March 15, 2018 (Thursday)
“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,March 15 is no longer “Tax Day.” Doubtless, however, if you live in Texas, you will pay state sales tax today if you buy anything. I’m not complaining; for me, state sales tax is preferable to state income tax. 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.
Ministers are considered “self-employed” for tax purposes, so we pay estimated Income and Social Security Taxes four times a year. Like everyone else our deadline for annual filing is April 15 (April 16 this year because April 15 falls on a Sunday).
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 16th. Wouldn’t that be nice? For several years I have used a computer program and have filed electronically. The IRS will credit my bank account with a refund this year. That’s really nice.
You may ask why I’m still filing income tax at my age, especially since I retired 22 years ago. Some people just never know when to quit.