Tax Deadline Extended 2 Days, Will More File on Time?

NEW YORK (MainStreet) — The Internal Revenue Service is giving taxpayers two extra days to file their 2011 tax returns.

The agency announced today that the deadline for returns will be Tuesday, April 17, explaining that the decision was made because April 15 falls on a Sunday and Monday, April 16 is Emancipation Day, a legal holiday in the District of Columbia. The holiday, which commemorates the day President Lincoln signed the proclamation that freed slaves in the district, was also the reason for last year’s  three-day extension (which is technically being matched this year because 2012 is a leap year).

The later deadline, however, won’t necessarily inspire more taxpayers to file on time.

“An extension of time is always a good thing,” says Kelly Phillips Erb, a Philadelphia-based tax attorney who blogs at TaxGirl.com. “But a procrastinator is a procrastinator. Now, instead of filing on midnight on April 15, they will simply file on midnight on April 17.”

Still, Erb admits that having two extra days could help ease the panic many people associate with getting their tax returns in on time.

“It’s kind of like having a three-day weekend,” she says. “It will make people happy.”

Last year, data provided to MainStreet from Turbo Tax showed that nearly half of Americans waited until the final four weeks of the tax season last year to file their returns. You can check out this to find out when Americans really pay their taxes.

—Jeanine Skowronski is staff reporter for MainStreet. You can reach her by email at Skowronski.jeanine@thestreet.com, or follow her on Twitter at @JeanineSko.