Who would have thunk it?

Two years in a row, the US government has altered the date that we must file our personal taxes.

Last year, the delay was because of the mass confusion that the pandemic wrought.  And, with folks NOT in their offices, it became clear that the IRS would not be able to handle the deluge of tax returns coming in.  So, the tax date was altered from 15 May to 15 July.

By the way, there are still some millions and millions of unprocessed tax returns from 2019.  (I kid you not!)  Because the IRS didn’t go back to its offices for a while and the paper returns simply overwhelmed the IRS’ ability to process returns in a timely fashion.

This year, the tax filing deadline is NOT today.  The IRS- under pressure from Congress- provided us with one extra month to file- until the 17th of May.   (The 17th was chosen because the 15th is on a weekend.)

There was a rumor that the IRS will change the date that estimated taxes are due, as well.  Making that the 17th of May, as well.  FUHGEDDABOUDIT!   Your estimated taxes are due today!   And, you can bet there will be penalties and interest should you fail to comply!!!!!

Now, for many of you, this filing deadline extension simply lets you procrastinate more.  I’m betting that if you haven’t filed your taxes yet,  you probably haven’t started filling out the forms, either.

For those of us tax professionals, this deadline extension just makes our job harder.  Many of the professionals plan on taking off on vacation as soon as the tax season is over.  Well, there went that idea.

We (that’s us) also have to deal with folks that just love to wait until the last minute to get us their data.  (We literally received data from two clients- who never called us- just telling us they are friends of our clients- today.   And, then clients wonder why we are in no rush to prepare their taxes right after they submit their data.

We run queues for everything.  Our process is simple- first come, first served.  So, if you bring us your data sooner, your taxes are done sooner.  (As a matter of fact, if you bring us your data sooner, the costs for tax preparation are lower!)  The closer you get to the deadline, the higher the fees.

I suggest you get us your data lickety split!  Both to save money and ensure we have sufficient time to consider the best ways to keep your tax obligations as low as possible.  I can guarantee you right now that our fees simply go up a few dollars each and every day from now until the 17th of May.

And, we are not alone in this practice.

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