As the Tuesday deadline looms, residents scrambling to file their taxes have found help at local businesses. “The accountants are like rushing, rushing, rushing, rushing,” said Lydia Krone, who works at the Business Support Center in Kapa‘a. “It’s a lot
As the Tuesday deadline looms, residents scrambling to file their taxes have found help at local businesses.
“The accountants are like rushing, rushing, rushing, rushing,” said Lydia Krone, who works at the Business Support Center in Kapa‘a. “It’s a lot busier than last year. We’re doing the best we can to accommodate everyone.”
Carol Young, owner of Aloha Tax Preparers in Kalaheo, said she labors seven days a week during tax season but still loves the job she has been devoted to for the past 33 years.
“We’re teaching new people to remove the fear and the hype and to be aggressive about their taxes,” she said.
There will be a special midnight pickup Tuesday night at the Lihu‘e Post Office to give residents extra hours to postmark their tax returns and payments by deadline.
The Internal Revenue Service offers last-minute tips on its Web site for those taxpayers who have not yet filed, paid what they owe or taken the necessary steps to ensure they receive the economic stimulus payment for which they qualify.
The deadline to file for an extension is also Tuesday.
Krone said the majority of customers at the Business Support Center are late-filing. The business offers accounting services on one side and fax machines, Internet and copiers on the other.
Young said Aloha Tax Preparers is in a “fortunate situation” because its client base is very established, but added that this has been a different year with a lot of new faces.
The people Aloha Tax Preparers serves runs “the whole gamut,” Young said, from individuals with $18,000 in annual income to those earning $2 million per year.
Young advises new taxpayers to refrain from being a bookkeeper.
“The main thing is don’t lose any of the papers,” she said. “Designate a drawer or a pretty box on a coffee table. That way you won’t lose it. Then, come end of year, bring me the box and I’ll sort it for you.”
Taxpayers can speed the receipt of economic stimulus payments by choosing IRS e-file and direct deposit and by filing by the due date. They also can minimize possible interest assessments and late filing or late payment penalties by filing and paying by the deadline, according to the Internal Revenue Service’s Web site.
As of April 4, the most recent data available at www.irs.gov, individual income tax return receipts were up 9.3 percent over the same period last year.
Of the 96.82 million receipts turned in so far this year, 67.44 million were e-filed. This marks a 9.9 percent increase over last year.
More people are preparing their taxes themselves this year, too, according to IRS statistics. There were 17.14 million self-prepared e-filed receipts through April 3, 2007. By April 4, 2008, there were 20.25 million.
There are also 21 percent more people — 123.44 million in all — visiting the IRS Web site for information this year over the previous.
The average refund has also gone up 3 percent this year to $2,436. Some $183.04 billion has been refunded on 75.14 million filings for the 2007 tax year.
Many offices have extended hours during tax season.
Aloha Tax Preparers is open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.
The Business Support Center is open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.
For more information on the Business Support Center, visit www.bsshawaii.com.
For more information on taxes, visit www.irs.gov.
