EXTRA TIME CAN'T EASE TAX FRENZY D.C. HOLIDAY DELAY DOESN'T HALT FLOW OF PROCRASTINATORS.

Byline: TONY CASTRO

Staff Writer

For Rodney Canter, as for most accountants, the week leading up to each year's tax deadline is his long day's journey into night.

He and his wife, Nancy, were taking a midday break Monday, preparing for yet another marathon that would keep them at their Chatsworth office until near midnight, when their jaws dropped and they began laughing at the sight of one of their longtime regular clients.

"Am I early?" asked the man, who had just stepped out of a new Mercedes-Benz carrying a folder full of W2s and other tax documents. He, too, was laughing. "Aren't they due today?"

"Yeah," Canter said, "but we still have your returns for you to sign from last year."

It may have been one of the few instances of levity at offices staffed by accountants and tax preparers on April 16 -- the day that should have been this year's deadline for filing federal and state income tax returns because April 15 fell on a Sunday.

But as Canter's client and many others learned Monday, they still had one more day, thanks to District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams.

In January, Williams signed a law observing April 16 as a legal holiday commemorating the day in 1862 that President Abraham Lincoln signed an order freeing slaves in the nation's capital. More than eight months later, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation ending slavery throughout the country.

The Emancipation Day closure shut down IRS headquarters and other Washington offices Monday, postponing the deadline until midnight tonight -- and effectively adding another long day and night for the Canters and other tax preparers.

"This is a hectic time of the year for us," said Nancy Canter. "But after 37 years (of marriage), I'm used to it. But if I didn't come in to help out during tax time, I'd never see him."

Hectic is exactly what it was at some of the other accounting and tax-preparation offices in the San Fernando Valley swamped with last-minute returns as taxpayers try to beat the clock.

About 15 percent of all taxpayers wait until the final days to file, according to the National Retail Federation's 2007 Tax Returns Consumer Intentions and Actions survey.

The Internal Revenue Service, which estimates that taxpayers spend about 6.6 billion hours preparing taxes each year, expects to process 130 million federal returns -- about half of which are filed at the last minute.

At one office on Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills, a sleepy-eyed receptionist informed a walk-in that new clients would be accepted only to file documents for a tax-deadline extension.

An accountant's office in Sherman Oaks said it was already overburdened with last-minute clients and those with appointments before today's midnight deadline.

Several accountants in the San Fernando Valley also said they could not take time away from the mounds of paperwork for brief interviews.

According to the IRS, many taxpayers -- including those who earn less than $52,000 annually -- are eligible for free online filing for federal taxes, a method of filing that has become increasingly popular. Half of all taxpayers are expected to file their taxes online this year, and an additional third of all taxpayers will use computer software to file.

Canter said almost all the returns of his more than 500 individual clients have been filed electronically this year.

"No matter what you tell clients and ask them to file early," Canter said, "there's always those that wait until the last minute."

tony.castro(at)dailynews.com

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