1. Monday, April 18th – The tax deadline for 2011.
Emancipation Day, a holiday in Washington, D.C., falls on April 15 this year. Since, by law, the tax deadline cannot fall on a holiday or weekend, the deadline for this year has been pushed to Monday, April 18th.
In case you were wondering – Emancipation Day marks the occasion when President Abraham Lincoln signed into law a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia. Lincoln signed the bill on April 16, 1862, more than eight months before he signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
2. Monday, February 14th, 2011 – When the IRS will be able to process all returns.
Prior to that date, the IRS cannot accept tax returns for processing for taxpayers who are claiming itemized deductions on Schedule A, the higher education tuition and fees deduction on Form 8917, or the educator expenses deduction. All other returns can be processed immediately.
This delay is due in part to the fact that congress waited until December 17th, 2010 to make changes to the 2010 tax code.
3. 70,000+ – The number of pages in the federal tax code.
In case you were wondering, the tax code began with 400 pages back in 1913. Could this be why 82% of taxpayers use a tax professional or tax software?
4. 7.6 billion – The number of hours it takes every year for Americans to prepare their taxes.
Since there is roughly 312 million people in America, that means every man, woman, and child spends 24.4 hours getting ready for tax day.
5. IRS Commissioner doesn’t file his own taxes.
You know taxes are too complicated when Douglas Shulman, the head of the Internal Revenue Service, gets his taxes done by a professional.