If you’re prone to putting off your taxes to the last minute, this is a good year. Most Americans will get three more days to file their returns in April, and residents in two New England states will get an extra four days.
That’s because local and state holidays, along with a well-timed weekend, are forcing the Internal Revenue Service to extend the traditional deadline of April 15.
This year the deadline for 2015 income tax returns is Monday, April 18. On Friday, April 15 Washington will be celebrating Emancipation Day, the anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. It is a D.C. holiday, which the IRS considers a federal holiday for tax-filing purposes.
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Emancipation Day is typically commemorated on April 16, which falls on a Saturday this year. Instead, it’s being officially observed on the Friday before, a blessing for last-second taxpayers.
Procrastinators living in Maine and Massachusetts are even luckier this year. They have until Tuesday, April 19 to file their federal taxes. That’s because April 18 is Patriot’s Day, a statewide holiday in both states. The IRS earlier ruled that those state residents get an extra day to file taxes if the federal deadline falls on a statewide holiday.
The last time tax day fell on a day other than April 15 was in 2012, when the deadline was extended to Tuesday, April 17. That year, April 15th fell on a Sunday and the 16th was Emancipation Day.
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Next year, tax day again will be extended to Tuesday, April 17 because the 15th is a Sunday and the following Monday is Emancipation Day.
