Millions of taxpayers face a midnight deadline today to file their tax returns, while millions of others will ask for more time – a six-month extension. There was a three-day delay beyond the traditional April 15 deadline because Friday was a legal holiday in Washington, D.C..
Some things to know about taxes:
The traditional April 15 filing deadline was extended because of Emancipation Day, a legal holiday in the nation’s capital. The holiday commemorates President Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act in 1862. The act freed more than 3,000 enslaved people in the district and compensated their owners.
The Friday holiday moves the tax deadline to the next business day. In Massachusetts and Maine, taxpayers get one more day to file. The deadline there is Tuesday because today is Patriots’ Day in both states.
When the federal deadline is moved back, state and local deadlines also move back to match it.
The IRS expects millions of tax returns to be filed each day as the tax deadline approaches, with more than 5 million returns possible today. More than 150 million tax returns are expected to be filed in 2016. As of April 8, almost 82 million refunds have been issued, the IRS said. The average refund amount was $2,798.
For those who need more time to finish their returns, tax-filing extensions are available.
The IRS is a favorite target of lawmakers from both parties who complain about the complexity of the tax code and accompanying regulations that span more than 70,000 pages. Instructions to complete IRS Form 1040 – the main individual income-tax return – run more than 100 pages.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, said the House will vote this week on a half-dozen bills to hold the IRS more accountable.