2006 Tax Returns Due April 17

[jeffrey]

By Valerie S. Johnson

Birthdays, Christmas, and April 15th – these are the dates we remember, and sometimes try to forget. April 15th is the day most Americans dread because it is the deadline for filing their prior year’s federal income tax returns. Some people just procrastinate, and then get stressed out trying to file before the penalties and late fees kick in. If you owe tax, you want to delay writing that check to Uncle Sam until the last possible moment.

For tax year 2006, all taxpayers get a two-day reprieve. The filing deadline for federal income tax returns is Tuesday, April 17, 2007. How did this happen? For starters, April 15 falls on a Sunday. This pushed the deadline back to the next business day, which would be Monday, April 16.

But to further complicate things, April 16 is Emancipation Day in the District of Columbia, and it is also Patriots Day in Massachusetts. The IRS says that a legal holiday in D.C. affects the fifty states even when it’s not a Federal holiday. And the IRS processing facility which serves D.C. and six states on the East coast will be closed because it is located in Massachusetts, where another holiday is observed.

So rather than having different filing deadlines based on your location of residence, the IRS decided that the April 17 deadline will apply to all federal income tax filers. This decision was made after all the forms and publications were printed, so ignore any references you see to the wrong due date.