US Income Tax returns – Today is the last date
April 15 is the deadline for filing a federal tax return. But not everybody can meet that deadline. If a tax payer needs more time to get his paperwork in, he has to file a Form 4868, Automatic Extension of Time to File, with the IRS by the April 15 deadline and he will get an automatic six-month extension of time to file. The extension gives time until Oct. 15 to file the tax return.
The IRS wants the Taxpayers to note that an extension of time to file is not an extension of time to pay. Tax has to be paid by April 15; otherwise, the outstanding tax balance will accrue interest and possibly penalties, increasing the total amount. IRS has advised, “If you can't pay the full amount that you owe by April 15, pay as much as you can to minimize the interest and penalty charges.”
E-filing: IRS wants the taxpayers to take advantage of e-filing, which is fast, accurate and easy. Most available tax preparation programs check for errors and necessary information, increasing the accuracy of the return and reducing the need for correspondence with the IRS to clarify errors or omissions. With most programs taxpayers can usually file a state tax return at the same time they electronically file their federal return. Once the return is accepted for processing, the IRS electronically acknowledges receipt of the return. Generally, when someone files electronically, their refund will be issued in about half the time it would take if they had filed a paper return.
Up to 4.4.2008, 96,821,000 returns have been filed of which 67,437,000 were filed electronically, of which 47,184,000 were prepared by Tax Professionals, while 20,253,000 were self prepared.
A Letter to the Editor in a US newspaper yesterday lamented,
The politicians who support the present state of the tax code must be either stupid or crooks on the take. It has been estimated that the preparation of tax returns costs the American taxpayers more than $500 billion each year. If the taxpayers retained this money, it could be used to create millions of new jobs, thousands of new factories, and hundreds to thousands of new companies, and might make politicians somewhat more honest, at least until they could find another source of bribe money.
This $500 billion is a total waste, and the thousands of pages of indecipherable tax code has created a very large and powerful parasitic class of people consisting of the tax preparers and their lobbyists, tax lawyers and their lobbyists, tax judges and large corporations expecting special tax treatments for their bribes (campaign contributions).
If the tax code were simplified to a flat tax, taxpayers would save $500 billion per year, and it wouldn't cost the government a dime. These tax people could then get honest jobs that contribute to the economy. ... A flat tax will be the first step necessary to get the graft and corruption out of the U. S. income tax code.
Would you like to pat the Indian Taxmen?