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Holidays Extend IRS Tax Deadline

IRS Failed to Take Note of Emancipation Day

April 5, 2007

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Just in case it slipped your mind, the Internal Revenue Service has issued a reminder, telling taxpayers it needs their 2006 return by Tuesday, April 17. The deadline is two days later than normal because the traditional April 15 date falls on a Sunday and Monday is a legal holiday in Washington, D.C., and Massachusetts.

Previously, the April 17 deadline applied just to individuals in the District of Columbia and six eastern states who are served by an IRS processing facility in Massachusetts, where the Massachusetts Patriots Day state holiday will be observed on April 16.

Under a federal statute enacted decades ago, holidays observed in the District of Columbia have impact nationwide on tax issues, not just in D.C. Under recently-enacted city legislation, April 16 is Emancipation Day, a new holiday in the District of Columbia.

Although the Treasury Department is located in the middle of the District, no one there was aware of the holiday when this year's forms and publications were printed. District officials would say this is typical of the treatment they get from the federal government.

Although residents of the District are American citizens, they do not have voting representation in Congress and, although the District theoretically has home rule, Congress and federal agencies routinely override local decisions, often without even bothering to tell local elected officials.

The April 17, 2007 deadline will apply to any of the following:
• 2006 federal individual income tax returns, whether filed electronically or on paper.
• Requests for an automatic six-month tax-filing extension, whether submitted electronically or on Form 4868.
• Tax year 2006 balance due payments, whether made electronically (direct debit or credit card) or by check.
• Tax-year 2006 contributions to a Roth or traditional IRA.
• Individual estimated tax payments for the first quarter of 2007, whether made electronically or by check.
• Individual refund claims for tax year 2003, where the regular three-year statute of limitations is expiring.

Other tax-filing and payment requirements affected by this change are described in IRS Publication 509, Tax Calendars for 2007, available on www.irs.gov.

Most taxpayers will not have to change their plans in response to this announcement. Three out of four individual filers get refunds. Typically, the IRS says, returns claiming refunds are filed early in the tax season.

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