All this hubub and rushing around that happens during the week of April 15 makes me wonder. This is only the fourth year I’ve had to file a tax return (and the fourth year I’ve gotten a refund :D), but this is also the latest I’ve ever filed – I telefiled on February 10. Last year, I telefiled on January 30 (or 31, I don’t remember). I got my direct deposit refund from the IRS on February 18 this year.
Why do people wait until now to actually do it? Granted, my taxes are simple – a 1040-EZ would suffice in place of the telefile, and it took under 10 minutes to tally up data from my 2 W2 forms. But I can’t imagine any reason, except for perhaps not having the money to pay any amount you owe the IRS (but even then, why not file and then just pay before April 15?), anyone would wait until NOW to do the return, considering you have your W2’s by the first week in February.
I think a lot of them are trying to get on the local news as they do their obligatory post office interviews in the evening of April 15 each year. And if you owe a ton of money, of course you wait.
I don’t get it either. When we filed short-form and always got a refund, we always filed as early as possible – never after mid-February and very often at the end of January. The last few years we’ve made more money and owned a house so we’ve had to do a long form and pay, so we send the check at the last minute – but the last minute to me doesn’t mean standing in line at the Post Office at midnight on April 15 – I put the check in my mailbox yesterday for my regular pickup. And we actually filed way back in February – even though we knew we’d end up paying, we wanted to find out the damages as soon as possible so we could budget out what we had to pay as painlessly as possible.
I suppose some of the people you see on the news could have legitimate reasons for filing so late. Last year we had trouble getting our W-2s together (we had recently moved and lost some mail in the forwarding process) so we filed late for us – the last week in March. But late as in the very last day? That would have to be a real emergency and real emergencies can’t account for all the dipshits you see on the news every April 15.
If you’re getting a refund, it makes sense to file early.
Since I owe, I am in no rush to send them my money. And filing this week is no harder than any other time. What’s the hubbub? I’m just sticking a letter in an mailbox.
When we have to pay, as we did, again, this year, I don’t bother sending anything in until close to the deadline. Ours went last week - the check has already been cashed.
On the rare occasions when I knew I was getting a refund, I’d file as soon as I possibly could. But, frankly, I’d rather pay a little in April than not have my money during the year. My goal is to have to write a check for less than $100. (This year, I had to cough up $210, so I was pretty close.) As for filing early and paying later - seems unnecessary to me. The IRS will get my forms and my check together by April 15.
I have bad luck with forms. I usually get a telefile from the federals and a paper file from the state, or vice versa. This year, I got a telefile from the federals, and… actually, that was all I got. So I trundled off to the library, because they always have forms. And they had loads. Of federal forms. No state forms. My ever-helpful boss downloaded a state 1040 for me (no EZ this year, the fiends!), and I got halfway through it and realized I didn’t have all the paperwork I needed… So I finished my federal forms and had them mailed out in February, but I never quite finished my state forms. It’s all done now, though, so I will not be delinquent.
I think you have more incentive to file early if you’re getting a refund. Unless you’re my procrastinating brother, who is getting small refunds from both the feds and the state but still didn’t file until yesterday. (The beauty of filing via computer…ahh.)
I usually fill out the returns as soon as I have all the paperwork. If everything has worked out properly I’ll end up owing some trivial amount. In that case, it doesn’t get mailed until April 15th.
I won’t file first and then send a check later because it irritates me that I have buy a stamp to assist the IRS in ripping me off. I’m definitely not buying two.
Petty? Sure, but I never claimed to be rational when it comes to bitching about my income tax.
I waited until March for a couple of reasons - it took me a while to get my corrected 1099s from my investments. Then I had to find them again after I received them, and even had to get a new copy of one ‘cause it disappeared in my ever-growing pile o’ crap in my office. So I started a tax file, which I should have done quite a while ago. Then, I was worried I’d owe money, and since I’m a freelance writer starting out, you can imagine that I’m not exactly making a hell of a lot of money each month, so it took me a while to save a stash from a few projects I was working on in case I did owe taxes. Turns out I actually got a refund for the first time in four years; however, I was still glad I waited because since I saved money for taxes and got a refund, I was actually able to splurge for a change and buy a couple of pounds of my favorite coffee, plus completely pay off the credit card I use to make major purchases, which was most important. I hate owing money.
