The Taxman cometh for real this time
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Doug Krizner: For most of us, April 15 is D-day for income taxes. Others take an extension, and promise to file later. Well, today is the deadline for those given a six-month extension for their 2006 tax return. And as Alisa Roth reports, plenty still haven’t paid up.
Alisa Roth: More than 10 million taxpayers filed for automatic extensions on their tax bills. And the IRS says a lot of them still haven’t forked over the dough.
Donald Alexander of the law firm Akin Gump is a former IRS Commissioner. He says that’s just business as usual.
Donald Alexander: That’s always the case. And a lot of people don’t get around to filing until the last possible moment. A lot of returns do come in at the end, and this is the end.
But this time, he says, the troubled economy could mean more people paying late.
Alexander: I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a larger number than usual trying to meet their obligations for the year 2006, because 2007 has not been good to a number of people.
Some people can still postpone the inevitable. Taxpayers serving in Iraq or Afghanistan and victims of some natural disasters can put off Uncle Sam for a little longer.
In New York, I’m Alisa Roth for Marketplace.
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