Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 13, 1991 TAG: 9104150247
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MAG POFF BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Whatever your excuse, the deadline is fast approaching. Federal income tax returns must be postmarked by midnight Monday.
"Anything that's painful, you put off," said Joel Lytton, Roanoke manager for H&R Block.
If you've waited until the last minute, you're not alone.
Jennifer Toth, an Internal Revenue Service spokeswoman in Richmond, said an estimated 61 percent of Virginia taxpayers had filed at last count. Through April 3, she said, 1,502,955 Virginia residents had filed their tax forms with the Philadelphia regional office. Another 203,000 had submitted returns electronically through the office in Andover, Mass. That's out of the 2.8 million Virginia forms expected.
Nationally, through April 5, the IRS had processed 57.2 million of the 113 million returns it expects to receive this year.
Of the returns already filed, 79.7 percent claimed refunds totaling $41.2 billion. At the same point last year, refunds were certified for 79.5 percent of filers, for a total of $38.6 billion. The average refund this year is $902, up 6 percent from $851 in 1990.
The IRS also expects that several million taxpayers will not meet Monday night's deadline.
Those are the people who have been keeping David Lucas busy for the past few weeks. Lucas, a partner with the Roanoke accounting firm of Lucas & Boatright, said he's noticed a 10 percent to 15 percent increase this year in the number of clients filing for extensions because they haven't compiled their tax records. The clients want his firm to estimate the tax due, which must be paid with the form requesting an extension.
Lucas believes people got behind this year because they were distracted by the war during the time when they would usually search out and compile their tax information. Locally, the same thing happened in the spring following the 1985 flood, he said.
Valerie Kowalski, whose accounting firm is entering its fourth year, has seen her business double this season. Many clients tell Kowalski that they've done their own tax returns in the past, but now they are overwhelmed by the complexities.
Melinda Chitwood of Brown Edwards & Co. of Roanoke, said accountants start the year doing company audits and then must meet the March 15 deadline for filing corporate tax returns.
Now the certified public accountants are seeing individuals, Chitwood said, usually people who have tax complications. People go to CPAs when they have a complex tax situation, an unusual event such as a pension distribution or a business, Lucas said.
Meanwhile, at H&R Block, the nation's largest tax preparer, Lytton said the staff is geared up to handle the procrastinators.
For tax shops geared more to personal rather than business clients, it will be a long weekend. Lytton said his tax preparers will work this weekend and plan to stay Monday "until we get the last one out."
He said this is the busiest year of the decade he's worked for H&R Block in Roanoke. He attributed the rush to the complexity of the tax code. "It's a confusing law," he said.
Sometimes customers arrive as late as 8 or 9 p.m. April 15, Lytton said. If they have all the information with them, the customers can usually get returns into the mail by the midnight deadline, he said.
11TH-HOUR TIPS/ FOR FILING TAX RETURNS
Use correct postage when mailing your return. The Internal Revenue Service will not accept returns with insufficient postage.
Check the time of the last collection before putting your return in the mailbox. Many boxes, especially in residential areas, are collected early in the day, meaning mail deposited late on Monday will not get an April 15 postmark.
The main Roanoke post office on Rutherford Avenue, across from the Roanoke Civic Center, and the Salem post office at 320 W. Main St. both will be open until midnight Monday. Post office personnel will be on hand to postmark all returns mailed by that deadline.
Take last-minute problems, as well as completed returns, to the post office. Jennifer Toth and other staff members from the Internal Revenue Service in Richmond will be at Roanoke's main post office Monday until midnight to assist with last-minute problems. Toth said she will have tax forms, including the form for filing for a deadline extension.
The IRS office at the Poff Federal Building will assist any taxpayer who is there Monday by 4:30 p.m. People with questions also may call the IRS toll-free at 1-800-TAX-1040.
by CNB