Sat
Apr 14 2007
07:21 am

Not that it has ever mattered much to us, we usually file a few days early, Income Taxes are due April 17th this year. Normally, income taxes would be due on April 16th, the 15th is on a Sunday. This year taxes are due one day later because there is a holiday in Washington, D.D., Emancipation Day.

According to my accountant, the Emancipation Day holiday in DC is when Lincoln declared slaves free in DC as a predecessor to freeing all slaves in the United States. Since this is a holiday in DC and the IRS offices are located in DC, IRS employees honor this holiday. Thus, you have one more day to file this year before deciding on an extension.

Also, according to the AP article, "Some 54 percent of tax filers say their returns are sent electronically, and that number is rapidly growing." We don't file electronically. Don't want to. Don't know if we could even if we wanted to. Who here files their Income Taxes electronically? Use the poll to register your response.

jah's picture

Anybody can file their

Anybody can file their returns electronically. But you do give them more information that way. Why don't you want to?

bizgrrl's picture

Two reasons: Ours is a

Two reasons:

Ours is a pretty complex return, around 12 pages. Our accountant mentioned it once several years ago. He hasn't mentioned it since.

Being in the IT business I have trust issues. Very often you see more instances of private records being lost or stolen or accessed illegally. I don't want to give up any more control than I have to. Don't do electronic banking. Don't do electronic bill pay either. Guess you could say I have control issues as well.

jah's picture

It shouldn't matter how long

It shouldn't matter how long your return is. It's going to be in their computer anyway. They're going to do all of the same work either way, just if they file electronically they check one (well, two) extra boxes.

I can see the trust issues, though, and I think those concerns are valid.

jah's picture

There's no reason why the

There's no reason why the error rate would be any more. OTOH, it should be more expensive to efile, because most programs charge a per-return fee. Of course, the cynic in me wonders if that's why they're pro paper filing....

Stan G's picture

Submitted by metulj on Sat,

Submitted by metulj on Sat, 2007/04/14 - 11:46am.
Our accountant asserted to us that the error rate on electronic submissions is higher. Nothing to back that up, but he charges no more for paper than electronic and is renowned for being big time "got your back" for his clients.

Absolutely makes no sense. As I understand it, electornically filed returns are first checked for formating errors by the service provider before being sent to the IRS. The IRS reviews the return to determine whether the basic information is correct: names, SSN's, EIN,s, whether dependent SSN's have been claimed on a previously filed return, etc.

For your accountant, paper returns mean that errors will not be detected until sometime after April 17 (this year) which gives him time to respond. On the other hand, if there is an error on an electronically filed return it is detected immediately and your accountant has to correct it within either 24 or 48 hours.

ATSF616's picture

I have a more mundane reason

We're both postal people. Our continued economic well-being stems from the movement of pieces of paper from one location to another, all bearing paid postage. Same reason hell will freeze over before we ever switch to electronic bill-paying.

gttim's picture

Getting a refund? File

Getting a refund? File electronically ASAP.

Paying? File April 15th (or 17th) with paper.

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