# Why not move tax day to Oct. 15?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-move-tax-day-to-oct-15/702334
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [October 24, 2014, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-move-tax-day-to-oct-15/702334 "2014-10-24T07:30:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2014, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-move-tax-day-to-oct-15/702334/41 "2014-10-26T00:34:01Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#):
>
> It’s true for almost everybody; that’s the extension and you can get an extra six months. It just isn’t automatic. Self employed people don’t get anything special as far as I know. They are forced to file, even if it’s pretty damn obvious that a refund of coming (although exempt from filling if the income is a trivial amount). Most normal employees don’t bother as the benefit is minimal and it only gives a delay in filing; it does not give you more time to pay the man.
That’s exactly my point. As was mentioned earlier, the taxes (estimated) are still due on April 15, the extension just gives you time to go over the paperwork and get a final filing. If you told most people that filing isn’t technically due until October 15, they wouldn’t care.
---
### Author:  [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2014, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-move-tax-day-to-oct-15/702334/42 "2014-10-28T17:28:56Z")
> [@adaher](#):
>
> I realize this post will probably draw quite a bit of snark, and that’s okay. But what I really want to know is why this might be an impractical or bad idea.
If it draws snark, it’s only because you front-loaded your question with disgusting partisan bullshit so thick I could cut it with a knife. How you expected to have any kind of reasonable discussion is beyond me; your OP reads like you are intentionally trying to bait people into snarky responses.
But, to answer your question, one major hurdle would be, it seems, that the end of the fiscal year for businesses is September. A WAG here, but making sure all tax-related stuff is done and in order two weeks after the fiscal year ends would be not possible. So, moving tax day would involve major schedule/workflow restructuring from the business sector.
---
### Author:  [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2014, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-move-tax-day-to-oct-15/702334/43 "2014-11-02T05:52:10Z")
> [@adaher](#):
>
> And in an era when Democrats are doing everything they can to set the election system up so that they will have an advantage, early voting, mail-in voting, no ID voting, etc. and justifying it as wanting everyone to vote
Those BASTARDS. I don’t see how a Democrat can look herself in the face with this sort of horrible ideology. Wanting everyone to vote. Sheesh. Next thing you know, they’ll want the constitution to apply to everyone and shit.
It’s an ugly world, man. An ugly world.
---
### Author:  [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2014, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-move-tax-day-to-oct-15/702334/44 "2014-11-02T06:26:59Z")
> [@adaher](#):
>
> And in an era when Democrats are doing everything they can to set the election system up so that they will have an advantage, early voting
I can’t for the life of me figure out what Republicans have against early voting. Are they so set in their ways that they think voting is on a Tuesday and it’s just incomprehensible that it could be done on any other day? Do they really just like standing in long lines? What is their reasoning on this? I stopped to vote while I was out running errands Thursday and it took me 15 minutes. I can’t understand why anyone would be against that.
---
### Author:  [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2014, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-move-tax-day-to-oct-15/702334/45 "2014-11-02T15:10:49Z")
> [@aurora\_maire](#):
>
> I can’t for the life of me figure out what Republicans have against early voting. Are they so set in their ways that they think voting is on a Tuesday and it’s just incomprehensible that it could be done on any other day? Do they really just like standing in long lines? What is their reasoning on this? I stopped to vote while I was out running errands Thursday and it took me 15 minutes. I can’t understand why anyone would be against that.
Because if voting is easier, more people will do it, and if more people do it, Republicans think they’ll lose.
Instead of trying to make it so that more people want them in power, they want to make is to that more people don’t vote.
---
### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2014, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-move-tax-day-to-oct-15/702334/46 "2014-11-02T15:26:09Z")
> [@aurora\_maire](#):
>
> I can’t for the life of me figure out what Republicans have against early voting. Are they so set in their ways that they think voting is on a Tuesday and it’s just incomprehensible that it could be done on any other day? Do they really just like standing in long lines? What is their reasoning on this? I stopped to vote while I was out running errands Thursday and it took me 15 minutes. I can’t understand why anyone would be against that.
You need to read [this other thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=738101) to get the context. Velocity’s premise there boils down to “Democrats are against voter ID because they hate democracy.” Yet in this thread, adaher is saying that Democrats are evil because they want to make voting easier. It’s that wonderful “heads I win, tails you lose” deformity of reality that conservatives are able to scream at the top of their lungs without any embarrassment.
Simply put, the current system puts up a whole series of roadblocks to voting. It is hard to get an ID, hard to register, hard to find your poling place, hard to stand in line to vote, hard to have your vote be meaningful because of gerrymandering. No firm numbers are possible but every serious estimate puts the cumulative total of lost voters because of these in the millions. Because the same estimates - agreed upon by both sides - show that these would disproportionately be Democratic voters, Republicans have huge incentives to increase the roadblocks and Democrats to make voting easier.
The trend of the times is for early voting, mail-in voting, internet voting, and other methods of easier voting to increase the total number of voters. That’s why there’s such frenetic effort on the part of Republicans to throw up more roadblocks. In the long term, they will lose every battle because they are fighting the future and conservatives have never won that battle in their entire history. In the short term, their manipulations will win local successes. In all cases, they will continue to call Democrats evil for opposing them. Really. Read that other thread. It is surreal in its invective.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-move-tax-day-to-oct-15/702334.md?page=2)