# Who waited until the last minute to file their taxes? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 16, 2004, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-waited-until-the-last-minute-to-file-their-taxes/240351 "2004-04-16T13:16:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2004, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-waited-until-the-last-minute-to-file-their-taxes/240351/21 "2004-04-17T11:07:22Z")
I knew I was getting a buttload of money back so I filed as soon as I had my W-2s. Got my federal back the third week of Feb. The funny thing is, when people were telling me they were doing their taxes it would shock me because I had mine done months ago. ---
**Author:** ![zoltar7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b38774/32.png) [@zoltar7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoltar7)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2004, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-waited-until-the-last-minute-to-file-their-taxes/240351/22 "2004-04-17T11:30:52Z")
I filed my tax year 2000 return on April 15th. 2003 will be done…soon. ---
**Author:** ![misstee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/958977/32.png) [@misstee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misstee)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2004, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-waited-until-the-last-minute-to-file-their-taxes/240351/23 "2004-04-17T16:22:58Z")
> [@Surreal](#): > > Why would I want to add to the amount of time it takes for me to receive my return? Why should I give the government an interest-free loan?? Keep in mind some folks aren’t getting a refund. Some folks would rather hang on to their money as long as they can so they can collect the intrest on the money in their bank account as long as they can, instead of letting the government collect the intrest. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2004, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-waited-until-the-last-minute-to-file-their-taxes/240351/24 "2004-04-17T19:21:24Z")
We started our taxes back in February. Determined that we will be getting a modest return. My wife has a home-based business for which she did not have all of the paperwork collected at the time. She just started the business last year and will take a loss, so we knew we would not wind up owing taxes because of it. We never did get around to gathering all of the paperwork together, so we are taking an extension, and will hopefully get around to it sometime before August. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2004, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-waited-until-the-last-minute-to-file-their-taxes/240351/25 "2004-04-17T19:38:16Z")
> [@misstee](#): > > Keep in mind some folks aren’t getting a refund. Some folks would rather hang on to their money as long as they can so they can collect the intrest on the money in their bank account as long as they can, instead of letting the government collect the intrest. I understand the principle, and if its worth it to you, I say go for it. But lets do the math: Say you owed 4000 dollars. That’s a pretty large amount to owe, but lets say you do. My credit union’s 3 month Certificate of Deposit pays 1.09 percent anually. So 4000 times .0109 equals 43.6. Devide by 12 equals 3.6333333333333333333333333333333. Mutliply by 3 equals 10.9 for 3 months. Now, the average person is gonna owe considerably less than 4000. I don’t know what average is, but for every 100 you owe, you would get: Lets see, 10.9 devided by 4000 times 100 would be: 0.2725. For roughly 27 cents per 100 dollars owed, that seems like a bad ROI for the stress involved. But that’s just me. ---
**Author:** ![misstee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/958977/32.png) [@misstee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misstee)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2004, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-waited-until-the-last-minute-to-file-their-taxes/240351/26 "2004-04-17T21:36:43Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > For roughly 27 cents per 100 dollars owed, that seems like a bad ROI for the stress involved. But that’s just me. We had no stress in waiting. We had an accountant figure up our taxes back in March. We just didn’t send payment until the 15th of April. ---
**Author:** ![zenith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zenith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zenith)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2004, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-waited-until-the-last-minute-to-file-their-taxes/240351/27 "2004-04-17T22:12:47Z")
Looked’ em over on the 12th (found and corrected a $2 error in my favor). Sealed them up with checks postdated to the 15th. Actually posted everything at about 11p.m. the 15th. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2004, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-waited-until-the-last-minute-to-file-their-taxes/240351/28 "2004-04-18T04:36:16Z")
> [@Surreal](#): > > Why would I want to add to the amount of time it takes for me to receive my return? Why should I give the government an interest-free loan?? Well, if you’re getting a refund, you’ve already given the government an interest-free loan. I adjust my taxes throughout the year so that I end up neither owing nor getting a refund. (Of course, it’s not perfect. I usually get a very small refund every year.) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2004, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-waited-until-the-last-minute-to-file-their-taxes/240351/29 "2004-04-18T04:43:48Z")
Me! Me! Me! I did them on TurboTax at 11:15 last night. I file a 1040EZ, which is 20 bucks. I only work part-time, so I was getting a tiny, tiny refund- 59 dollars. I have a CD (certificate of deposit, not the musical kind) which apparently made me 51 dollars this year. I had no idea I had one, but Washington Mutual sent me a nice little form about it. My refund after factoring in the CD interest is 8 dollars. TurboTax charged me 20 dollars. You do the math. \ ---
**Author:** ![Limbo\_Donni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Limbo\_Donni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limbo_Donni)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2004, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-waited-until-the-last-minute-to-file-their-taxes/240351/30 "2004-04-18T04:48:01Z")
I waited until 10pm on the 15, then phoned it in. It took 20 min to do so. I’m just happy I wasn’t put into a hold line! ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2004, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-waited-until-the-last-minute-to-file-their-taxes/240351/31 "2004-04-18T04:57:03Z")
I waited until Monday. I find the 1040a scary (I only did it for the first time last year) and it was a big ole pain in the ass trying to figure everything out last time, so I put it off and put it off and on monday found out I could file free online with a IRS approved site, so I did that and let the program figure out the student loan interest mess. Yay! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-waited-until-the-last-minute-to-file-their-taxes/240351.md?page=1)