March 15
March 15, 2011 (Tuesday)
“Beware the Ides of March.” In Shakespeare’s play, “Julius Caesar,” the phrase meant March 15. Today is March 15. Before the U.S. Government changed the deadline for filing income tax forms, March 15 was the deadline. It was changed in 1955. Why was it changed? Quoting Jessica Sung, “According to an IRS spokesman, the move ‘spread out the peak workload,’ but there’s another explanation. Turns out that as the income tax applied to more of the middle class, the government had to issue more refunds. ‘Pushing the deadline back gives the government more time to hold on to the money,’ says Ed McCaffery, a University of Southern California law professor and tax guru. Still, the IRS’s rigidity works in your favor: By law, it must mail your refund within 45 days or pay you interest.”
April 15 has come to be known as “Tax Day,” but it is seldom tagged on calendars and it definitely is not a holiday. I’m surprised that someone hasn’t made it into a party day with greeting cards, etc. Maybe it has been done, but I just don’t know about it.
Anyway, today is no longer “Tax Day.” Doubtless, however, if you live in Texas, you will pay state tax today if you buy anything. And if you are employed, your check is tapped each time and withholding taxes are sent off to the Great Beyond by your employer, who also must match your Social Security deductions. If you are self-employed, you probably send your income tax and social security tax every three months or so during the year. “Tax Day,” then is not just a day for paying taxes; it is a day for making sure you let the government know how much tax you owe, and, if you are fortunate, how much you expect to have refunded.
March 15 should remind us to get busy filling out those forms and getting them ready to mail. Who knows? If we start early enough, we may not have to rush to the Post Office before 11:59 p.m. on April 15th. Wouldn’t that be nice?