GILROY
– People waiting in a snaking line outside the Gilroy post
office on Fourth Street Monday afternoon used a variety of words to
describe April 15: Torture.
GILROY – People waiting in a snaking line outside the Gilroy post office on Fourth Street Monday afternoon used a variety of words to describe April 15: Torture. Chaos. Ridiculous. Horrible.
Highlighted on many calendars as Tax Day, today separates the income-tax procrastinators frantically rushing under the deadline from the less fortunate late filers, who can look forward to being hit with sizable late fees from the Internal Revenue Service.
In Gilroy, the deadline is 5 p.m.
“The IRS only cares about the postmark,” said Penny Yates, postmaster of the Gilroy post office facility at 100 Fourth St. “If the envelope isn’t marked by (April 15), there are no excuses.”
That notorious no-nonsense philosophy by the IRS is why Yates suggests that those who cannot make it to the Gilroy post office by deadline today make the trek to San Jose or Salinas. Both city’s main branches of the post office will be accepting tax filings until midnight, Yates said.
Taxpayers who procrastinated and now find themselves up against today’s filing deadline can get a four-month extension from the IRS by filing a one-page form, no questions asked.
But the extensions only do good for those who don’t owe the government money, because even with an extension a person must pay their taxes by April 15 to avoid penalties.
“Even if you owe money on your taxes and you can’t pay it is better to file on time,” said Joseph A. Filice, a certified accountant with Greco, Filice & Thompson CPAs, located at 751 First St. “You’ll save a lot more in the long run.”
The IRS charges a 5 percent late fee for each month tax files are tardy, Filice said. The rate is only .5 percent each month for those who file promptly but don’t pay their taxes on their taxes time, plus the current interest rate.
“You’re paying 10 times as much if you don’t get filed on time,” Filice said.
Ada Jefferson knows all about late fees.
Rushing around the Gilroy post office’s lobby at 5:30 p.m. Monday to deposit her taxes in the mail box by 6 p.m., Jefferson said she learned her lesson about filing late.
“I missed the deadline a few years ago, and they gave me a $200 penalty,” said Jefferson, who wanted to avoid the chaos of the post office today. “Last year, I told myself I would send my taxes by (April 14) because I didn’t want to deal with the craziness of the post office on Tuesday.”
In order to deal with that volume during its busiest time of the year, the Gilroy post office will have two additional staff members on duty today so it can operate all five of its cashier windows at the same time.
Even on Monday the lines of people filing their taxes before deadline often reached far outside the post office lobby, and the line is only expected to grow today, Yates said.
Tracy Bender waited in line at the post office for 25 minutes Monday afternoon to file his taxes, but he was satisfied with his service.
“It was a little chaotic when I got here, but not too bad,” said Bender, who recently moved to Gilroy from Arizona. “I knew I had to come in today to avoid the torture of tomorrow. I’ve seen it before: People filling out their forms on the post office floor and everyone stressed out and tense – I don’t want to be in that.”
Yates said she and many of her employees had hoped that the IRS’s push for people to file their taxes on the Internet this year might alleviate some of the mail volume, but the IRS’s lobbying didn’t look to do much good.
“We had about five times the normal customers today than on a normal Monday,” Yates said. “I’m sure tomorrow will be worse.”
For late filing go to the San Jose Main Post Office at 1750 Lundy Ave. in northeast San Jose or to the Salinas Main Post Office at 1011 Post Drive. Both offices are open until midnight. Tax returns can also be filed over the phone by calling 1 (888) 796-1074.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
