Don’t get confused.  Tax day is not the 15th, the 16th, or even the 17th.  This year (Unless you live in  California,  Alabama, or Oregon), the due date is the 18th of April.

Two years ago, 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.

Last year, the tax filing deadline was also extended.  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.)

By the way, there are still some millions of unprocessed tax returns from 2019, 2020, and 2021..  (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.

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.

And, we are not alone in this practice.

On another note, I am finding if very hard to pen my thoughts. Oh, the thoughts are still there, but being in a hospital bed, undergoing operations, is not conducive to writing my blog.

I will be taking a leave of absence until I return home.

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