Tax Time: Lines Form for Forms : Last-Minute Bustlers Beat the Deadline

They all had perfectly good reasons, of course, for standing in the Santa Ana Internal Revenue Service office Monday just hours before the annual deadline for filing income tax returns.

“I just changed jobs, and in addition to that I just moved from Ontario. . . then I couldn’t find the forms until I unpacked some boxes. I’ve also been out of town for a week,” said Rob Scholz, 27, of Balboa Island.

He grinned sheepishly after listening to himself. “OK. . . my dog ate the forms.”

Said Rachel Baranick, an IRS employee whose armful of extension forms continued to disappear throughout the day:

“We don’t really require a reason. If we did, the line would be running out the door while people explained.”

Shorter Lines

Instead, the lines and the wait Monday at the federal IRS offices were shorter than in previous years, workers said, with most of them looking relieved that the day on which all state and federal income tax returns must be postmarked was already half over.

Both employees and customers said the day was easier than previous tax deadline days, in part because hours at several IRS Southern California offices for the first time in years were extended two hours to accommodate latecomers.

Employees “floating” around the Santa Ana IRS office armed with extension forms and other information also helped pare down time and the anxiety level among toe-tappers trying to get in under the midnight deadline.

Not surprisingly, there seemed to be longer lines at establishments offering last-minute tax shelters and tax preparation than at the post office and IRS offices.

Offices Swamped “I said we’re very busy!” remarked an exasperated office worker at H & R Block’s Fountain Valley branch. Two other H&R; Block offices were so swamped that employees could not talk on the phone Monday afternoon.

Bonnie Basile, operations supervisor for Great Western Savings in Mission Viejo, said foot traffic was lighter Monday than Sunday, when the small branch office opened six hours for last-minute weekend business.

“We had about 20 to 30 customers opening IRAs Sunday, which for us, because we’re a small office, is a lot,” Basile said.

However, the retirement account trade was booming Monday at Great Western’s Newport Beach office, where customers had a half-hour or longer wait. That office was to remain open until midnight.

“We’ve had a very busy day,” said a Great Western spokeswoman. “Throughout the day we’ve had as many as five to seven people always in line (for IRAs). That’s about a 30- to 35-minute wait. And we’re going to be open till midnight.”

Post offices in Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Anaheim, Laguna Niguel and Mission Viejo also were staying open until midnight, with employees working overtime to handle the onslaught of mail, said Hector Godinez, district manager for the U.S. Postal Service’s Southern California region. He estimated the volume of Monday’s mail at double the daily average of 1 1/2 to 2 million pieces.

“We can assure you that every piece (of mail) received before midnight will be postmarked April 15,” Godinez said. “When the clock strikes 12, that’s the way it goes. To us, it’s not any different than any other heavy day .... It’s just another April 15.” At the Sunflower Avenue post office in Santa Ana, Orange County’s main mail-processing center, the mood was cheerful among the dozen or so waiting for their numbers to be called, and lines moved briskly past the counters.

The longest anyone had to wait to mail a tax return was about 10 minutes, and that was only after 3 p.m., postal workers said.

“We’ve just been zooming them through here,” said Joann Cox, a window clerk-in-training who directed traffic in the post office foyer.

The extra accommodations for both perennial procrastinators and those with legitimate delays in filing their tax returns--an employer’s failure to supply a W-2 form, a tax accountant’s error--seemed to keep most tempers in check. There were a few exceptions, but those really upset vented their anger not so much at the waiting as with the IRS in general.

‘Don’t Mind Waiting’ Jim Crane, 59, a Cypress resident and Uco Oil employee, had a $2,500 refund check from the IRS stuffed in his back pocket as he stood in line puffing on a cigarette. His attorney had accompanied him to the IRS office.

“I don’t mind waiting in lines; there’s always a line here no matter what day I come,” Crane muttered. He threw his cigarette butt on the orange carpet. “I’m gonna find out why they withheld some of my check, that’s my problem . . . they take enough of your money, they ought to let you smoke in here ....”

Kurt Verhoef, 28, of El Toro said he hadn’t filed income tax returns in five years. So when a photographer started snapping pictures of him, the hardwood-floor contractor asked, half-seriously: “Is she from the jail? Is she taking my mug shots?”

What, after all this time, had prompted Verhoef to report his income?

“Letters and, uh, visits,” he said, laughing quickly. “I guess you could say I just kind of procrastinated. But I really don’t like the hotel (the Orange County Jail) across the street.”

‘Boss Messed Me Up’

Cheryl and Charlie Smiley, having waited only 20 minutes in the IRS line to have their questions answered, sat in chairs along the office wall filling out their joint tax return. They still had to walk over to the state building for more forms and more lines.

“My boss messed me up,” said Cheryl Smiley, 31, an unemployed clerical worker who said she generally turns in her tax forms early. “He didn’t give me my (W-2) form until awhile ago .... This has been so frustrating this year. I didn’t know I could have filed and then amended it later.” Still, the crunch of last-minute taxpayers at the IRS office was handled more quickly Monday than in previous years, said Charlie Smiley, 35, who nonetheless paced the hallway outside the room.

Dave Strain, 28, of Huntington Beach seemed in better spirits, explaining to television and newspaper reporters without apology why he was filing his yearly tax returns at the last minute. Why had he put it off?

“Because I owe them money,” Strain said.

Wayne Rogers owed money, too, he said.

Toting a weathered paper bag filled with unreported wage earning receipts and tax forms from various years, the 29-year-old warehouse manager ticked off his “plea bargaining” strategy but recognized he might have to throw himself at the mercy of the IRS worker he was about to consult.

“I was wondering if I should have brought my toothbrush here with my files,” Rogers said, smiling over the clerk’s head as he rifled through the brown bag. “Like they might make me walk across the street (to jail) or something.”

After the clerk sorted out the forms and announced a $200 “damage report,” Rogers let out a big sigh. “I didn’t have it then,” he said, “but I have it now!”

Rogers announced, to no one in particular, that the IRS employee had been darn fair about things.

“I was surprised. They’re always nice until they ask for money, though.”

Times staff writer David Reyes contributed to this story.