Attention procrastinators: The deadline for filing federal income taxes this year has been extended to Tuesday, April 17th. Internal Revenue Spokesman spokesman Christopher Miller says the extension is due to the observance of a holiday in Washington D.C. — "Emancipation Day."
Under a federal statute, he says, holidays observed in the District of Columbia have an impact nationwide on tax issues, not just in D.C., so that’s why it affects us. So why didn’t we hear about this before now? Miller says the holiday is a new one, and the impact on the IRS deadline wasn’t caught right away.
Officials recently became aware of the "intersection" of the national filing day and the local observance of the new Emancipation Day, after most of the forms were printed. That’s because the District of Columbia just recently recognized Emancipation Day as a legal holiday. But after this year, Miller says the new holiday shouldn’t interfere with the filing deadline again for a number of years.
He says April fifteenth is on a Tuesday in 2008, so the normal deadline will apply. In fact, the next time Emancipation Day could affect local deadlines is in 2011. Miller says an easy way to bypass the deadline altogether is to get your taxes done now. And, he says, if you use the e-file option accompanied with direct deposit, you could see your return in as little as two weeks.