The Seven Deadly Newsgroup Sins

"Dick Adams" wrote

You're making this difficult on us.

My thought exactly.

I realized you, Harlan, and Gene would have serious problems with the sobriety.

Dick

So no posting on April 16, then?

Don't you mean April 18th?

Ira Smilovitz

That's Paul Revere's Ride day.

To Arms! To Arms! The auditors are coming?

___ Stu

That is so a straight line for a spelling flame...

Unfortunately for us, Harlan Lunsford hasn't posted here since July

He is, however, alive and well at the NAEA (Nat. Assoc. of Enrolled Agents) webboard (members only).

As is his prominntly displayed liquid refreshment.

Yes. I forgot the extended deadline.

I looked it up. Washington, D.C., celebrates Emancipation Day to commemorate the day Lincoln signed an act abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude, April 16, 1862, effective only within the District of Columbia. Thus, the date of this commemoration is unique to Washington, D.C.

Adam, I'm not sure what you looked up or where, but in fact the filing deadline for 2012 is April 17:

It turns out it's pretty easy to figure this out with spreadsheet date functions and a little research on Wikipedia (which I am proud to say I have made donations to for the last two years).

Apparently, when Emancipation Day observance in DC was signed into law in January 2005, it should have affected the 2005 deadline for TY2004 returns, but maybe it came so late that no one changed anything.

If Apr 15 falls on a Mon, Tues, Wed, or Thu, no change should be required (unless I'm missing something obvious). If Apr 15 falls on a Friday, then 4/16 is Saturday and Emancipation Day will always be observed on Friday, so that means delay. This is the only thing that changed, before Emancipation Day, Fridays were "normal". If 4/15 falls on Sat or Sun, then Emancipation Day will be observed on Monday and filing deadline will be Tuesday. (There still would have been a filing delay even without Emancipation Day, Monday instead of Tuesday). Once in a long while, Easter may fall on or close to 4/15, but since it's not a national holiday, I don't think it matters.

Looking at the 60 year period from 2005 to 2064, here is the breakdown of days of the week on which 4/15 falls:

Sun 9 Mon 8 Tue 9 Wed 8 Thu 8 Fri 9 Sat 9

4/15 deadline delayed:

Here is the detail for the next ten years:

I now wonder, how much extra interest expense does the government (fed and state) spend due to delayed payment deadlines, delayed penalties, etc. Even two or three days delay at $X billions outstanding tax payments must cost something.

Fortunately, there's no requirement to be sober, only to use language that isn't inconsistent with being sober.

Seth

"Seth" wrote

Good point.

"Mark Bole" wrote

Let me know if you can get grant money to study the fiscal impact of this holiday. I'll gladly be your paid consultant.

Training as a beer contest judge might be excellent preparation for that.

___ Stu

Emancipation Day was long commemorated in Washington, but it wasn't a public holiday. In both 2005 and 2006, it fell on weekends. In the ordinance making it a public holiday, the holiday was not moved to a weekday for those two years, so maybe they were thinking of the consequences for tax filing. Also, Washington has home rule, a relatively new thing, but ordinances take effect 30 days hence to give Congress time to object, so that delayed the effective date until February, 2005.