If you have yet to file your tax return, you are hours away from turning from procrastinator to scofflaw.
Come midnight, your carriage of a deadline turns back into a pumpkin, and you are on your own.
If you are still stuck in the age of scribes and filing a paper return, you can find post offices open late to get that all-important postmark that will keep you out of trouble at the website https://www.usps.com/taxes/.
The Atlanta Main Post Office, 3900 Crown Road, which is open from 6 a.m. until midnight, year round, will be staffed to collect returns until midnight on April 15 as well.
If you are not enclosing a payment, Georgia taxpayers can send most tax forms, including 1040, 1040A and 1040 EZ to: Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, Kansas City, MO 64999-0002. If you are enclosing a payment, send to: Internal Revenue Service, P.O. Box 931000, Louisville, KY 40293-1000.
If you are slapping your head while reading this and going "Doh!" you can file for an extension here: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/Can%27t-File-By-April-15,-Use-Free-File-to-Get-a-Six-Month-Extension-2013.
Electronic filing has become de rigueur for most Americans. The Internal Revenue Service says 86 million of us filed electronically as of April 5 this year, and about 10½ million mailed a return.
Total refunds sent back by that date were $214.4 billion.
The latest poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press tells us that 5 percent of Americans say they love doing their taxes. Twenty-nine percent of them love it because they get a refund; 17 percent because they are good at it; 13 percent say it tickles them because it gives them a sense of control, among other reasons for loving it.
Of course, far more — 56 percent — “hate” or “dislike” doing their taxes, the poll said. That’s because it’s too complicated (31 percent), inconvenient and time-consuming (24 percent); they don’t like how the government spends the money (24 percent); and 9 percent because they owe money, among other answers.
More Republicans (60 percent) than Democrats (46 percent) say they dislike doing taxes. And more Republicans (78 percent) than Democrats (68 percent) told Pew that not reporting all income was morally wrong.
