[lbo-talk] The IRS & state holidays

[Tim Francis-Wright]

Michael Pollak wrote:
> Federal taxes are due this year on April 17th, because the 15th is on a 
> Sunday and Monday is Emancipation Day in the District of Columbia.  And last 
> year, or maybe the year before, the federal tax filing deadline was also 
> delayed, then by Patriot's Day, which is a state holiday in Massachusetts 
> (celebrating the outbreak of the American Revolutionary war at the battles 
> of Lexington and Concord).
> 
> My question is: has this been a regular periodic occurrence and I only 
> noticed it recently?  Or is this something new, deferring the federal tax 
> filing on account of such state (and District) holidays?

The federal filing deadline has always been extended one day for those
who send returns to the Andover, Massachusetts IRS center when Patriots'
Day in  Massachusetts (the third Monday in April) falls on the 15th, 16th,
or 17th of April.

Emancipation Day in Washington, DC has been a district holiday since 2005,
but in 2005 and 2006 it was celebrated on the 16th itself, and not on the
following Monday (see snipurl.com/emancipation).  It's not clear whether
the holiday always falls on the 16th, or whether it will eventually move
to the nearest Friday or Monday if the 16th falls on a weekend.

Emancipation Day is a district holiday, and not a federal holiday, so
taxpayers get a day's reprieve but the wage slaves at the service do not.

--tim francis-wright