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They extended the deadline, so some people who would have been late-filers weren't? Or was it a HUGE difference?
They extended the deadline, so some people who would have been late-filers weren't? Or was it a HUGE difference?
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You got to love all of these exceptions the IRS is carving out for groups of people. See? They're not so bad! (But why do I feel angry?!)
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So you can file late if you live in the Northeast, Virginia, or if you used Turbo Tax. You can also file whenever you want if you're getting a refund.
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You can also file late if the massacre at Virginia Tech gave you the wim-wams: http://www.irs.gov/irs/article/0,,id=169572,00.html
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We were among the last-minuters that experienced the congestion. Don't hate us, we're already hurting from the bill!
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My favorite part of TurboTax being down last night, by far, was the bit where they charged my credit card for their non-working services. I ended up filing through H&R Block instead. I have yet to get through to a human at TurboTax about refunding my money.
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People who haven't filed their taxes yet can use this to their advantage. Pick up a copy of Turbo Tax and get it done tonight!
Heres a solution to this - IRS enforces fines and end result is good all around for consumers. How ?
1. IRS and the States say, \"sorry to hear that TT screwed you over but it aint our problem, you're late on tax filing, fines and fees are $xxx. Severe storms and floods are acts of God, we can be flexible for these. TTs lack of performance is not an act of God\"
Taxpayer gets annoyed and wonders why he even bothered with TT. (for some people they will not owe tax, so no fine. Even for people who owe tax, fine is often fairly modest)
2. Taxpayer takes TT to small claims court for recovery of cost of software and IRS fines/fees - TT 'failed to perform'.
Either
a) Taxpayer wins, recovers $$ from TT and post on consumerist.com so all taxpayers go to small claims.
b) Tax payer loses, TT shelter behind their catch all Terms of Service ('we don't guarantee any performance; it aint our fault') and taxpayer is now very annoyed and post on consumerist to expose that TT don't stand behind their product or service.
3.
Either
a) TT improve their performance next year to avoid a deluge of small claims continuing into 2008
b) TT have a lot of 2007 customers thinking really hard about whether to use TT next year. TT looses revenue and customers and a better software company moves into the market.
A 'deluge' of small claim with good merit can seriously affect a companys good name and bottom line.
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Why does everyone wait to the last minute to file? It's not going to change how much you owe. If you HAVE to procrastinate, do it a day or two earlier, and then feel good that you aren't staying up late with everyone else, frantically hitting your submit button.
I filed in January once all my paperwork showed up in the mail.
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Oh, my freaken gawd. I TT filed for a friend at 6 PM with no problems.
Which means that not only did these procrastinators wait until TWO days after the traditional deadline, until the day of the 2006 deadline, but they waited until 3/4 of the last day had expired. No sympathy. None.
Intuit should issue a, \"Sorry but C'MON\" apology. Possibly next year, add a \"Your results may vary, slacker\" alert the last five-odd hours of April 15th.
The IRS should stop pretending they give a damn. Penalize everyone, server problems, national tragedies or weather apocolypses notwithstanding. IRS, unleash your fetid, dark soul. Keep your evil pure and unadulterated. Sheesh!
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Egads. Anybody who waits till the last minute to file and ends up being late should be penalized. Sheesh.
Show up 15 minutes early or dont show up at all.
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I filed with TurboTax on Monday at 11:12 am and was not accepted until today. So it wasn't just the ones who waited until 6:00 pm Tuesday.
When you eFile, TurboTax provides an electronic postmark, which \"documents the filing date of your tax return.\" So the IRS saying that they won't penalize \"late filers\" is a bunch of PR bullshit trying to make them look generous. They couldn't have/wouldn't have anyway, because everyone would have had the electronic postmark as proof.
@engunneer: It won't change how much you owe, but it will ensure that you keep your own money in your own bank working for you for as long as possible. If you paid early, you would lose any theoretical interest that money might earn. Plus, they're bastards.
In contrast to the post about electronic postmarks my experience was that after multiple failed attempts to file electronically using TT (and preparing for the possibility of mailing out a hard copy before midnight) my \"Transmission [was] Successful: you have successfully transmitted your return(s) to the IRS.\"
I printed out that page because I wasn't feeling all that trusting of Intuit. So tonight I check on my e-filing status and Intuit TT informs me: \"you have not filed a return.\" **insert Sam Kinison scream here**
So I go through the process again and now my return has been \"filed\" and is \"pending.\" So I'm wondering how many people THINK they were able to file but TT somehow didn't transmit--even though there was a confirmation screen that assured us otherwise.
Intuit's Harry Pforzheimer had better be preparing another insulting statement to TT customers when/if in the next 24-48 hours there are other TT users who find out the same unpleasant thing that I did.
Sorry, but I have a hard time having a ton of sympathy for people (or understanding their ire at TurboTax) who wait until the very, very last minute to do something and then get irritated when it doesn't go according to clockwork.
When you are depending on an external service, it is even more of a gamble. Things can always go wrong, though - what if you were driving to the post office with only a few minutes to go and there is an accident on the road that prevents you from getting there on time. Same thing happened here - unexpected delays happen, and no one who took the silly risk of filing at the absolute latest time can blame anyone but themselves.
Sorry if that sounds jerkish, but I just can't comprehend how anyone could actually complain about this and not see how it was their own fault to begin with.
\"Intuit also said more people filed closer to the deadline this year than last year.\"
Is that their best excuse? Intuit execs should realize that if only X% of the returns are filed by April 16th, the remaining (100-X)% will be filed in the 24 hours of April 17th. The size of the last minute rush should not have been a surprise.