Down to the Wire--and the End of the Wait--on Tax Day

Diane Porter of Ojai says she considers filing her tax form at the last minute a neat little way to make a political statement.

It doesn’t really matter to her that she expects a refund. The tax money she paid the state and federal governments last year won’t go where she would have put it anyway.

So she makes old Uncle Sam wait for the paperwork.

“I just think there’s a lot of waste, which should not translate to, ‘I’ll wait till the last minute,’ but that’s the mind-set, and I think a lot of people have it,” Porter said as she stood outside the Ventura office of the State Franchise Tax Board on Tuesday. “I shouldn’t, but I do. . . . [Politicians] irritate me.”

Last-minute types were expected to be lining up through midnight at the Simi Valley and Oxnard post offices, the only two in the county that planned to stay open for the long haul.

At the Moorpark Post Office, the line was 15 people deep about 1 p.m.

People chatted. They groused. And, ultimately, many of them paid.

“It’s my money and I’m not going to give it up until I have to,” said Sunny Barton, of Moorpark.

Across the county in Ventura, things were much more quiet at the new office of the Franchise Tax Board. For example, at 11 a.m.--just hours before the dreaded deadline--the place was all but dead. Some, like Porter, trickled in to pick up tax forms. But there were no lines, and six of nine taxpayer service windows were vacant.

Perhaps a sign that a rosier economy has everyone on top of their taxes and living in Fat City?

Fat chance.

The office just opened in January, when the agency’s branch in Santa Barbara closed. Although the office was brimming with tax forms and helpful clerks, the word, it seemed, had yet to spread about the new office.

“It’s probably natural that it’s a little slow,” Franchise Tax Board spokesman Jim Shepherd said. “The volume is not what you’d expect to find on April 15. Give it a year.”

The Internal Revenue Service office in Oxnard, however, was humming throughout the day.

As about 10 taxpayers waited in line with questions, dozens more streamed in and out the door for the proper forms.

Tiffany Benton of Ventura said her federal tax return was so small last year that she didn’t plan on filing for another small refund this year. But then her mother got wind of it.

“She dragged me in,” said Benton, 25, standing outside the office with her mother, Cheryl Johnson of Port Hueneme.

Meanwhile, officials in the Oxnard IRS office planned a “midnight madness” counseling program from 4 to 10 p.m. Tuesday, or until the witching hour if confused taxpayers kept coming in.

For many tax preparers, the tax filing frenzy peaked in late March.

At the Thousand Oaks office of H & R Block on Thousand Oaks Boulevard, Tuesday was considerably slower than the day before, when 75 new clients came in for help. But even now that tax day is over, plenty of work remains for accountants.

“We’re in extension mode right now,” said Sharon Amundson of Thousand Oaks, an independent certified public accountant who is helping hundreds of taxpayers make estimated payments and buy more time to complete tax forms.

Although many late filings can be attributed to intricate calculations, confusing stock transactions or financial stress, a whole bunch can be blamed on plain old procrastination, preparers said.

“Yes, today is the day,” H & R Block tax preparer Mary Jean Valdes in Ventura tells one client over the phone. She prepared his taxes, but the client had yet to pick up the completed forms and mail them.

“Today is the 15th,” she explained to the client, who wanted to wait even longer. “Monday is no good.”

Tuesday was the first time that 19-year-old Shakir Ewell of Thousand Oaks had ever filed a tax form. By his calculations, the federal government owes him $250.

“I always wait until the last minute on everything,” he said. “Then my dad asked me if I filed my taxes yet.”

Valdes has the answer for last-minute filers who stress out until the very end: At least try to get through those dry-as-sand forms as early as possible and plan how to pay any taxes owed. The forms themselves can still be mailed at the last minute, she said.

“The longer you wait . . . the more terrifying it becomes,” she said.

Valdes said she will soon be on a plane for family fun in Texas. After months of ironing out client tax forms, “there’s some major playing I need to do,” she said.

Correspondents David R. Baker and Chris Chi contributed to this story.