5 January 2006 (Thursday)
procrastination pays off
It looks like New Englanders will have a little extra time to file their taxes this year (and next?):
The Internal Revenue Service has pushed back the deadline for federal tax returns to April 18 for people in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, Maryland and the District of Columbia.The deadline was pushed back because April 15 falls on a Saturday and April 17 is Patriots Day, a state holiday in Massachusetts and Maine. Because of the holiday, the IRS service center in Andover, Mass., where the tax returns from the six states are processed, will be closed on April 17.
The deadline was last pushed back in 2002, said IRS spokeswoman Peggy Riley. Mainers will be given two extra days to file in 2007 because April 15 falls on a Sunday and Patriots Day falls the day after, she said.
Maine Revenue Services has pushed back the deadline for state tax returns as well. They have to be postmarked by midnight April 18.
What really amuses me is that even though the article appears on the Boston Globe's website, it focuses on the impact on people from Maine. Granted, it's an AP article, and it was probably put up without effort, but neither the headline nor the first paragraph carried any indication that Bay Staters would be impacted.
Just one small point I want to quibble over: "Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, Maryland and the District of Columbia" does not equal "New England." What I find really strange is that NY, MD and DC returns get processed in MA, but RI and CT (arguably both part of New England) don't. And in all other respects, RI really is just a suburb of MA. I mean, RI doesn't even print their own drivers' licenses... they send them to be printed in MA!
