It’s Tax Day In Mobile

By Chad Petri Reporter

Today’s the deadline for filing income tax returns. E-Filing is making it easier for the IRS and Post Office to process returns. It’s Tax Day In Mobile

Published: Tue, April 15, 2008 - 3:56 am Last Updated: Tue, April 15, 2008 - 7:12 am

Chad Petri

A few days before the big tax deadline, and traffic at mobile's main post office looks as it normally does. Many people filed well before today.

“I never wait until April 15th,” says taxpayer Jeannie Wells. “We filed our taxes probably on February 1st.” More than half of all tax returns for 2007 will be E-Filed. IRS spokesman Dan Boone says this has made for smoother mid-April deadlines.

“E-filing over all is up about 10% in Alabama,” says Boone. “People e-filing from their home computers is up around 20%.” Mobile's main post office used to run a sort of midnight madness on the 15th. Customer relations coordinator Fonda Gantt says they've noticed people filing earlier this year.

“We just noticed that when we began setting the hours for the next year we looked at the traffic from the previous year and where were just very few people coming in between 10 and 12,” says customer relations coordinator Fonda Gantt. If you decide to wait until the very last second to mail it in, watch out for those blue drop boxes. Take note of the time of the last pick-up. If you drop off your return after that, it'll get taken with mail on the 16th and will lead to a penalty.

“Then you're subject to the late filing penalty and that actually is the steepest penalty of all and it can be up to 25% of what you owe on your tax return,” says IRS spokesman Dan Boone. He says they've also seen a spike in the free online filing service from the IRS--that's up 29 percent this year.