This Tax Day, I Pit -- The Post Office?! (Lame)

The BBQ Pit
1

No, that is not a typo. I am pitting, not the IRS, but the Post Office.

At 8 p.m. today, April 15, I headed to the Patchogue, N.Y. Post Office to mail my tax return. The Patchogue office is ALWAYS open until midnight on April 15. (Guess how I know.) Much to my surprise, I found ample parking, which probably had SOMETHING to do with the fact that the Post Office was CLOSED. No problem, I thought, they surely will have posted a notice on the door directing disappointed patrons to the closest location which is open until midnight.

Nope. Not a fucking thing posted on the door. I ran to the H & R Block office across the street from the Post Office, but they didn’t know any other late Post Office locations, either (they said more than 50 frantic people had already stopped by to ask.)

A call to the Postal Service’s 800 number yielded nothing, as the only way they can look things up is by individual zip code. In other words, you tell them your local zip code, and they tell you if that particular location is open until midnight. That’s right – they can only direct you to the right location if you already KNOW the right location. The poor sap on the phone tried to be helpful, but the only New York location he knew for SURE was open is in the middle of Manhattan, about 60 miles away.

The Postal Service website? Same deal. There is NO simple, central listing by state, county or anything else showing which locations are open late for tax filing, unless I am just not seeing it.

Fuck it. I am NOT spending $36.00 to file my returns electronically via TurboTax ($17.95 each for Federal and State), even assuming that I would be able to get through at 10:07 p.m. on tax night. I’ll mail them tomorrow, which my IRS whiz-kid sister in law assures me will be no problem (even without an extension request) as both State and Federal owe ME money. It’s just such a fucking farce. I’ll bet people who owe money are absolutely shitting themselves right now, trying to get to Manhattan to file their returns.

Oh, and if you’re going to write and point out that I could have filed earlier, cordially fuck yourself.

Thanks for listening,
Me

2

I sent my returns a day or two late a couple years back, owing the feds money too. Nothing bad happened. I don’t think they examine the postmarks hoping to get you. :slight_smile: Probably they can’t be bothered with 5 billion returns coming in.

3

You know what the probability is of the IRS giving a shit that your tax return is postmarked April 16th? Approximately equal to winning the lottery 30 seconds before being struck by lightning while getting a hummer from Prince Charles.

Also, I’m the biggest procrastinator in the entire fucking universe, and even I managed to get that fucking thing done by the 6th. That’s a new record for me!

(Probably helps that I have an accountant who does it all and mails me the paperwork.)

4

You have to pay to lodge your tax return online?

5

This is the United fucking States of God-damn America. We file our tax returns.

(And if you have an adjusted gross income of less than $54,000 you can e-file for free. Otherwise you gotta pay for the warez.)

6

For Federal tax, it’s only free if you do the most basic version possible. If you have the same site do the state also they charge you extra. For Pa at least the state has a site for filing free but some people want to have them both done by the same people because it makes it easier/quicker. I did free file for the federal return then did telefile for the state.

ETA: Where I live they had a story on the news about the USPS was no longer going to keep branches open til midnight.

7

Just dropped ours off tonight at 9pm and drove downtown to mail them. The downtown Cincinnati main post office has two outdoor stations set up right on the street to collect the returns until midnight. Tonight, I followed a news van into the parking lot (had to go in to buy stamps) and as I was coming back to my car they asked for an interview. I declined. It was obvious that I’m not the only dimwit that egregiously procrastinates filing taxes, but it’s not like I want to announce it on the 11pm network snewz.

IANAA, but I am a taxpayer and a procrastinator (see above). Yes, you can do your taxes late if you are due a refund. My understanding is that you only owe penalties and interest if you haven’t paid your taxes when they are due (i.e., by April 15). If they owe you, you get nothing but your refund.

Just like last year, I aim to file in February right after the W2s are in next year. We’ll see how that goes…

8

I see no reason to pit the post office. Up until last year, I didn’t even know that some locales stayed open until midnight on April 15. I certainly don’t expect them to, even if they’ve done it before, anymore than I’d expect Best Buy to stay open til midnight on February 17, 2009 to sell me a digital converter.

Off to fuck myself cordially, now. :>

9

Around here, the post offices in Tampa all closed at nine - which I discovered around a quarter till. I had to drive to Clearwater (kinda sorta but not really on my way home from school) to find one that was open later. They also had the outdoor stations where you drove up and dropped it off. I was hoping I’d be able to duck inside to buy a stamp from the vending machine, but they had the parking lot roped off and the doors locked, so I had to drive up the street to Albertsons, buy a book of stamps (because apparently no one sells single stamps anymore) and drive back to drop off the envelope. Mildly annoying, but not really pit-worthy.

This is the first time I’ve waited until this late to do my taxes. I don’t think I shall be procrastinating this much next year.

10

Yep.

Here’s Cecil on filing one day late.

11

Did you try the airport post office? That one is usually open until midnight.

12

For as long as I live, I will never understand why people literally wait till the last minute to drop the tax return at the Post Office.

I just passed a 2 mile back up on the 405 freeway of cars waiting to get off at the Sherman Way exit (right next to the Post Office).

It’s the same every year. Would it *really * make that big a difference if you took it to the Post Office on April 14th??? At the very least, you would be facing less traffic. Or drop it off April 7th and face no extra traffic at all…and be stressed one week less?
spooje, who e-filed in February

13

Ahh, I’ve figured out your problem. $17.95 * 2 is actually $35.90. With math like that, no wonder you’re so stressed out! :smack:
:cool:
On a serious note, what friedo said. It’s free to file federal if your AGI is less than $50k or so. For the last few years, I’ve filed the federal, printed out the hard copy, submitted electronically, and then used the hard copy to fill out the state taxes online through their own website. And if you’re makin’ more than $50 k, what’s $35.90? :wink:

14

Just FYI for future needs, the post office at Tampa International is open 6a - midnight Mon - Fri and 8a - midnight Sat and Sun.

