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HOST INTRO:
Tuesday is Tax Day. A D.C. area holiday gives filers an extra two days this year.
If you haven’t filed yet, there’s still time. But don’t let the deadline rush get to you. Jason Slotkin reports;

Dennis Wang filed his tax return weeks ago.
But the college senior has spent his spring break filling out other people’s 1040 forms. He oversees a free student run tax service for low-income households. The service is at Baruch College library.

He’s been there for 50 hours this week, along with 175 other student volunteers tabulating deductions and credits, while other classmates are in Florida or Cancun. He says it rewarding.

Dennis Wang
To see a client smile or have a client thanks us is a similar experience. It’s probably a better experience than going to Cancun

Wang says, the students help between 50 to 100 people a day
Even more are coming this week. For those filing their taxes themselves… on deadline. Rushing can lead to errors, rejected applications and late fees.

Dianne Besunder is a spokeswoman for the IRS in New York.
She says most people make really simple mistakes including messing up on basic math.

Dianne Besunder
Be careful. Check those numbers. Do em twice. Make sure everything looks good….People will file a completely correct return and forget to sign it.

Besunder says most mistakes are made on the paper form which require filers to do the math themselves.
She suggest instead to file electronically. It checks the math for you will notify you immediately about whether or not your return has been accepted. Besunder says electronic applications has a less than one percent rate of error.

David Sands is a CPA, whose been working nearly 70 hours this past week.
There are potential deductions, you can miss out on. Some mistakes can warrant a letter from the IRS. Sands says take your time, however long you may need.

David Sands
If you don’t want to spend the time there’s plenty of professionals out there.

Jason Slotkin
Also, filing your taxes…There’s an app for that.
I caught up with Anthony Rivera on the Upper West Side. He filed his taxes with an iPhone app.

AMBI BRIDGE
SOUNDS OF STREET
All he did was fill out the form and snap a picture of it with his phone. Of course, Rivera filed his return months ago. He doesn’t recommend filing your taxes at the last minute

Anthony Rivera
I wouldn’t wait until the last minute. It’s like cramming for a test,. I’d try and get a head start on it.

In summation, best way to to file your taxes. Start Immediately. Jason Slotkin. Columbia Radio News.

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Most years, April 15 is tax day. But if you still haven’t filed, don’t worry. You have until midnight Monday. Today is a holiday in Washington D.C. – Emancipation Day, and federal law says if they can’t file taxes, no one can. Kaitlin Ugolik has more.

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It’s usually a lot busier outside the main post office on 33rd street in Manhattan on April 15^th. People rush in throughout the day to mail their taxes by the deadline.

A middle-aged man named Charlie is pretending to rush his mom, Janice, up the stairs to mail her forms. They didn’t want to give their last name. They know the deadline isn’t today, but they’re used to their April 15 post office visit being a frantic one.

JANICE: It’s usually much busier on tax day, people know.

What people don’t know, though, is what emancipation day is.

JANICE: Emancipation proclamation, from the Civil War, right?

Actually, Emancipation Day celebrates the day nine months BEFORE Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. On April 16, 1862, he ended slavery just in Washington, D.C. Since it’s a legal holiday, it has to be observed on a weekday, and by law if D.C. is celebrating a holiday on tax day, everyone gets a break.

But the benefit of the delay has been lost on many filers and tax preparers in New York.

Fallou  Ndaw  does tax preparation in the back room of his business consulting firm on St. Nicholas Avenue in Harlem. He says he doesn’t think any of his clients know the date has been moved, and most of them have been filing normally, which for him means 75 percent have already gotten their returns.

FALLOU: I think it’s something that is already in our mind that taxes end on April 15.

He says it’s unfortunate some people rushed to get their taxes finished by today, but he’s looking forward to the possible business the delay will bring him over the weekend.

FALLOU: I will take the chances to open Saturday and Sunday – and Monday also, to see if there is savvy people that know that they want to do their taxes on those days.

Marc Freedman runs an accounting firm out of a small apartment on West 95^th street. The promise of three extra days has not made his job any less stressful.

He says many of HIS clients didn’t know the date had changed either. But for him that meant the deadline day rush came early.

FREEDMAN: We have a certain number of clients who wait til the final day. Some of them are confused and they think today’s the final day, so we’ve been hearing from people a couple of days early.

His wife and colleague, Lois Freedman, is across the office surrounded by piles of folders on her desk. She isn’t looking forward to three more days of this.

LOIS: We have not been sure all season whether or not this is a benefit or a detriment. As things get more intense we say it’s just one more weekend to be tortured.

Marc Freedman says he needs the extra time.

FREEDMAN: We still have an enormous amount of work to do, and I’m sure glad that today is not the final day.

Tax preparers and individuals have until midnight on Monday to file their taxes. That’s Monday, April 18^th. The main post office at on 33^rd street will stay open until the deadline.

Kaitlin Ugolik, Columbia Radio News.t