BY ANDREA TORTORA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
If you're like nearly 4 million other taxpayers from Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia, you probably put off filing your 1997 tax return until today.
The 5,000 workers serving all five states from the Internal Revenue Service Center in Covington wish you hadn't procrastinated. But don't sweat.
There are plenty of tax preparers, IRS and postal employees in the Tristate waiting to help you meet the April 15 postmark deadline. And a handful of food service providers and radio disc jockeys want to make the exercise fun.
"People file later and later every year," said Chris Kerns, Covington IRS spokesman. "It's smart to wait if you owe money, but we know that 50 percent who are going to file will get a refund. I guess it's just old-fashioned procrastination."
With the average individual income tax refund at $1,000, IRS officials said they wonder why taxpayers would wait to receive that extra cash.
But the more than 1.3 million phone calls the Covington office received for help last year tell why: deciphering the 9,451 pages of tax codes can be daunting and frustrating.
And sometimes taxpayers take their stress out on the IRS.
In the past, returns arrived printed on a T-shirt or on a 10-foot by 10-foot piece of paper. "It's generally done in good humor, but sometimes we get someone who files 100 returns thinking they'll get 100 refunds," Mr. Kerns said. "That's fraudulent."
Paying by quilt
There are creative payment plans and misdirected mail, too.
An elderly Kentucky woman once mailed five boxes of handmade quilts with her return, hoping to use her handiwork to cover the $300 she owed in taxes.
Mr. Kerns said the quilts were worth more than she needed to pay. And the IRS likes to make deals with money, not by bartering. The quilts were sent back, and a payment plan was worked out.
Most bizarre was the time two human eyeballs showed up in the mail room. Destined for a waiting patient, the donated organs were lost in the mail. They eventually got to the right location.
Tax preparers and IRS officials said this year's tax crunch has been worse than in previous seasons.
"We're swamped," said Crystal Faulkner, tax principal at Cincinnati's Rippe & Kingston Co. PSC accounting firm. "The biggest reason for that is the change in capital gains rates. A lot of investment houses weren't equipped to handle that. We've had returns go out the door and then get a corrected 1099 from the investment company." The Covington IRS center will process about 25 million returns this tax season; 9 million will be from businesses, and the rest will be from individuals. Of those, 11 million are filed on paper and 5 million are sent electronically through the Internet or by telephone.
Seeking an extension
Generally, about a quarter of the nation's 124 million individual income tax returns are filed at the last possible moment.
Jamie Burns, president of Burns & Associates PSC accounting firm in Florence, said taxpayers should file a 4868 form to get an extension if they have a complicated return or need more time to get organized.
The IRS expects more than 400,000 taxpayers to ask for extensions. The extension gives taxpayers an extra four months to file their income tax returns, but they still must pay any taxes owed by April 15. It's cheaper to make late payments than pay late filing fees. Late filing penalties for individual returns are 5 percent of the tax owed per month up to 25 percent. Late payments cost 1 percent to 2 percent of the tax owed per month up to 25 percent.
Mr. Burns said taxpayers should start planning now for next year's tax season.
"There are a lot of changes in the law that are effective in 1998," Mr. Burns said.
"It's probably advisable to contact a tax professional to see where you'll stand in 1998 so the rush of April 15 is not so painful next year."
