TAXING DAY: Friday is the deadline for...
TAXING DAY: Friday is the deadline for completing your 1993 income tax forms. It’s the Postal Service’s biggest day of the year for customer service and the third biggest for total mail. In all, the Internal Revenue Service collected $11.1 billion from Orange County taxpayers last year and expects about the same this year. . . . Most of the county’s 1.2 million federal returns--including an expected 75,000 requests for extension--will be mailed, but filing electronically via computer gets more popular in Orange County every year.
CYBERFRAUD: Electronic filing--with its promise of speedy refunds--has attracted computer con artists who found they could make quick money by submitting returns with fake names and phony information. . . . Last year, the IRS lost $24 million that way, but a major crackdown is underway. The government has changed its computer programming to try to detect fraud before issuing refunds, says Internal Revenue spokeswoman Judith A. Golden in Laguna Niguel. “We’ll be freezing any refunds up front electronically if something is wrong. We’ve also set up a similar pre-refund screening for paper returns.”
HEFTY MAILBAGS: April 15 is the only time that 12 major post office branches in the county provide curbside service and stay open until midnight. (B2) At the main Santa Ana post office, where all county mail is processed, up to 2 million pieces of mail are expected. . . . That’s almost twice the normal daily load, but not even close to the several days in December when Christmas cards and gifts can push the daily mail count up to 3.1 million pieces a day.
LAST MINUTE: Those queuing up at the post office on tax night often are in a festive mood as they joke and swap stories, says postal spokeswoman Terri Bouffiou in Santa Ana, who expects this Friday to be “real crazy.” . . . Many even wait to fill out their tax returns until they’re at the counter--because that’s what they’ve always done, she says. “I suspect it’s a sort of subtle protest against paying taxes.”
Taxes by Computer
The number of county residents filing electronic tax returns has more than doubled since 1989, although it still represents only about 6% of all returns filed. 1989: 30,180 1990: 41,910 1991: 58,990 1992: 64,625 1993: 69,135 Source: Internal Revenue Service