Tardy Taxpayers Toy With the Last Minute

Doug and Karen Kaito spent the better part of four months procrastinating, even though they stood to collect a few hundred dollars from Uncle Sam.

“We didn’t want to miss the excitement,” Doug Kaito said when asked why he decided to wait until the last minute to file his income tax return Monday night. “We live for the crunch.”

Like thousands of other reluctant taxpayers, the Kaitos spent part of the evening sitting in their car, waiting to turn over their completed tax forms to postal workers who shivered in the night air behind the general mail facility on Sunflower Avenue.

The crunch of getting tax forms in the mail before the midnight deadline has become a yearly ritual that taxpayers, tax preparers and postal workers have come to expect.

Throughout Orange County on Monday, countless people hurriedly searched for tax forms, sought out accountants and stood in line with fellow procrastinators to beat the deadline and the interest that invariably accompanies a late filing.

Taxpayers were given a one-day extension this year because the normal due date of April 15 fell on Sunday.

In order to help ease the crunch Monday night, postal employees in eight post offices in Orange County worked overtime, postal officials said. Many were expected to remain on duty until at least 2 a.m. as they sorted, canceled and bagged the tons of tax forms.

At the Sunflower Avenue facility, postal officials estimated that 400 postal employees would have to cancel as many as 3 million pieces of mail.

“We’ll be here until the wee hours of the morning,” said postal supervisor Joseph Galvez, who watched the seemingly unending line of cars that stretched around the outside of the post office.

Galvez said that early this morning, some taxpayers who missed the midnight deadline will park outside the loading dock and ask to have their tax forms collected and mailed. Not to worry, he said, “we never turn a customer away.”

Outside the Sunflower Avenue facility Monday evening, the atmosphere was festive, as workers directed cars through the maze of orange traffic cones that stretched along the street and behind the postal center.

As customers handed stacks of tax forms and other mail to postal employees, pop music emanated from the van of a popular Los Angeles-based radio station.

“This is really fun,” said mail processor Rollina Patnaude, who was experiencing her first year on the front lines. “I’m all riled up. It’s like a party.”

Mail processor Mary Stewart, on duty for the second year in a row, said she dreaded Christmastime more than tax time.

“It gets really crazy then,” she said, as she danced to a Top 40 tune.

At the 13 H&R; Block income tax offices in the county, tax preparers answered nonstop questions about tax returns, handed out thousands of extension applications and prepared hundreds of tax returns while clients waited.

“We are bombed all over the district,” said H&R; Block district manager Lee LaMar.

Contrary to popular belief, many tax preparers and postal employees said most people do not wait until the last few hours because they owe money. A majority of procrastinators are due a refund but wait until the deadline simply because of a traditional aversion to taxation.

“They just don’t like the idea of paying taxes,” LaMar said.

At least one watering hole in Orange County attempted to ease the misery for some taxpayers who may think they were gouged by the government.

At the Cabo Coast, a new bar and grill in Irvine, the management invented a series of drink specials to help taxpayers drown their financial troubles. Wearing black uniforms-- “we’re in mourning,” said bartender Mike Byrne--employees served concoctions such as the Loophole, the Audit and the Fraud.

Taking advantage of a stiff margarita, customer Devon Kile lamented how her fiance had just filed a tax return that showed he owed $26,000 in back taxes.

“It’s a really depressing subject,” she said. “We’re just relaxing now and trying to forget about the day.”