Oct. 15th is the new April 15th

The first year I did taxes, one of the experienced preparers spun stories about the madness of April 15th. Last minute filers, some with businesses, who expected to walk out that day with a return. But in my experience, it has never been that bad. I may get a simple return or someone bringing in info to finish their return but nothing worse. Lately, most of the returns have been picked up so the day is spent filing a few extensions and answering questions. And October 15th (or Aug 15th before the date change) was just like another day. Not this year! October 15, 2007 has been like an April 15th I heard about long ago.

At 9 am, I still had 2 large returns I was waiting on info for and 4 to pick up. By 10am everything was the same but I had had at least 1 call from everyone telling me they were coming and not to worry. By 11am, the clients with missing info had dropped by but neither had everything. Then the extension clients who hadn't been in yet started calling and dropping by. Not to bring me their returns but to find out what I was needing from them to finish their returns (everything). And there were people calling with tax questions, someone looking for a bookkeeper and a investment person wanting to know what would happening a mutual client took more out of their IRA. The pick-ups came in not only to get their return but to visit too. Several of those returns had to be changed to mail in because a spouse was not going to be home until too late to e-file. At 3:30, one of the MIA extensions brought in his info but it won't be done tonight. Finally, all the returns but one (the 3:30 one) are done and picked up and the phone has stopped ringing. What a day!

I have been on the tax forum Drake Software has for its clients and learned that I am not alone. For a large number of tax preparers, this has been a strange ending to the tax season. I still have 3 extensions that are MIA (I probably won't see them) and one who did check in with me and is working on his business receipts to get to me.
Tomorrow, I will clean up my desk and the files I have been piling on the corner and then relax a little. But there are CPEs to register for and self-study programs to finish. Then it will be time to start getting ready for January and the start of a new season. But right now the quiet is wonderful.

Comments

[Robert D Flach]

Trish-

I am one of the experienced tax preparers who remember the madness of April 15th. There were times, in the “good old days”, when the last client left our office at 3:00 AM on April 16th! I used to make a run to the main Post Office each April 15th at about 11:30 PM.

In the very beginning of my career we even had a client who always came to us on the day after the current deadline to file the prior years return – consistently a year and a day late!

We also had several clients, two in particular, who always came in on the last day to have their returns prepared. When Wally, a police officer who was always the last person on the last day, walked in the door we knew the season was finally over. One year Moe, the other last day regular, came in on April 12th. We told him to go away and come back on April 15th.

This was when we had a storefront office.

Nowadays, as I work out of my home, April 15th and October 15th are laid back days. To honor last day regular Moe, one of the PATH Emergency Response Team members who was killed on September 11th, I no longer work on 1040s on April 15th (or 16th or 17th if the deadline is extended). As a general rule, any tax return not in my hands, with all the information necessary to complete the return, by March 31st is automatically extended. I am toying with telling clients this coming January that I may not even accept tax returns after March 31st – to cut down on the GD extensions.

As for October 15th – if a client waits this long to give me his/her tax “stuff” it is just too bad for the client! He/she deserves to file late. Perhaps a penalty assessment will cause him/her to be on time next year. I will not “stop everything” on October 15th to complete a newly received return from scratch.

As I tell my clients, I will not rush through a return, and risk error, just to meet an arbitrary deadline.

TWTP