ATLANTA – It’s time to stop procrastinating and file those taxes in a year when the deadline is not the typical April 15th.
11Alive’s Why Guy explains that since April 15th fell on a weekend, and the 16th came on Emancipation Day, a holiday for employees in Washington D.C., this year’s day to file your income taxes is April 17th.
It was 1954 when Congress moved the deadline from March to April.
In 1913, our nation’s lawmakers established March 1st as Tax Day, but five years later moved it to March 15th.
In 1954, Congress performed a major overhaul of the tax code and considered that many American’s were already struggling to navigate the code and file their taxes on time.
The 1954 Internal Revenue Code officially established April 15th as the deadline “for individuals using a calendar year to file their income tax returns.” A Congressional committee report lists the reasons why on page 134.
“It’s believed that this change will greatly relieve the difficulties taxpayers now have in filing their returns,” the report states. “This should also result in more carefully prepared returns.”
A Forbes Magazine article from last year uses statements from the head of the House Ways and Means Committee from 1954 to conclude that the change from March 15th to April 15th was also intended to make life easier for IRS employees who process tax returns.
And, there is one other theory.
Although there is no mention of it in official documents, at least one law professor recalls discussion of the wealthiest taxpayers needing extra time to file returns. Those wealthy taxpayers often spent their winters in Florida and needed time to collect their tax information after returning home in late March.
