2012 Tax Deadline
Take note that the 2012 tax deadline (for your 2011 taxes) will be Tuesday, April 17, 2012.
Why isn’t April 15 the IRS tax deadline for filing, like it is most years?
April 15, 2012 falls on a Sunday. Since there is no mail service to postmark returns on Sunday, it pushes the deadline forward to Monday. However, that Monday is Emancipation Day – an observed holiday in the District of Columbia. Emancipation Day marks the day of the year (April 16) to observe President Lincoln’s signing of the Compensated Emancipation Act – a law that freed 3,000 slaves in the District of Columbia.
D.C. holidays, by law, are treated the same as federal holidays in how they impact tax deadlines, and the tax filing deadline cannot be a holiday. If you remember, Emancipation Day also extended the 2011 tax deadline as well – to the following Monday.
As a result, the 2012 tax deadline falls on Tuesday, April 17, 2012.
When is the Tax Filing Extension Date?
If you need to request a tax filing extension, you must file IRS Form 4868 by April 17, 2012. The deadline for extended tax filing is October 15, 2012.
What is the Tax Deadline?
Remember that the tax filing deadline is simply the date you must either postmark or efile by. It is not the date the IRS must receive your tax return.
The IRS begins accepting efile and freefile returns January 17, so you might as well get started!
If you are a late starter, what should you do? E-File and do your own taxes. The best Efile methods are Turbotax and H&R Block. They both have free federal efiling.
There you hate it, a bit of a history lesson, and some pertinent tax filing information.
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I am G.E. Miller, & 
I was not aware of the monday holiday, interesting. Best bet is to just get it done early though, if you are waiting until last minute you are most likely not taking advantage of some good writeoffs.
I do my taxes as soon as I can. If I’m getting a refund, I file asap and get the money mid february. If I owe, I’ll pay it in April. I’m normally +/- $500, striving for a $0 refund.
I usually file mine in late March or early April. The reason being is b/c TurboTax is constantly getting updates and I want to make sure it is getting all of the latest tax laws into the software.
I believe I e-file the federal return and mail in the state return b/c I don’t want to pay to file state.
Excellent point, Ron. I have found the same thing in the past. I usually wait until the same time… but mostly b/c I procrastinate. =)
Hey,
I just found your blog from a post in TheSimpleDollar. I have two younger sisters, one 19 and the other 22. They have very little experience to personal finance and I thought your blog would be really useful for them. However, I cant find the beginer’s section. What I can email to them first to get their feet wet with personal finance. Can you email or post what articles you think they should read first in learning about personal finance. Does anyone else have any recommendations for my sisters? Sorry for the blog hijack. I am not on google+, twitter or Facebook so I had no other way to send this request to you. Thanks!
Hi JC – I don’t have anything like that….YET….. but it’s a great idea.