotten around to it.”
Teddie McFadden, of McFadden Tax Services, said her phone has been ringing off the wall, and during tax season she has worked as much as 120 hours a week.
“They really don’t have any excuses as to why they’re so late,” she said. “Every year my clients will tell me ‘I swear I’ll have them in early next year,’ but usually they’re right back in my office to the day of when they were there the year before.”
McFadden said there is no excuse except that we are creatures of habit.
“I’ve been doing this for 35 years and people always promise, but it never changes,” she said.
The popularity of electronic filing is another reason tax accountants don’t have a line out the door. The Internal Revenue Service said last week that it received five million more electronically filed returns compared to 2003. That’s a 12 percent increase in electronically filed tax returns even before the flood undoubtedly coming in the last few minutes of April 15.
Software programs like Turbotax walk people through the tax filing process step by step, and with more and more people becoming computer savvy, the electronic process is giving tax accountants some competition. Julie Miller, spokeswoman for Turbotax software maker Intuit Inc., said the company has seen an increase in sales this year, and the program Turbotax makes doing your taxes at home easy enough for anyone to do.
“The program takes out all the jargon and users never even have to see a tax form,” she said. “Now that people are banking online and shopping online, filing their taxes online is just the next step.”
Jesse Weller, spokesman for the IRS, said people should feel safe and secure sending their tax information over the Internet.
“You’re more likely to have your information stolen if you sent it in the mail than if you sent it electronically,” he said. “We have processed more the 300 million electronic returns in the past and we have never had a problem.”
Procrastinators who somehow don’t get things filed by Thursday can extend their deadline without an excuse or even a stamped envelope. Automatic four-month extensions are available by phone or by computer, as well as through the paper Form 4868, according to the IRS. The government is expecting to receive almost 9 million extension requests this year.
Every year it’s the same, McFadden said.
“People don’t change,” she said. “April 15th will be as crazy this year as it has been every year in the past.”
For more information about tax extensions, visit www.irs.gov.
