Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - Procrastinators rejoice! Due to a holiday being observed in Washington D.C. taxpayers have an extra three days to file their federal and NY state tax returns this year.
The IRS is giving citizens until midnight on Monday, April 18 to file their returns because Emancipation Day falls on the traditional due date, April 15. Emancipation Day commemorates President Lincoln's signing of the emancipation proclamation, and is celebrated in the capital.
Because of the federal extension, New York State has also pushed its deadline to the same date.
Even those who aren't normally procrastinators, and who normally itemize their federal taxes in January to ensure an early refund, will be forced to wait this year. Certain federal tax returns can't be filed until February because of Congress' passage of a new tax bill last December that has the IRS working hard to reprogram its processing system.
"A family of four with two people who are very modest wage earners that get a house hold credit and one of them is a teacher and has one of those special deductions or they do itemize," said Certified Public Accountant Thomas Riley. "They are the ones getting hurt."
According to the IRS those who itemize deductions, claim a deduction for college tuition or teachers who claim a deduction for out-of-pocket-classroom expenses won't be able to file until mid-February, which means a refund won't be headed their way until late-February to early-March. "For some people this is going to be the perfect storm that okay now on top of all our other problems, now they're getting delayed six weeks," he said.
P.E.A.C.E Incorporated offers free tax help to some of those taxpayers. P.E.A.C.E. tax preparer Brendan Ryan says that even though filing can't be done until next month, people shouldn't wait until then to start the process. "We can still process their taxes earlier than the deadline that the IRS sets up then once we are able to send, we can easily send the taxes because they're already done," he said.
For those who aren't itemizing or claiming certain deductions, the IRS will start to accept E-File and Free File returns on Friday, January 14.
To qualify for free tax preparation help from P.E.A.C.E., people must:
- Have a total household income $49,000 or less and
- Reside in Onondaga County and
- Not own rental property and
- Have 2010 income from wages, self-employment, pension or government benefits and
- Did not declare bankruptcy in 2010 and
- Did not receive military pay and
- Those who are self-employed did not have employees, did not deduct their home as an expense and did not have inventory.
New this year, the tax preparers at P.E.A.C.E. are also prepared to help those with cancellation of credit card debt or who lost their home to foreclosure.
In all, P.E.A.C.E. expects to give free tax help to more than 3,000 people, about 600 more than in 2010. Appointments for help begin on January 25, and can be scheduled by calling 634-3756 as early as January 18.
