Income tax forms due at midnight

Have you procrastinated? Consider filing an extension

Anyone too harried, frustrated or just plain lazy to weed through piles of paperwork and fill out their tax returns by midnight tonight can catch a filing break from Uncle Sam.

He doesn’t need your paperwork yet — just your money.

The IRS automatically grants a four-month extension to anyone filling out a formal request — Form 4868 — and sending it in by tonight’s deadline for filing income taxes.

But there’s a catch: If you owe the government, you’re still required to estimate your liability and send the IRS a check or authorize an automatic bank withdrawal.

All by midnight tonight.

“It’s really very simple,” said Rita Lucas, an IRS-trained coordinator of tax-preparation volunteers in Lawrence. “The extension form is essentially three lines: Name, address, Social Security number. If you need to send some money with the extension form, just throw a check in there to be sure. You’ll get it back if you pay too much.

“The IRS doesn’t mind if you get an extension. It breaks up their work a little.”

An estimated 9 million Americans are expected to take advantage of the filing-extension option, which allows people to wait until Aug. 15 to send in their returns.

How to file

Colleen Skaggs, Lawrence, left, gets some assistance from Paul Gay, an AARP tax aide, at the Lawrence Senior Center. Skaggs, who works at Trinity Respite Care in Lawrence, was getting help Thursday with some of her clients' tax forms.

There are three ways to get an extension:

  • Fill out the paper form, Form 4868, available at the public library and elsewhere, and send it in. “It’s like a coupon,” Lucas said.
  • Click on the IRS Web site, www.irs.gov, and follow the links. You can download the form to mail in or file electronically. There also are electronic-payment options for people estimating their tax payments.
  • Use the phone. If you filed a return last year, you’re in the IRS database and eligible to get an extension by phone. Call (888) 796-1074 and follow the prompts. This option also includes the ability to make a payment electronically.
text Event: Tax Night! featuring Alferd Packer Memorial String Bandvideo 6News video: Tax extension easy to do (04-14-05)text Tax work adds up to 6 billion hours (04-15-05)text CBS plans to visit tax festivities at post office (04-12-05)text On the Street: Do you file your taxes early or wait until the last minute? (04-11-05)

With the filing deadline fast approaching, tax experts encourage people to be cautious in preparing their returns. Moving too quickly can lead to mistakes, which causes far more problems — and potential expenses — than the simple task of getting an extension.

“If you don’t have all your information to file a complete and accurate return, or if you have the potential for filing in a hurry and possibly missing something, it doesn’t really take that much time to do an extension,” said Mike Bartlow, office manager for SS&C Business and Tax Services, 4910 Corporate Center Drive. “Very few people want to have to see correspondence from the IRS in their mailbox.”

SS&C handles many of its clients’ returns by appointment, and anyone coming in the door today will be directed to get an extension.

The Alferd Packer Memorial String Band will lead the annual tax night festivities at the downtown Lawrence post office, 645 Vt. The band will start playing at 9 tonight to greet last-minute taxpayers.A CBS News crew and correspondent Bill Geist are also expected to be at tonight’s events to document them for “Sunday Morning.”

Waiting for rush

Others preparers in town are bracing to accommodate a rush.

H&R Block, which has four locations in Lawrence, opens at 9 a.m. and won’t stop printing out forms, calculating taxes and filing electronic returns until everyone’s done, said Kathleen Nikodym, office manager for the company’s location at 520 W. 23rd St.

“We stay here until whenever,” she said. “We don’t have a closing time. We’re just open.”

Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, with three locations in Lawrence, also plans to stay open late today.

John Studdard, a former tax collector for the Kansas Department of Revenue, acknowledges that getting an extension appears attractive. But for many people, he said, the move merely postpones the pain.

“I’d say get to the nearest tax preparer — the professionals, the ones that charge for their services,” said Studdard, who finished his 12th year Thursday as a tax-preparation volunteer at the Lawrence Senior Center. “Get in line, and get it done.”

Here are 10 common tax return mistakes:1. Social Security number(s) incorrect, missing or don’t match name(s).2. Required documentation (W-2s, etc.) not attached.3. Return not signed.4. Incorrect filing status recorded.5. Math errors (Note: According to the IRS, a math error is an incorrect number entered on the return. There need not be a calculation. Example: reporting wages of $29,472 as $24,972.)6. Incorrect or missing forms and schedules.7. Standard deduction used when itemizing is more advantageous. (The General Accounting Office estimates that more than half a million taxpayers could save by itemizing.)8. Social Security taxable benefits worksheet not completed.9. Failing to claim credits — child tax credit, earned income credit, etc. — or figuring credits incorrectly (often because of not understanding credit eligibility or calculating incorrectly).10. Omitting income items.Source: H&R Block