I didn’t mean to offend anyone here who purposely waits 'til April 15 to pay-- I guess for you guys, there’s no rushing around, as you probably actually filled out your forms long ago. I was more asking why people wait until today, then rush around to get the forms done, then complain about it.
I bet you’re one of those Ned Flanders tax goody-goody’s…admit it, you claimed the extra state sales tax on your 5$ straight dope subscription, didn’t you?
I **filed ** my tax with the IRS Tele-tax line just as soon as I was able to download my W2 - January 15 or so. When the tin lady told me that I owed money, I filled out the payment voucher and tacked it to the wall so I could **pay ** the pittance ($44) yesterday.
There is no reason for me to give my money to the government any sooner, so I won’t. Likewise, I’m not one of those people that have extra taken out of each paycheck. That’s just a non-interest-paying savings account. I want as much of my money in my accounts, working for me year-round. No benefit in letting the government hold onto it.
I think most people wait until the “last minute” due to procrastination and also if they owe money, why give it sooner than necessary.
This year was the latest I have ever filed taxes. We, my husband and I, submitted the taxes on April 6. We filed jointly (otherwise we would have owed more in taxes) Anyway, I have always been one of those folks that files as soon as I get my W-2s, Husband is a freaking procrastinator… He sat down to do them, made a bunch of mistakes :eek: Thankfully I found them before he sent them off, I redid them and then used e-File. He is not doing the taxes anymore. Well at least we get a refund :rolleyes: (500 bucks) I guess it’s always better to receive than give- when it comes to taxes anyway.
January and February are busy months. I’m constantly on the phone or online making plans for week-long stays at Vail, Keystone, Beaver Creek and where ever the snow is falling for skiing, when not actually doing the skiing! And you can’t just pull the Gulfstream up to valet parking, either. Of course, we have the houses at Alta, Tahoe, Taos and Mammoth, so the planning isn’t so much, but the snow-plowing and shopping take up so much time! And the limo can only go so fast in snowy conditions. Andre is a very cautious driver, so I can’t fault him for his concern for our safety.
Of course, March sees the premier of the Formula One season. Jetting off to Australia, Bahrain and Malaysia take time! And all those “Gala receptions”! What time-burners! Deep-sea fishing, para-sailing in Mexico, snowmobiling in Yellowstone all are demands on limited time. Before you know it, April 15th is here and you gotta burn the midnight oil to get yer taxes done.
I would image this would apply to most people.
“But I’ll always regret that Rwandan thing.” --Bill Clinton
I’m in no hurry…
of course last year the accountant buried ours and didn’t remember it until my panic calls on the 13th. Obviously he didnt do ours again this year.
My coworker, in her infiinite wisdom waited until yesterday to file hers. She’s getting a refund. She constantly complains about how she has no money.
Do you see the problem here? I sure do.
I owed $113 (101 to state, 12 to feds). I did mine in March, had them take the money out of my checking on April 1st. Took me all of three hours from start to finish, and that was 15 minutes of digging through a closet to find my tuition info and an hour of the website giving me grief.
I don’t get around to it until I have to, because there are a lot more fun things to do. I can putter around here, go out with friends, etc. With taxes I get to read tedious forms, fuss with the phone for Tele-File, and then probably find out I owe money. Taxes are about as much fun as playing Russian Roulette with 2/3 of the chambers loaded.
When I was younger I used to mail mine on April 16, just to upset my mother, who was convinced I’d be clapped into chains any moment by the IRS enforcers.
My argument was that the penalty they could recoup by coming after me for 1 day’s interest (I know now that 1 day = 30 days in that instance) was far less than it would cost to do so.
These days… I’m an awful procrastinator. I have piles and piles of paperwork around the apartment and they taunt me every night.
