is now 
An article in the Sunday edition of the Kansas City Star offers a look at a half dozen reasons why taxpayers in Missouri and Kansas are filing their individual income tax returns later than usual or requesting an extension.
Many professional tax preparation service providers agree that this tax season is unprecedented in the number of last-minute tax filers. Some affirm procrastination can be partly to blame, but they also say many taxpayers are filing later because of delays in the availability of the updated tax forms they needed to file for tax credits–all while many tax cut programs phased out and new tax laws were implemented.
Among 31 delayed new tax forms were several that had to do with tax credits for both businesses and individuals. This made it difficult to prepare a return and figure the total tax owed.
The Kansas City Star article begins:
“The mad dash for April 15 is especially crowded with procrastinating taxpayers this year. More Americans than usual have waited until the last two weeks to send their tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service. The latest IRS data showed there were about 4.5 million more taxpayers still waiting to file as of March 22 than was the case on that day last year. Plus, the IRS expects about 2 million more returns this year than last. Even catching up some ground with late-night number crunching during April’s home stretch probably will still leave several million filers staring at the deadline. “Everybody’s got to file eventually,” said Mark Steber, chief tax officer for Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. “This year’s like no year we’ve ever seen.” You can blame the tax season’s delayed start for this year’s filer-packed finish. Congress rewrote so many tax laws at the last minute — to avoid the fiscal cliff — that the IRS was forced to start accepting tax returns two weeks later than normal. Heck, Kansas City even can blame the snow for the large number of taxpayers who still need to file…”
For more information, click here for the link to the entire article online.
Meanwhile, read on our blog about the McRuer CPAs cost relief offer to qualifying taxpayers who need to file an extension. There are also several other blogs about this on-going issue. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call us right away at 816.741.7882.