Also, I’d like to take the opportunity to smugly note that I e-filed for free on 1/26 and received my direct-deposited refund on 2/2.

15

I filed my federal through TaxAct for free then filed my state with the state for free.

Got my direct deposits in a week for state and 10 days for federal. I wanted my moola NOW.

I won’t point out that you waited but I will that you are an idiot for not filing electronically.

Do I still have to fuck myself?

16

I’m just curious if you intend to wait until the very last second to get the money the Feds and State owe you next year, too. It’s funny*, these people owe you money, and you deliberately inconvenience yourself in an effort to avoid getting that money back until the last date they allow you to file.

Anyhoo, next year, when you find yourself in this quandary again, you can go on the USPS website, click “Locate a Post Office”, put in Patchogue, NY, and it will list every single post office (with zip code) within 100 miles, ranked by closeness to your location. Give the 800 number a ring and you can pick and choose the locations you want them to check, right from your PC.

*funny… dumb, whatever

17

Yah, I forgot about the TIA post office. I’d’ve still had to pay for parking there, so I’m not sure if it would have saved me any time/money if I had remembered. Thanks for reminding me though.

I waited till the very last minute this year because there was a major snafu with my employer not sending out my 1099. I called over a month ago to ask them to re-send it, and to make sure they had my correct address, and I still haven’t gotten it yet. I was putting off filing, hoping that it’d arrive before the 15th, but no dice. So I had to file for an extension. Not pleased about this state of affairs at all.

18

That is essentially what I did. However, Long Island is egregiously overbuilt, and the list of post offices within 100 miles of my zip code is many, many pages long. I skimmed them speedily, and found absolutely nothing of use.

To those (few) who insist on saying I am an idiot for filing late, I have nothing to say except that it is, under the rules, my right to post my return whenever the fuck I want, up to 11:59 p.m. on Tax Day. Considering that the federal government both runs the IRS and administers the Postal Service, the least they can do is either make sure that their deadline is a realistic one to meet even for the last minute folks (even for those who choose not to piss away their money e-filing) by coordinating with the Post Office, or by letting people know what is going on. I do listen to/read the news, and I heard NOTHING about post offices closing early this year, nor was there anything about it posted, say, in the libraries where free tax forms are available.

That is hardly analogous. There are no possible legal repercussions should you be unable to watch TV immediately after the digital conversion, are there? I thought not. Even putting that aside, supposing that, one year, all the stores decided to stay closed all day on Christmas Eve rather than staying open until six for last minute shoppers. That would be their right (especially since they are wholly commercial establishments, unlike the Post Office, and their only real obligation is to the bottom line); in fact, I would applaud it. It WOULD, however, behoove them to make sure that this radical change were well publicized before the event, including with the simple expedient of putting signs on all their doors well in advance.

No offense to you, Santo Rugger, but on Long Island, $50 k barely keeps gas in your car, and I am not exaggerating (and the car is not some great honking SUV, either. It is a 10 year old Mitsubishi Galant). My property taxes were $5,141.90 last year, and I live in a fucking SHACK (20’ x 40’ ranch with no basement and no attic, for anyone who wants to know. Not exactly a McMansion.) There are plenty of places where $50 k would be a fair hunk of change, but this is most assuredly not one of them (and for those who are about to tell me to take my $50 k and leave New York State, I am a state employee, so that’s out. I could conceivably transfer upstate, but that isn’t particularly feasible for me.)

Also, 2007 was a particularly bad year for me, and 2008 isn’t looking any better, so yes, I do resent having to pay $36.00 (or $35.90, if you prefer) to enrich a private company so I can e-file Lastly, although my computer DOES have antivirus and anti-spyware programs installed, I am simply hinky about sending my taxes online; and even in this day and age, not everyone can file online. Should people whose computers crap out, or who don’t even own computers, be deprived of options without any warning?

Anyway, that’s it for me. Off to walk the dog before work.

19

It is also your “right” to sell all your possessions and live in a box, or start banging your head against a concrete block, but that doesn’t mean that people aren’t going to call you out for being an idiot.

I see no reason for the post office to stay open later on the last day, given the minuscule amount of effort it would take to figure out when the post office you were going to was closing or just doing the damn thing one day early.

You don’t really have the right to demand that the post office opens until 23h59 for you, any more than you can demand that the government provides you with a teleporting machine if you were to find yourself 20 minutes away from a post office at 23h59. 23h59 is just the time it has to be postmarked by, not a guarantee that you will physically be able to file at exactly 23h59. Given the huge amount of infrastructure available allowing you to file before this time, and the minuscule amount of planning it would take to do this, it is really hard to muster sympathy for your cause.

You should have filed earlier. No, fuck you! :slight_smile:

20

Having the right to do something doesn’t absolve you from being an idiot, it only absolves you from having the government take action against you for your behavior. I will go on record right now stating that I do not believe the government should take action against you for the manner in which you filed your taxes.

However, you’re still an idiot for letting the government hold onto YOUR money, because you were too lazy to calculate your taxes and send them in before the government mandated deadline. Not only did you let the government keep your money, but you set yourself up for a stressful evening, when giving yourself even 1 day of extra time (after sitting on the tax information for 2 months) would have made the filing process simple.

What’s hilarious is that you, and millions of other filers, will wait until April 15th next year before you start filling out your taxes, and will yet again be shocked at how stressful and irritating Tax Day is, while folks like myself will barely notice the day because we got our refunds in February after leisurely filling out our forms and sending them in.