Post Office Late Hours: I'd Get My Return in Early, Anyway

"Post Offices Offer Late Hours For Tax Returns"
KOAT, Albuquerque NM (April 14, 2010)

"The Albuquerque Main Post Office and Rio Rancho Post Office will offer late collection points and retail services for last-minute tax returns.

"Postmaster Catherine Rodriguez announced local plans for the post office's Thursday, April 15 tax deadline operations. To accommodate last minute tax filers, extended retail services will be offered, and all mail put in the collection boxes at the Main Post Office (1135 Broadway Blvd. NE) and the Rio Rancho Post Office (900 Pinetree Rd .SE) before 12 midnight will receive the April 15 postmark...."

I don't know if the Post Office in the small (pop. 4,000) central Minnesota town I live in is going to do this. Happily, for me it's a sort of academic question. My wife & I got our returns in. Very recently, but we did get ours in before the 15th.

No bragging here: not after that dumb stunt I pulled, last month:

• "Lemming Tracks: Tax Time Surprise"
  (March 20, 2010)

Lemming Tracks: Back to Work

It's tax time in America. Late-night news on April 15 typically has live video from post offices that are staying open late, so that someone who arrives by midnight well get their tax returns postmarked as getting in the mail by the deadline.

I haven't been in one of those lines yet - and probably won't be. No great virtue. My sense of urgency tends to come a little before that. Besides, my wife wouldn't let that happen. A little humor there.

A lot of things changed for this household in 2009, so we're giving H & R Block plenty of time to find out what's missing from the data we collected. And/or prepare our returns without a lot of last-minute pressure. We got smart and started having specialists do the returns a few years ago.

I wrote, Saturday, about the nine days I thought I had to wrap my part of the task list up change to two. ("Lemming Tracks: Tax Time Surprise" (March 20, 2010))

I worked on the data all Saturday, and well into Sunday morning.

I'm a practicing Catholic, so attending to that set of tasks during the day Sunday was out. ("Working on Sunday: At Growing the Christian Interior Life," A Catholic Citizen in America (January 2, 2010)) I've started taking the rules on doing servile work on holy days of obligation a bit more seriously of late. (I know: some folks have to work on Sunday. Maybe you do. That's the way it is. I've been in that position. These days I set my own hours, which adds another layer of responsibility.)

When I've got more to do than fits in six days - which is pretty often - I assume that "Sunday" isn't the midnight-to-midnight that's a cultural norm in Western countries: and treat "Sunday" as the time from sunrise to sunset.

That works pretty well during Minnesota winters: In the summer, when there isn't all that much 'dark' - but I've gotten off-topic.

So when the sun went down, I went back to work on the tax-related information. Also one of the scheduled posts that I really didn't want to miss. Which reminds me - - - and That's yet another topic.

I got all the data together, properly organized (I hope), and the report printed out before sunrise.

Not much before sunrise: but old Sol was still just below the horizon when I wrapped things up.

My wife came downstairs a little after that, I talked with her and had 'breakfast.' And then slept from about 9:00 to 1:30.

It's been years since I pulled an all-nighter. I wouldn't mind if I don't do that again.

Now, I've got two day's of posts to catch up on in this blog, plus the ones I would have gotten out in the morning. Gotta go.

Lemming Tracks: Tax Time Surprise

The Lemming made a mistake involving a calendar, a year's worth of records, and the IRS. It's not as bad as it sounds. I thought I had nine days before information for the household taxes had to be completed.

Turns out, I have two.

Well, two isn't all that much less than nine. On the other hand, it's nowhere near as many.

So, as you see, the Lemming will be putting in long hours this weekend, making sure that I've got all my ducks in a row.

The good news, for me, is that I expect to have the data organized by Monday morning.

The bad news is that the Lemming won't be writing posts this weekend. I'll catch up as soon as I can, though.

For folks who don't live in America: April 15 is the day taxes are due for most Americans. There's generally a scramble at Post Offices late in the evening, as people que up to mail their tax returns. The IRS has what I think is a reasonable rule: As long as the postmark is dated on or before April 15, you're okay.

Even if the forms take a month to get to the IRS office.

Which doesn't happen very often.

Which Reminds Me of Something Completely Different

I spent two decades with a company that did most of its business through the mail. For about ten of those years we'd send out tens of thousands of pieces of mail each quarter. I was responsible for seeing to it that the company's contact lists were kept up to date - and tracking what we sent out, to get some assurance that what we sent arrived at its destination.

Once in a while something we sent would come back as debris in a durable plastic bag. But not often.

Paying Taxes With a Smile, and Remembering Walt Kelly's Pogo

A thought for the day:

"I tried paying my taxes with a smile - - - They wanted money."

That's on a plaque #1 daughter gave me today - a belated birthday present. (Thanks again!)

And, of course, there's the gag from Walt Kelly's Pogo strip: One of the swamp critters made a remark about syntax. Another said something like, "they're taxing everything these days!"

Lemming Tracks: The Lemming's Working on Taxes

April 15 is coming up - and since I'm an American citizen, it's tax time. So, here I am, doing last-minute bookkeeping, to get my records in order.

Next year, I'll have everything organized 'way ahead of time.

Which is about what I said to myself last year. Actually, I've got a better handle on it this time. Back to work.

More to the point: taxes, and a bulletin that had to get to the printer, kept the Lemming away from this blog. I hope to be back, catching up, tomorrow.

Lemming Tracks: Tax Time! (and other excuses)

That's not, entirely, the reason for my having neglected this blog today.

Actually, it's a combination of insufficient planning, a couple of unexpected tasks, and an appointment that I had forgotten about. Thankfully, my wife has a better grip on the space-time continuum than I do, at this point.

I'll be back, I trust, tomorrow: with a dozen posts, and maybe a new idea or two.

Or, maybe not.