”Why are taxpayers getting extra time to file and pay?”
Taxpayers will have extra time to file and pay because April 15 falls on a Sunday in 2007, and the following day, Monday, April 16, is Emancipation Day, a legal holiday in the District of Columbia.
By law, filing and payment deadlines that fall on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday are timely satisfied if met on the next business day. Under a federal statute enacted decades ago, holidays observed in the District of Columbia have an impact nationwide, not just in D.C. Under recently enacted city legislation, April 16 is a holiday in the District of Columbia. The IRS recently became aware of the intersection of the national filing day and the local observance of the new Emancipation Day holiday after most forms and publications for the current tax filing season went to print.
Individuals in the District of Columbia, as well as in six eastern states, already had an April 17 filing date prior to this announcement because they are served by an IRS processing facility in Massachusetts, where Patriots Day will be observed on April 16. These individuals are still required to file on April 17.
”Will the IRS be open on April 16?”
Yes. Emancipation Day is not a federal holiday. Accordingly, IRS offices will be open, as usual, on April 16.
My IRS tax instructions say I should file by April 16, 2007. Is this correct?
This is not correct. At the time these instructions were approved for printing, IRS believed it was correct. Thus, any IRS form, instruction or publication that currently shows an